On Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, Gabby Petito’s parents announced at a press conference that they have filed a lawsuit against Moab police for wrongful death.
On September 19, 2021, the body of Gabby Petito was found near Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA. A few weeks earlier, the 22-year-old had been arrested in tears, with her fiancé Brian Laundrie before he killed her a few days later. More than a year after the terrible tragedy, the parents of Gabby Petito have decided to sue legal action against Moab police. They are seeking $50 million in wrongful death damages.
In a press conference organized on Thursday, November 3, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt indicated that they had filed a complaint explaining that if Moab police had followed Utah’s domestic violence laws, their daughter would still be alive, as reported Forbes. The young woman’s mother said:We feel we have to do justice, because she could have been protected that day“. She then explained that she hoped their approach could save the lives of future victims of abuse.
Moab police singled out for attitude toward Gabby Petito
The facts reported by Gabby Petito’s family date back to August 12, 2021. That day, Moab police arrested the young woman and her fiancé in their white van. In police camera footage, the couple admitted they had a fight and the young influencer presented “the classic characteristics of a battered couple“. However, the agents had quickly designated Gabby Petito as the Aggressor and Brian Laundrie as the victim, before finally letting them go.
According to the young woman’s family, Eric Pratt, the police officer “was fundamentally biased in its approach to the investigation, choosing to believe Gabby’s attacker, ignoring evidence that Gabby was the victim, and intentionally looking for loopholes to circumvent the requirements of Utah law and its duty to protect Gabby“.
A complaint lodged by an ex-girlfriend of the police officer designates him as a violent person, having threatened to kill him after their relationship ended, when he was chief of police in Salina, Utah. For its part, the city of Moab reacted to the complaint of the parents of the influencer by designating her death as tragic, but by exonerating any responsibility.