New Video Shows Van-Lifer Gabby Petito Telling Cops Fiancé Hit Her
‘I HIT HIM FIRST’
Gabby Petito told police that her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, hit her weeks before she disappeared, according to newly released bodycam footage. The 22-year-old “van life” blogger spoke to police on Aug. 12 after witnesses called 911 on the couple while they fought. In previously released bodycam footage, she said only that she hit Laundrie and took the blame for the fight. “Did he hit you, though?” an officer asks in the new footage. She answers, “I guess, yeah. But I hit him first… He like grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here. I can feel it, when I touch it it burns.” Laundrie later told an officer, “I pushed her away. She gets really worked up, and when she does she swings and she had her cellphone in her hand. So I was just trying to push her away.” The new recording of Petito corroborates what witnesses who called 911 told police. Petito’s body was found in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming earlier this month, and Laundrie has been named as a person of interest in her homicide and been charged with unlawful device access, though he has disappeared since last being seen in Florida. The couple originally set out on a cross-country trek in Petito’s van, but only Laundrie returned. He has not spoken to authorities about what happened to his fiancée.