so, for those who don’t have an hour and 14 minutes to watch the entire body cam, here’s some notes on the traffic stop:
Last 10 minutes of the tape officer repeats that boyfriend said the couple was headed to washington to work on a ‘wwoolfing’ organic farm with Gabby’s grandmother or grandmother’s friend and sounds like he’s saying to follow the farming down to Oregon and California same story as (20min) hard to hear it all without my headphones
Instead of a branch smacked me camping type of no issues here white lie, boyfriend says Petito hit him with her phone and, admits to grabbing her by the face and pushing her away from him. That flies bother her, his dirty feet bother him and seems chummy with the officers. When officer asks if he’s on medication, he’s animated, (16 min), boyfriend changes his body language to crossed legs and arms and even uses the ladder on the rear of the van at one point towards the end of the tape to keep himself in one place. When the officer that asks the question leaves, he gets reanimated with the other officer then goes back to closed position when original officer returns. He says he doesn’t really have a phone (14 minutes in) “if she goes off without me I’m on my own”, but at the end of the hour (55 min), he has one. He claims that he hit the right curb because Petito grabbed the wheel, but she denies it. He never explains why she was crying when they were pulled over. The only time he seems to tear up was when he learned that the officer wasn’t going to issue a citation to Petito. When the officer told him not to contact her until the next day, he replied that he’d only text her to tell her not to message him, anyway, with a hand-sweeping motion.
I didnt hear the officers asking for the vehicle reg, and boyfriend didn’t offer that it wasn’t his vehicle in the first 15 minutes.
Boyfriend claimed that at the cafe he was upset he had dirty feet, and they were at the cafe for 4 hours and he wanted to get water at the campground because they were out. She said he was basically telling her she wasn’t good enough (at the internet?) to do her blog, his lack of confidence upset her. Boyfriend told officer that when they got back to the van there was dirt and he was moving things around in the van. Then he had locked the van, you take a walk this way in the shade and I’ll take a walk that way and cool down. But she wanted the vehicle keys and he admits to keeping the vehicle keys from her, that he ‘got loud’ yelling at her, to embarass her, and being close enough to “grab her face” to “push her away” and that’s when her phone allegedly scratched his cheek. This is a bit different than the witness account. To note, the blackmasked officer actually made tiger-clawing motions several times with his own hands to which boyfriend nodded.
The witness said they were arguing, that he shoved her, that he locked her out of the vehicle and put her backpack on the back of the van (21 min) and seemed ready to leave, but the drivers door was unlocked and Petito force-climbed her way over him to her seat and they drove off. Petito also said ‘he wouldnt let me in the car.’ Petito also said was she didnt want him to leave her ‘again’. (so they were both worried each other was going to strand each other?) Petito says she’s a neatnick and was trying to clean and before they were pulled over he kept telling her to calm down which made her mad. It sounded like she was trying to cover for him. He posed for photographs of a fingernail ‘scratch’ on his arm and the scratch on his cheek (described as a “swollen eye” by the officer). Boyfriend says at (29) minutes he doesn’t have the money for a hotel and listens while the sgt is telling him the trouble that Petito is in for domestic abuse. Officer seems to still assume that the van is the boyfriends, saying Petito can stay in a hotel for the night and he can pick her up the next morning. Boyfriend again says they have little money and asks what if she takes the van.
Arrangements were made for boyfriend to be given a ‘abuse victim’ hotel room, I didn’t hear any officer ask where Petito intended to spend her night but he did ask on the phone if another place could be found for ‘the agressor’ and it could not.
The officer says at (24min) that boyfriend said they had been living out of the van for ‘4 or 5 months’
Interesting - thanks for the recap for those of us who don’t have time to watch the whole recording!
A 1 hour and 14 min traffic stop? Never heard of one that long before. Were the officers bored and had nothing better to do?
The other major development that everyone on this thread is overlooking is the double murder of the lesbian couple in the same vicinity where the cops stopped Laundrie and Petito. It might be a coincidence, but if so, it is one heck of a coincidence considering the location is in or near tiny Moab, Utah.
The lesbian couple were last seen alive on August 13. The police responded to the argument between Laundrie and Petito on August 12. Gabby went missing sometime on or after the 25th.
“When the officer told him not to contact her until the next day, he replied that he’d only text her to tell her not to message him”
How would he text her without a phone?
Great effort from you, and i still couldn’t finish the edited version. So much rampant laziness and stupidity. Where did they grift their money from? And sadly, i find I don’t care. Even if the woman is dead.
Once was told, Bad choices lead to bad deadend roads.
Thank you for taking the time to compile and share your notes with us. It’s appreciated.
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petito-laundrie videocam summary
thanks
Thanks for your overview of the Moab police body cam footage talking w Gabby and her bf.