The family of murdered 22-year-old Gabby Petito have sued the police, saying a 'sloppy investigation' and a 'bungled' traffic stop were partly responsible for her death.
The wrongful death suit filed on Thursday is the latest development in the high-profile case around the tragedy last year.
Gabby, 22, and boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, had been travelling across the United States documenting their travels on social media when the young woman was reported missing on September 11 2021.
Laundrie disappeared within days and a warrant for his arrest was issued on September 23, four days after Gabby's strangled body was found. His remains were discovered in October.
What began as a missing person's case last summer rode a wave of true crime obsession to become a social media sensation, drawing amateur online sleuthers and the kind of worldwide attention that can help authorities locate missing people.
It was later revealed Gabby and Laundrie were stopped by police officers in Moab, Utah last summer but were ultimately not cited for domestic violence despite signs of distress and their own statements about physical conflict.
Gabby's mum, dad and other family members have hoped to keep her name in the news to help make sure signs of abuse are recognized by authorities in a position to intervene, they said Thursday.
“There are laws put in place to protect victims. And those laws were not followed. And we don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” said Nicole Schmidt, Petito's mother, her voice wavering.
Schmidt, other family members and their team of lawyers stood in front of an old picture of Petito smiling at a Thursday press conference in Salt Lake City.
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks $50 million (£44.4m) in damages from the police department in Moab, a rural Utah city known for being an entryway to national parks.
It lays blame for Gabby's death on the city's police officers, who did not issue a domestic violence citation after a bystander called to report fighting between Petito and Laundrie.
In doing so, the lawsuit claims officers disregarded signs of violence they should have been trained to notice.
The suit also claims police officers "coached Gabby to provide answers that the officers used to justify their decision not to enforce Utah law," which requires action be taken in response to domestic violence incidents.
Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt “was fundamentally biased in his approach to the investigation, choosing to believe Gabby’s abuser, ignoring evidence that Gabby was the victim and intentionally looking for loopholes to get around the requirements of Utah law and his duty to protect Gabby.”
The complaint bases that bias claim off of an unnamed woman referred to as “Witness 1," who alleges Pratt threatened to kill her after their relationship ended while he was serving as police chief in Salina, Utah, another rural town.
A message left for Pratt through Moab city officials wasn’t immediately returned. After the lawsuit was filed, the city of Moab said the death was tragic yet not the fault of their police department.
“Our officers acted with kindness, respect, and empathy toward Ms. Petito,” city spokesperson Lisa Adams said in a statement. “No one could have predicted the tragedy that would occur weeks later and hundreds of miles away, and the City of Moab will ardently defend against this lawsuit.”
An independent investigation in January faulted police for making “several unintentional mistakes” including not issuing a domestic violence citation after Petito told police she had hit her boyfriend.
