Emotional new police bodycam footage has revealed the moment Utah cops asked missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito why she slapped her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in a dramatic incident 13 days before she disappeared on their cross-country trip.
The video shows Petito, 22, sitting in the back of a police cruiser with tears streaming down her face as she tells an officer she 'was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down.'
Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'got me with her phone'.
The couple had been traveling around the country in their camper van since early July and were visiting Moab, Utah when they got into an altercation, an incident report reveals.
The report says officers were called near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 around 4:30pm for a 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple.
The report, released by the Moab Police Department on Wednesday, documented that the couple admitted they had been going through 'issues' over the last couple days.
Petito was reported missing a month later on September 11 after her family hadn't heard from her in 13 days. She last spoke to her mother on the phone on August 25 and her last known location was Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Laundrie returned to their home in North Port, Florida, alone on September 1 in the couple's camper van - which has now been seized by police.
On Wednesday police officially named Laundrie a 'person of interest' in her mystery disappearance and said he is refusing to cooperate with their investigation.
Laundrie's attorney released a statement saying he is not speaking to police or making a statement 'on the advice of counsel' because 'intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this.'
Petito's father Jon told Fox & Friends the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about Brian' later.
'I don't care what happens to him right now,' he said.
'That can't be my primary focus if he's going to sit in the comfort of his home, you know, and get home cooked meals, why my daughter's out, you know, God knows where, you know, I don't give two craps about him.'
'I got to be out there to help her, because the one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair, you know, not talking to anybody.'
Emotional new police bodycam footage has revealed the moment Utah cops asked missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito why she slapped her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in a dramatic incident 13 days before she disappeared during their cross-country trip
Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells the officer were caused when Petito 'got me with her phone' and 'was trying to get the keys from me'
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The bodycam footage, obtained by ABC, shows an officer reporting that the driver of a vehicle ahead is showing 'obscure driving', driving 45mph in a 15mph road, and is 'possibly intoxicated.'
He says the vehicle has bumped a curb and puts the sirens on.
The officer then gets out the vehicle and approaches the couple's white camper van, which they have pulled over.
Petito, who is crying, is seen sitting in the the passenger seat and Laundrie is driving.
The officer asks them to turn off the vehicle and asks their names and 'what's going on? Why are you crying?'
'We've just been fighting this morning, some personal issues,' says Petito.
Laundrie says it was 'a long day' of camping yesterday.
The officer asks Petito to step out of the vehicle and takes her down the road, separating the couple to ask her what happened.
'I have OCD and I was just cleaning and straightening...,' she says, while sobbing.
'And I was apologizing to him and saying I'm sorry that I am so mean as sometimes I am so mean because I have OCD and get really frustrated.
'Not like mean towards him I guess my vibe is like in a bad mood and I said I'm sorry I'm in a bad mood I am stressed I had so much work.'
She tells the officer they are traveling the country and trying to 'build a blog'.
'We have been fighting all morning and he wouldn't let me in the car before,' she says.
When the officer asks why he wouldn't let her in the car, she says 'he told me needed to calm down' adding that he 'really stresses me out' and that it's 'been a rough morning.'
The officer tells Petito she is 'not in any trouble' and escorts her to the back of the cop car so she can 'take a breathe' and have 'a few minutes.'
The officer then asks Laundrie to step out the vehicle and asks him what has happened.
'She gets really worked up sometimes and I try to distance myself from it,' Laundrie says.
Petito is later seen sitting in the back of a car - a distressed expression on her face and her hands clasped in front of her on her lap.
The car door is wide open with the officer stood talking to her inside.
'Were you attempting to cause him physical pain or impairment? Is that what you were attempting to do to him?' he asks.
Petito, who is looking at the officer, replies no.
A newly released police report has revealed new details of the 'possible domestic violence' incident involving Gabby Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she vanished
'What were you attempting to do?' the cop asks.
'What was the reason behind the slapping and stuff? What was it you were attempting to accomplish by the slapping?'
'I was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down,' Petito says, as her face crumples in tears.
The officer replies to her that 'it doesn't sound good.'
Later in the footage, the officer is seen telling Petito he will be keeping her and Laundrie apart for the night.
'I am separating you two tonight, okay?' the officer is heard telling Petito.
The 22-year-old nods through tears in response and mouths 'okay.'
'I want you guys both to be tonight, away from each other,' the officer says.
'Relax, breathe, because there's no need to be crying now,' he tells Petito.
Petito nods and wipes tears from her eyes.
'I understand that this can feel like a nightmare,' the officer says.
'But you have come out as the golden flower on top.'
According to the document, cops were called to a local business in Moab, Utah on August 12, after a witness reported seeing the couple 'arguing over a phone' outside their van
In his report, responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins said he pulled the couple over as they were driving towards Arches National Park and noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat
According to the incident report, a witness, identified only as Christopher, reported seeing the pair 'arguing over a phone.'
The bystander told police that when Laundrie got into the couple's van, he saw 'what appeared to him as Gabrielle hitting Brian in the arm and then climbing through the driver's window as if Brian had locked her out and she was trying to find a way in,' responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins wrote.
Robbins later located the couple, who had already left the area by then, driving in their Ford Transit van towards Arches National Park and pulled them over.
He said he noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat as he approached the vehicle and asked to speak to her outside.
The report was redacted to conceal sensitive information but suggests Gabby told police she and Laundrie became embroiled in an altercation that was fueled by mental health issues.
'Gabrielle told me that she suffers from [redacted] with [redacted],' Robbins wrote.
'Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement.'
He added that at 'no point' in his investigation did Gabby 'stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands.'
Robbins later interviewed Laundrie, who told the cop that issues between him and his girlfriend 'had been building over the last few days'
Cops received reports of a possible domestic violence incident near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12
The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park
Robbins said that he
