Parents of missing 'van-life girl' plead with her boyfriend's family to tell ...

The father of missing van-life woman Gabby Petito has made a desperate plea for the family of boyfriend Brian Laundrie to help him get his daughter back.

Struggling to contain his emotions, father Joe Petito he made the appeal at a press conference on Thursday in North Port, Florida, where the young couple were living before their cross-country road trip. 

'What I need from everybody here is help. The goal is to bring Gabby home safe. I am asking for help from everyone here. I am asking for help from everyone at home,' the father said, as was wife Tara, Gabby’s stepmom, who fought back tears.

'I am asking for help from the parents of Brian. And I am asking for help from the family members and friends of the Laundrie family as well.'

Gabby, 22, was reported missing on Saturday after her family hadn't heard from her in 13 days. She had been traveling with Laundrie since July - and last spoke to relatives on August 25. Her last known location was Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. 

'Whatever you can do to make sure my daughter comes home, I'm asking for that help. There is nothing else that matters to me now,' said Joe Petito.

Turning to point at a picture of Gabby behind him, he continued: 'This, this girl right here, this is what matters. That is it. Anything else becomes second to this.' 

Laundrie returned alone to Florida on September 1 – some 10 days before Gabby’s mother Nicole Schmidt raised the alarm with police in Suffolk County, New York, where she lives.

He has refused to speak directly to police investigating her disappearance and his family have hired an attorney.

North Port police information chief Josh Taylor told DailyMail.com after the conference: ‘We know a fair bit about Brian’s movements. There is a lot of traveling and it’s complex.’

And he did not discount any possible relevance of the police bodycam footage of the couple on their trip in Moab, Utah – in which Gabby was crying.

Taylor said: ‘That is an incident that happened however many days before something else may have happened. How that play’s into it? I certainly think it paints a picture.’

North Port police chief Todd Garrison expressed his continued frustration with Laundrie for not coming forward to help solve the mystery of Gabby’s disappearance.

He told the press conference: ‘We share the frustration with the world right now. Two people went on a trip. One person returned. And that person that returned isn’t providing us any explanation.’

The chief reiterated: ‘Right now this is a missing person case and the focus is to find Gabby. My focus isn’t to bring Brian in right now. Brian is exercising his constitutional rights and I have to respect that.’  

Petito's family also sent an emotional letter to the Laundrie family Thursday urging them 'if you have any decency left' they will tell them where their daughter was last seen.  

'You know the location of where Brian left Gabby. We beg you to tell us,' they wrote, in the letter signed by Jim Schmidt, Nichole Schmidt, Joe Petito, and Tara Petito and addressed to Laundrie's parents 'Christopher and Roberta Laundrie'. 

An attorney for Petito's family said at the press conference that 'desperation has turned to anger' as Laundrie - the last person to see Petito on their doomed cross-country campervan trip - is refusing to cooperate with the investigation and is now a person of interest in the case. 

'The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate. They're at the point that this desperation has turned into anger,' he said.

'They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is. And they will not tell them. That's infuriating.’ 

North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said at a press conference Thursday morning the case was still being treated as a missing person's enquiry, and there is so far no evidence of criminality in her disappearance. 

'Right now, we are investigating a missing person case,' he said.

Garrison, joined by Petito's dad, said police were aware of Laundrie's current location but 'right now, no' they cannot bring him in for questioning. 

'Two people went on a trip, one person returned. And that person that returned isn't providing us any information,' he said. 

Garrison added that it was Laundrie's 'constitutional right' not to speak with law enforcement but said his lawyer had handed over some property they requested from him.   

It comes after bodycam footage revealed the moment Utah cops asked 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 an emotional Petito, 22, with tears streaming down her face telling officers she 'was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down' and admitting the couple 'have been fighting all morning.' 

In the clip, shot near Moab in Utah, Petito says she suffers from OCD and anxiety, with both her and Laundrie saying she was stressed because of the YouTube blog they were working on to document the doomed cross-country trip. 

Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone'.

He later said she was angry with him because of his dirty feet. When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. 

Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation. 

The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and say they are separating the couple for the night.  

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 received reports of a 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 around 4:30pm.

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 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 - 10 days before she was reported missing.

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 Joe told Fox & Friends First 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,' said Petito's father. 

'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.'  

Joe said learning about the August 12 incident and Laundrie being named a person of interest, had left him feeling 'it's not what you thought it was.'

However, he said he just wants to keep the focus on finding his daughter.  

'It's not what you thought it was,' he said.

'August 12, the person of interest... I get it from a legal side of it but from a family side we don't have Gabby. 

'I want to care about finding my daughter first. That's my first objective.'  

The bodycam footage 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 breath' 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.  

Laundrie also mentions her work on the blog and that 'she got worked up.'

He goes on to say they had a 'little squabble' which started in the coffee shop 'when I moved our food around' and 'I'm dirty, and I can't change being dirty, I got sand in my flip flops and stuff.'

The officer asks about the scratches on his face, with Laundrie explaining that there was an altercation involving her cellphone and their keys. 

'She had her cellphone in her hand, that's why I was pushing her away,' he says.

'Coz I had the keys... I said let's take a breather and let's not go anywhere. Let's calm down a minute.'

He adds: 'And she had her phone, and was trying to get the keys from me. 

'I know I shouldn't have pushed her but I was just trying to push her away to say take a minute step back and breathe. And she hit me with her phone.'  

At one point, officers check Laundrie's hands, arm and torso, noting scratch marks on his arm.  

A second officer is then seen talking to Petito who is sitting in the back of the cop car.

'Did he hit you?' the officer asks.

'I guess,' she replies, becoming tearful.

When the officer asks where Laundrie hit her, she clasps her chin in a grabbing motion.

'He like, did that with his hand,' she says.

Much of the audio is unclear at this point.

Petito tells the officers she suffers from 'anxiety' and that Laundrie 'gets frustrated a lot'.

She insists neither of them have been drinking because 'we don't drink'. 

Petito admits she was 'yelling at him', then said 'you're an idiot'' and made a punching motion.   

She is later seen in the back of the car with a distressed expression on her face and her hands clasped in front of her on her lap. 

'Were you attempting to cause him physical pain or impairment? Is that what you were attempting to do to him?' an officer asks.

Petito, who is looking at the officer, replies no.

'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

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