A chilling 911 audio captured a caller in Utah reporting a domestic abuse incident involving van-life woman Gabby Petito and fiancé Brian Laundrie that claimed Laundrie slapped Petito on August 11.
In the audio, obtained by FOX, the male caller tells a Grant County sheriff that a 'gentleman' in a white van with a Florida license plate had slapped a girl in the vehicle before driving away.
The man also mentions the incident had happened 'by Moonflower' - likely referring to the Moonflower Community Cooperative in Moab, where Laundrie and Petito stayed the night of August 11 and where they reportedly were seen having an explosive fight.
'I'm right in the corner of Main Street by Moonflower and we are driving and I'd like to report a domestic dispute. Florida with a white van - Florida license plate, white van,' the man says before being interrupted by the officer, who asks him what he saw exactly.
'They just drove off. They're going towards Main Street. They made a right onto Main Street from Moonflower. We drove by him, a gentleman was slapping the girl,' the man continues.
'He was slapping her?' the sheriff asks.
'Yes. And then we stopped. They ran down an up the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off,' the man says as the audio ends.
A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation and cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor'
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 'hit me with her phone'
Shortly after the call, Petito and Laundrie were filmed in police bodycam footage when they were stopped by Moab Police. In the video, an emotional Petito with tears streaming down her face tells officers she 'was trying to get him [Laundrie] to stop telling [her] to calm down' and admitting the couple had 'been fighting all morning.'
The 911 call is the latest in a series of major developments in the case over the weekend. On Sunday police found remains believed to be Petito's at a campsite in Wyoming, just days after Laundrie 'went missing' from his parents' home in North Port, Florida, where he returned upon Petito's disappearance, using her van and refusing to talk to police.
FBI agents stormed his family's home on Monday and removed his parents from the house while declaring the area a crime scene moments after authorities called off a search of a nearby nature reserve, saying they have 'exhausted all avenues.'
The FBI tweeted on Monday that it 'is executing a court-authorized search warrant today at the Laundrie residence in North Port, FL relevant to the Gabrielle 'Gabby' Petito investigation.'
'No further details can be provided since this is an active and ongoing investigation,' the FBI added.
Steven Berolino, an attorney for the family, told ABC 7 that the family went looking for Laundrie on Wednesday. They found his Ford Mustang, which had a police note on it demanding that the vehicle be removed from the area.
The family initially left the car there so that Brian Laundrie could drive it back, but they returned on Thursday to retrieve it, according to Bertolino.
The next day, the family filed a missing persons report.
The image above shows FBI agents leading Chris and Roberta Laundrie out of their North Port, Florida home on Monday. The Laundries are the parents of Brian Laundrie, who has been missing and is considered a 'person of interest' in the disappearance of van-lifer Gabby Petito. The body believed to be that of Petito was found in Wyoming on Sunday
It appeared at one point that FBI officers were looking for Brian Laundrie at the house. Five FBI agents at the side of the property searched a plastic garden lidded container
FBI agents stormed his family's home on Monday and removed his parents from the house while declaring the area a crime scene moments after authorities called off a search of a nearby nature reserve, saying they have 'exhausted all avenues.
In the bodycam footage from Moab officers, 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.
Last Thursday, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said that it was Laundrie's 'constitutional right' not to speak with law enforcement.
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
Laundrie shows the officers his hands during the incident on August 12 - two weeks before his girlfriend vanished
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.'
A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2
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
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.'
A tearful Petito tells cops she has OCD and anxiety and that she was stressed because she was trying to 'build a blog'
When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and gestures to her chin. Petito admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation
Laundrie shows cops his arms which they say note scratches on, before officers determine Petito was the 'primary aggressor'
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.
The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and say they are separating the couple (pictured together) for the night
'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.'
The cops are also seen talking in the footage about the accounts given by Petito, Laundrie and the witness who reported the incident to police, where they agree she was 'the primary aggressor.'
Laundrie says he doesn't want to pursue any charges but the cops say they have no choice but to separate the pair for the night.
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 police incident
