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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Police in Utah released a witness statement Wednesday from one person who witnessed the argument that took place on Aug. 12 between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie.
According to the statement released by the Moab City Police Department, a witness by the name of Chris said as he was approaching the Moonflower Community Cooperative, he saw “a man and woman appear to have some sort of dispute.”
He told police the couple was “talking aggressively at each other and something seemed off,” the statement said.
Chris said the couple seemed to be fighting over a phone and appeared that the man, later identified as Laundrie, didn’t want the woman, Petito, to get into the white van.
The witness statement recalls seeing Petito punching Laundrie “in the arm and/or face” and overhearing her say “why do you have to be so mean?”
According to Chris, he was unsure if they were play fighting, but from his perspective, “something definitely didn’t seem right.”
The couple was later stopped by police, which was caught on body camera video.
Over a month later, FBI and other law enforcement search teams found Petito’s body on Sunday, Sept. 19 in Bridger-Teton National Forest, which is northwest of Grand Teton National Park.
Officials with FBI Denver confirmed Tuesday, Sept. 21 her manner of death was ruled as a homicide. However, her cause of death remains pending as officials await final autopsy results.
Laundrie is still a person of interest in his fiancé’s disappearance and was reported missing to police on Friday, Sept. 17. According to police, his parents reported last seeing him last Tuesday, Sept. 14, in hiking gear. Law enforcement officials have been focusing their search efforts for Laundrie on the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Venice.
