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Gabby Petito: Bodycam footage shows Moab cop saying abuse victims 'end up getting killed'

Moab police officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins had pulled over the pair days before the 22-year-old YouTuber vanished

A new bodycam footage that shows two Moab police officers discussing how abuse victims often get killed after they confronted Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in Utah on August 12 has gone viral. Cops Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins had pulled over the couple days before the 22-year-old YouTuber vanished.

In the now-viral clip shared by @CassandraRules that has been viewed more than 15k times, an officer can be heard telling the other one, “The reason why they don’t give a stretch on these things is that” there are times when “women who are at risk want to go back to their abuser, they just want them to stop and they don’t want have to be separated, they don’t want them charged, they don’t want them to go to jail, and they end up getting worse and worse treatment and they end up getting killed.”

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The officer also added while the other one was nodding in agreement, “In no way she informed that I can perceive that what happened here a little slap fight between the fiancés who love each other and wanted to be with each other. Can I perceive that this is gonna disgrace into a situation where he's gonna be a battered man. But then again I don’t have a crystal ball.”

The footage is reportedly from the same day when cops were informed about the “domestic dispute” between Gabby and Brian. This comes after another bodycam footage disputed the initial report that the young woman was the aggressor in the fight. That video first obtained by the investigative unit at FOX 13 Utah showed a dispatcher telling police at around 4:38 pm local time, “RP (reporting party) states seeing a male hit a female, domestic. He got into a white Ford Transit van, has a black ladder on the back, Florida plate.”

When cops asked for the reporting party’s phone number and the victim's location, the dispatcher replied: “Phone number is [redacted], name’s [redacted]. I’m not sure [inaudible], but the female who got hit, they both, the male and the female, both got into the van and headed north.” Also, an audio of the 911 call obtained by DailyMail.com, revealed when a Grant County sheriff asked the male witness, “He was slapping her?”, he responded: “Yes. And then we stopped. They ran down and up the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.”

Watch the full video here:

Gabby and Brian were on a cross-country trip in the converted van. They embarked on the journey in July, but things started getting worse when the 23-year-old male returned home alone on September 1 in the van. He also did not inform anyone about Gabby’s whereabouts. Then ten days later, on September 11, Gabby’s family reported her missing after not being able to contact her for days.

On September 19, her remains were found inside a national park in Wyoming. And, on September 21, the official identification was done and the Denver office of the FBI said: “Teton County Coroner Dr Brent Blue confirmed the remains are those of Gabrielle Venora Petito, date of birth March 19, 1999. Coroner Blue’s initial determination for the manner of death is homicide. The cause of death remains pending final autopsy results.”

Brian has been missing since September 14, a day after he was named a person of interest in the case.

Meanwhile, a lot of people have expressed their thoughts over the now-viral bodycam footage. A user tweeted, “I honestly feel bad for this cop. He seems like he was genuinely trying to do right by her… but holy fuck did he miss the blatant and glaring signs of an abuse victim.” The second one wrote, “I was impressed with everything, the issues with domestic violence, and toxic relationship they are so appealing and so hard to break free from. The police officers and or a social worker wouldn't have solved their relationship problems.” “I don't see what you people are seeing. By her own admission she was the aggressor she initiated the violence. Had the cop done his job and arrested her she would still be alive,” the third one added.

A person noted, “The right thing to do would have been to lock her up for domestic assault. A night in a jail cell may have given her time to reflect on her life choices in a bad relationship. I had the feeling that it was a pattern.. Tantrum, tears, she got her way. Jail might have woke her up.”

Another one said, “He was covered in defensive wounds and she admitted to hitting him repeatedly because he wouldnt listen to her, and then she grabbed the wheel and caused them to hit the curb when they were getting pulled over, by both their accounts. If they would've charged her, she'd be alive.”