Attorneys for Gabby Petito’s family have released a previously unseen photo of blood on her face taken during a Utah domestic violence stop just weeks before her suspected murder at the hands of ex-fiance Brian Laundrie.
The law firm of Parker & McConkie first described the existence of the photo in a November 2022 wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department, which encountered the travel-blogging couple on Aug. 12, 2021, after a witness reported seeing Laundrie hitting Petito and trying to take her phone and drive off without her outside the Moonflower Co-op, an organic grocer off the city’s main drag.
The photo was taken by Petito herself and recovered from her phone, shortly before the stop, according to the law firm.
“According to available data, the image was taken at 4:37 PM, at or before the approximate time of the initial 911 call,” the family’s attorneys said in a statement Tuesday.
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Gabby Petito with blood on her face in an Aug. 12, 2021 traffic stop in Moab, Utah. (Parker & McConkie)
The civil complaint states that “Gabby took a photograph of her injury, which shows blood across her nose and left eye.”
She allegedly showed the injury to Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt, who the family’s attorneys say ignored her “and did nothing more to investigate or document the injury.”
Neither Pratt nor a Moab city spokeswoman immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt, in bodycam footage released by investigators, is seen speaking to Brian Laundrie on Aug. 12, 2021. (Moab City Police Department)
“The photo demonstrates the cut previously noted on her left cheek as well as blood smeared from her forehead, across her left eye and cheek and over her nose, indicating that she was grabbed over her face in such a way that her airways were likely obstructed,” the Petito-Schmidt attorneys’ statement continues.
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“Gabby documented the injury and, during the stop, attempted to tell the Moab officers, however, the seriousness and significance this type of assault and injury was completely ignored.”
The Moab police response triggered an outside investigation that foundPratt and fellow Moab Officer Daniel Robbins made “unintentional mistakes” in the Aug. 12, 2021 stop.
They split the couple up for the night and declined to press charges – despite a Utah statute that the Petitos’ lawyers say required them to make an arrest or issue a citation.
They also, according to the lawsuit, incorrectly labeled Petito the “predominant aggressor” in the altercation outside Moonflower, which her parents’ attorneys said is disproved by the photo.
“Moab Police failed to recognize the violent grabbing of Gabby’s face and obstruction of her nose, mouth, and airways as a critical precursor to her eventual death by strangulation that occurred a short time later,” they said. “Moab Police failed to listen to Gabby, failed to investigate her injuries and the seriousness of her assault, and failed to follow their own training, policies, and Utah law.”
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By Aug. 28, Petito is believed to have been strangled and bludgeoned to death by Laundrie in Wyoming – where her remains were discovered on Sept. 18.
Laundrie returned to his parents’ Florida home on Sept. 1, driving Petito’s van.
Moab Police officer, Eric Pratt is seen on his phone in Moab Utah, Saturday, October 29, 2022. (Fox News Digital)
The FBI and local police found him dead in a swamp on Oct. 20 – of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A drybag nearby contained a handwritten confession to Petito’s death.
Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, are suing Laundrie’s parents as well as Moab police in connection with the series of events that led to and followed her death.