The family of slain “van lifer” Gabby Petito says her murder might have been prevented if Utah cops hadn’t blown a chance to intervene.
“Roughly two weeks later, Brian brutally murdered Gabby, leaving her body in the woods of Grand Teton National Forest,” the notice states.
Officer Daniel Robbins subsequently spotted the couple’s van on a highway out of town, and pulled it over for speeding and driving erratically. Officer Eric Pratt and two park rangers arrived on the scene a short time later, and the cops interviewed Petito and Laundrie separately. “Whether for lack of training or refusal to follow their training, the officers did not press further,” the filing alleges.
“Based on that determination, Officer Pratt explained to Brian and Gabby that the officers lacked any discretion but were required to charge Gabby and take her to jail,” the filing alleges. “He also explained that Utah law automatically imposes a no-contact order to keep the parties to a domestic dispute separate, and that Brian would need to sign a waiver of that order in the morning if he wanted to reunite with Gabby. Both Brian and Gabby pleaded for some other way of resolving the problem.
But Pratt warned that Robbins could find himself in hot water if he didn’t take any action and something bad were to happen later, the filing says. One of the park rangers who responded to the scene also told Robbins that she would prefer being “dinged for a decision I made than a decision I didn’t make,” according to the notice.
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