An unsettling backdrop detail is revealed in a SELFIE taken by Gabby Petito only moments before police detained her and her partner Brian Laundrie.

According to reports, Gabby took the selfie two minutes before a passerby reported her and her 23-year-old boyfriend Brian’s domestic violence incident to 911.

Although Gabby’s wounded and scratched face is the most unsettling aspect of the image, there also appears to be a map of the United States National Parks in the backdrop. The West Coast is the only area on the map that can be seen, serving as a painful reminder of the regions that Gabby was unable to visit.

Recap of Gabby Patito’s Case

On July 2, 2021, Gabby and her boyfriend Brian headed to New York to start on a cross-country road trip in Gabby’s white Ford van.

According to the police, the pair intended to travel to the West Coast in order to tour state and national parks in the western US. The journey, however, was cut short when Gabby vanished, having been last seen in Utah at a hotel in Salt Lake City.

About 15 minutes after Gabby took the selfie, at roughly 4:55 p.m. on August 12, 2021, police stopped the young couple, according to Brian Stewart, an attorney for the Petito family at Parker & McConkie.

The image shows cuts to Gabby’s left cheek and blood splattered across her forehead, left eye, cheek, and nose in addition to injuries to her left cheek. The 911 caller who saw the event reportedly described Brian striking and slapping Gabby in a parking lot in Moab, Utah.

Officer Pratt was informed by Gabby about the injuries, but the attorney said that he ignored her and did nothing further to look into or document the injury. The Petitos’ legal team asserts that before their traffic stop, Brian “strangled and/or smothered” Gabby, adding that the 22-year-old was not the “predominant aggressor.”

“Gabby clearly told the Moab Police how Brian had grabbed her face and cut her, but they ignored her and the serious danger she was in.” On September 11, 2021, the 22-year-family old’s reported her missing; eight days later, her body was discovered in Wyoming.

Body-Cam Footage

 

In the encounter’s bodycam video, a very upset Gabby tells the police that she and Brian had been “fighting all morning.” She also related how Brian had shoved her, grabbed her face and neck, and left her with a gash on the side of her cheek while she was sobbing.

Officers noted in their report that she had red marks and scratches on her arms and face. While this was going on, Brian gave the police a series of contradictory statements, claiming that Gabby “gets worked up sometimes” and that he had been attempting to calm her down.

He acknowledged pushing her but maintained that she had hit him and scratched his face instead. After more than an hour, one of the cops declares that Gabby was the “main aggressor” in the argument, and another tells Brian overtly that he is the “victim of domestic assault.”

The pair split up for the evening per the officers’ orders after no charges were brought. As Brian was brought to a neighbouring motel typically used by victims of domestic abuse, Gabby stayed in their van. A little more than two weeks later, Brian killed Gabby by strangling her at a campsite close to Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.

Published by HOLR Magazine.