![]() He has offered words of comfort and advice to the families of the four slain Idaho students. That claim builds off recent allegations against Pratt from an unnamed woman who told Fox News this week that Pratt threatened to kill her after their relationship ended, while serving as police chief in Salina, Utah, another rural town.Joe Petito begs for the public's help during a news conference to help find his missing daughter Gabby Petito back in September, 2021, in North Port, Florida. ![]() Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt “was fundamentally biased in his approach to the investigation, choosing to believe Gabby’s abuser, ignoring evidence that Gabby was the victim and intentionally looking for loopholes to get around the requirements of Utah law and his duty to protect Gabby.” The suit also alleges police officers “coached Gabby to provide answers that the officers used to justify their decision not to enforce Utah law,” which requires action be taken in response to domestic violence incidents. In doing so, the lawsuit alleges officers disregarded signs of violence they should have been trained to notice. It lays blame for Petito’s death on the city’s police officers, who did not issue a domestic violence citation after a bystander called to report conflict between Petito and Laundrie. The wrongful death lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages from the police department in Moab, a rural Utah city known for being an entryway to national parks full of red rock canyons and mesas. And we don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” said Nicole Schmidt, Petito’s mother, her voice quivering. “There are laws put in place to protect victims. ![]() Petito’s mother, father and other family members have sought to keep her name in the news, hoping to honor her legacy and help make sure signs of abuse are recognized by authorities in a position to intervene, they said Thursday. It also brought criticism of authorities and the news media for focusing more attention on missing white women like Petito than on missing and murdered indigenous women and women of color more broadly. The contrast between the cheerful facade on display on Petito’s widely followed Instagram account - where she chronicled her cross-country trip in a van to tens of thousands of followers - and the darker reality of domestic violence she was experiencing in the lead-up to her death captivated millions and sparked unprecedented national conversation about dating violence. Laundrie was the only person ever identified by law enforcement as a person of interest and was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after returning alone to his parents’ home in Florida. Petito’s body was later found on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming after being strangled. Petito and her fiancé, 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, were stopped by police officers in Moab last summer but were ultimately not cited for domestic violence amid signs of distress and their own statements about physical conflict. What began as a missing person’s case last summer rode a wave of true crime obsession to become a social media sensation, drawing amateur online sleuthers and the kind of worldwide attention that can help authorities locate missing people. The lawsuit filed on Thursday is the latest development in the high-profile case around Gabby Petito’s death. SALT LAKE CITY - Family members of a 22-year-old woman whose fiancé admitted to killing her last year have filed a wrongful death suit against police in Moab, Utah, saying the department's alleged negligence led to her death weeks later.
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