SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Gabby Petito’s family notified Utah officials Monday of plans to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging police failed to recognize their daughter was in life-threatening condition last year when officers they investigated a fight between her and her boyfriend.  .  The fight happened weeks before authorities say her boyfriend killed her while the couple was on a cross-country van trip.
The notice of claim alleges that police in the tourist town of Moab missed signs that Petito was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Brian Laundrie on August 12, 2021. Officers eventually allowed the couple to leave after asking them to spend a night apart.
Police body camera video that was widely viewed as the investigation unfolded last year showed Petito, 22, visibly upset and raised questions about whether a different police response could have prevented her death.  Appearing via video at a press conference to announce the allegation, Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, said it was “very painful to watch.”
“I wanted to jump through the screen and save her,” Schmidt said.
Notices of claims are required before people can sue government entities, and the family’s claim said the suit would seek $50 million in damages.  Moab officials have 60 days to respond before the family files a lawsuit based on the claim.
The family’s attorney, James McConkey, told reporters in Salt Lake City that “police officers failed to recognize the grave danger she was in and failed to fully and properly investigate.”
He added: “They didn’t have the training they needed to recognize the clear signs that were evident that morning that Gabby was a victim and that she was in serious need of immediate help.”
Public employees such as police officers are typically immune from lawsuits in many states, including Utah.  The debate over this legal doctrine, known as “special immunity,” arose after the 2020 police shootings and reached both Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the Petito family said they planned to argue that applying Utah’s governmental immunity law to wrongful-death claims is unconstitutional and a barrier to accountability.
“The only effective way to fix these problems is to hold our institutions accountable for failures, including law enforcement,” said another attorney for the Petito family, Brian Stewart.
After the notice of claim was filed, Moab city government spokeswoman Lisa Church declined to comment, saying the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Petito was reported missing a month after the traffic stop, and her strangled body was discovered Sept. 19 on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Laundrie, 23, later killed herself in Florida after being named the only person of interest in her death.  Petito and Landrie were from Long Island, New York.
The search for Petito has attracted worldwide attention, prompting mystery enthusiasts to scour social media for clues.  It also brought scrutiny to authorities and the media, both of which have been criticized for focusing attention on missing white women rather than women of color.
Earlier this year, an independent investigation found that police in Moab made “several unintentional mistakes” when they encountered Petito and Laundrie.  In the report, police said it was highly likely that Petito “was a long-term victim of domestic violence, whether it was physical, mental and/or emotional.
Laundrie killed himself in a swamp in Florida, leaving behind a notebook that authorities said contained a confession.
In addition to filing the notice of claim, Schmidt recently announced a $100,000 donation from the Gabby Petito Foundation to work with the National Domestic Violence Hotline to help others survive turbulent and violent relationships.
Schmidt told The Associated Press in an interview last week that she still has many unanswered questions about what went wrong.
“Looking back, I saw no sign.  I think the only two people who will ever know what happened in this relationship were Gabby and Brian.  And we can guess and we can make assumptions, but we don’t really know what happened,” he added.  “Probably the script ended up like that because something was going on for a while.”