Utah ranger warned his relationship with Brian Laundrie seemed ‘toxic’

A National Parks Service law enforcement ranger who responded to a domestic incident between Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito in Utah last month warned the woman her relationship with Laundrie seemed “toxic.”

“I was probably more candid with her than I should have been,” Melissa Hulls, visitor protection and resource manager at Arches National Park, told Deseret News in an interview about his conversation with Petito on August 12.

By the time Hulls responded that day, Petito, 22, was sobbing in the back of a police car and the ranger approached her knowing that the Long Island native might be older. comfortable talking with a woman during the emotional ordeal.

“I was begging with her to reassess the relationship,” Hull told the newspaper, “asking if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying it was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life. “

Police responded to the scene after a 911 caller reported seeing a man “slap” a woman in the face, according to new audio obtained from the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.

The audio contradicts a police report that portrayed Petito as the abuser, stating that at one point she “started slapping him” after he told her to walk around to calm down.

An officer wrote “it was reported that the man assaulted the woman”, but later determined that “no one reported that the man hit the woman”.

No charges were laid that day and the incident was classified by police as a “mental / emotional health break”.

The couple would then have agreed to spend the night separately.

“It wasn’t a good day for anyone. We thought we were making the right decision when we left them, ”Hulls said in the interview.

“I wouldn’t have called (the relationship) dangerous. If we had had any reason to believe that any of them were in danger, we would have separated them, ”she said.

Police body camera footage of the incident was released by the Moab City Police Department.

Hulls also carried a body camera, but said she had not looked at the footage.

“It’s hard not to question myself, and I wish I had said more, or I wish I had found the right words to make her believe she deserved more,” said Hulls.

Petito was reported missing by her family on September 11 after Laundrie, 23, returned home to Florida without her 10 days earlier.

The FBI said on Sunday that it remained “as described” as Petito was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.