“RP [reporting party] states a male hit a female,” the dispatcher told officers before giving the license plate number. “Domestic. He got into a white Ford Transit van. Has a black ladder on the back. Florida plate. The female who got hit, they both — the male and the female — both got into the van and headed north.”
Police stopped the van a few minutes later. In the police report of the traffic stop, the responding officer initially wrote that he believed “it was reported the male had been observed to have assaulted the female,” but later contradicted the earlier statement and wrote that “no one reported that the male struck the female.”
Invideo footageof the traffic stop, Petito appears highly agitated and admits to striking Laundrie. She also says she has obsessive compulsive disorder and blames her condition, in part for sparking the dispute between them.
Police classified the incident as “disorderly conduct” rather than domestic violence, and determined Petito was the aggressor. But information that has come to light since then belies this assessment.
An eyewitness who called 911 to report the incident told the dispatcher Laundriehad been slapping Petito.
Another eyewitness, who provided awritten statement, told police he saw the couple in the middle of “some sort of dispute” and that “something definitely didn’t seem right.”
That witness also said it appeared Laundrie was possibly trying to lock Petito out of the van and take her phone.
Cornell University forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ziv Cohen reviewed the footage for PEOPLE in its latest issue. While he has never met or treated Petito or Laundrie, he was able to use his experience to observe the couple’s body language and demeanor — and make a speculative assessment on their relationship.
“When you look at the discrepancy between the two of them, it does raise alarm bells about a potential domestic abuse situation,” Cohen says.
If you have information on this case, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
