The parents of Gabby Petito filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Thursday against the police department who had stopped the girl and her fiancé before letting them go.
Petito’s parents are now suing the Moab City, Utah police department for $50 million, alleging officers were negligent in their interactions with their 22-year-old daughter and her fiancé Brian Laundrie two weeks before her murder.
“We feel we need to bring justice because she could have been protected that day,” said Nicole Schmidt, Gabby’s mother.
Petito and Laundrie went on a cross-country road trip last summer. Petito was reported missing after Laundrie returned to Florida, claiming they had a fight.
Her body was found several weeks later in Grand Teton National Forest.
A coroner ruled she died by strangulation.
Video shows the interaction with the couple and the police officers during their investigation into a domestic violence call.
The lawsuit says officers wrongly determined Petito was the primary aggressor and misapplied Utah’s domestic abuse laws.
Laundrie’s body was later found near a notebook in which he admitted to killing Petito.
The City of Moab issued a statement denying responsibility for her murder and saying it would defend against the lawsuit.