Evidence Brian Laundrie Controlled Gabby Petito, Behavioral Scientist Says

Police body camera footage of Gabby Petito in despair and blaming herself after Brian Laundrie allegedly hit her on August 12 shows that Laundrie was controlling of his fiancée, an internationally recognized behavioral scientist has claimed.

Laundrie, 23, is missing and has been named as the sole person of interest in Petito's death. Petito, 22, was declared missing on September 11, 10 days after Laundrie returned alone from a cross-country tour of national parks.

Her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19 and a coroner ruled she had died by strangulation. Laundrie's parents said he went missing on September 13, and said he was going camping in the Carlton Nature Reserve in Florida, close to their family home. Authorities have been searching for him since.

Behavioral scientist Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess gave an interview with News Nation on Monday about the case. Burgess played a critical role in the development of the FBI's behavioral science unit and helped develop their profiling for serial killers.

During the interview, Burgess was played a snippet of the bodycam footage from the Moab City Police Department in Utah, which showed Petito in distress after a fight with Laundrie. The officers were responding to a callout on August 12 and were told Laundrie had allegedly hit her.

The police made the conclusion that Petito had started the domestic dispute between the two, rather than Laundrie, after Petito appeared to blame herself in the video footage.

Burgess said that part of the footage where Petito blames herself was a "classic sign of her being controlled by him [Laundrie]."

"That she doesn't dare at that particular point say anything, except to blame herself. So that is important, I think that is what changes. What we don't have—that I would love to see—is [bodycam footage of] the female police officer that spends time with her, while the male police officers are talking to Laundrie," Burgess said.

"We hear that [the publicly available footage], which is very important in and of itself, but what is said to her by the female police officer, I really wonder whether that started to give Gabby some ideas about who she was staying with."

Commenting on Petito's body language in the video, Burgess said: "Look at how upset she is. She's trembling, she's half sobbing, she's moving her hands. She's very, very emotional, at this particular time, and of course, having to defend him. And later we see that the male police officers think that she has been the one that has assaulted Laundrie and [he] almost gets away with that, where they would then arrest her for that."

Newsweek has asked Moab City Police whether they are planning to release the additional bodycam footage from August 12.