Gabby Petito signaled for help using the domestic violence hand symbol during Moab police stop, web sleuths claim
SOBBING Gabby Petito appeared to signal for help using the domestic violence hand symbol during the Moab police stop before she died, TikTok sleuths have claimed.
On August 12, Gabby and were after witnesses saw them fighting and she appeared to have marks and bruises on her face and arms, while her fiancé's face was scratched.
One commentator noted on a video demonstration of the signal that "Gabby did it too, but the cops didn't catch on."
"The fact she started crying even more when she did it just hurt," another person wrote, while a third insisted: "Gabby gave this sign to Moab police [and] they did nothing."
Speaking to , Penelope House Executive Director Toni Ann Torrans said she believes Gabby was desperately trying to signal for help and pointed out that domestic violence "knows no bounds."
"Law enforcement has a very tough job determining who is the primary aggressor or the victim acting in self-defense," Torrans said.
"It's very hard to look at those recordings and know what's going on. It's kind of frantic. So you can probably read into it what you want to read into it as far as what she may or may not have done.
"But the bottom line is, I think people need to understand - once again - is that there's a lot of domestic violence in our communities and often the domestic violence escalates to a situation where there is a homicide."
Cops have not confirmed Gabby was doing this gesture for help. The Sun has contacted Moab police for comment and didn't receive a response at the time of publication.
The theory comes after domestic violence experts said the and the vlogger's strangulation death prompted calls for an , inspired by the Me Too initiative.
Katie Hood from the One Love Foundation said that it was “triggering” to watch Gabby motion toward her neck while sobbing to Moab police officers on August 12, just two weeks before she was last seen alive.
Hood claimed that Gabby, 22, was in “distress” due to her relationship but attempting to “minimize” the situation.
'ABUSE STRUGGLE'
"Not someone who was in distress because of mental health issues but someone who very well could be struggling with an abusive relationship.
“You are so emotional and exhausted when you are in an abusive relationship and you don’t really know which way to go and I saw some of that in her hesitation to answer certain questions.
Dr Brent Blue initially said that as per Wyoming law, he could not comment on anything other than the manner and cause of death in an ongoing FBI investigation.
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He did confirm that Gabby was not pregnant at the time of her death and said the investigation had taken DNA samples from her remains that had been outdoors for three to four weeks before her body was found.
Blue sparked controversy, however, when answering a question about the media attention around the case by stating that it was do not receive the same coverage.