New bodycam footage obtained by Fox News on Thursday, September 30, shows Gabby Petito tell a Utah police officer that her fiancé Brian Laundrie hit her during a domestic incident on August 12.
Petito, whose death has been ruled by the coroner's preliminary findings as a homicide, went missing while on a road trip across the US with Laundrie.
Laundrie was named "a person of interest" in the case, after he returned home to Florida alone and refused to cooperate with law enforcement.
He is now the subject of a nationwide manhunt after he was last seen on September 14 — and a federal court in Wyoming has issued a warrant for his arrest.
The alleged assault reportedly took place just before the pair were stopped by law enforcement at the entrance of Arches National Park. A witness had called 911 to report seeing a man slapping a woman outside an organic grocery store in Moab, Utah.
"Did he hit you though?" an officer asked Petito, per the publication's second bodycam footage. "I guess. I guess, yea," a tearful Petito continued. "But I hit him first."
"Where did he hit you? Don't worry, just be honest," the officer responded, to which Petito replied, "He didn’t like hit me in the face. He didn’t like punch me in the face or anything."
"Did he slap your face, or what?" the officer said.
“Well he like, grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here,” Petito responded, rubbing her cheek.
"I can feel it, when I touch it, it burns. He got really frustrated with me, and he locked me out of the car and told me to go take a breather, but I didn’t want to take a breather. And I wanted to get going. We’re out of water."
At one point in the video, a law enforcement official asks a witness to corroborate the pair's claims.
"Did you ever see the male strike the female?" he asked the eyewitness. "I wouldn’t say that," they replied. "I think I saw maybe a push or a shove, but not a full-on punch to a face or anything."
"You did see her slapping him though it sounds like," the police continued, to which the witness replied, "yes."
On Thursday, September 23, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant, and indicted 23-year-old Laundrie for alleged "use of unauthorized access devices".
The warrant accuses him of taking a Capital One debit card that wasn't his own and cashing up a $1,000 spend from August 31 through September 1, per the indictment.
This appears to violate a federal statute, and Laundrie has been indicted by a federal grand jury.
Special Agent in charge Michael Schneider said: "While this warrant allows law enforcement to arrest Mr Laundrie, the FBI and our partners across the country continue to investigate the facts and circumstances of Petito’s homicide.
"We urge individuals with knowledge of Mr Laundrie’s role in this matter or his current whereabouts to contact the FBI."
North Port police resumed their search for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve in Florida on September 21.
"A weekend ground search and aerial search Monday of the 25,000-acre reserve has yet to yield any answers, but we must press on," spokesperson Josh Taylor said at the time.
The reserve is nearby to the Laundrie family home in North Port. His parents say he headed to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which intersects the reserve, on September 14, with just a backpack.
"Large parts of the reserve are underwater, and packed with dangerous wildlife," Taylor continued. "Please be aware, the Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving location at times. It is currently waist-deep in water in many areas."
