Photo: @gabspetito/Instagram
The family of Gabby Petito is urging the public to learn a domestic violence gesture that internet sleuths had previously claimed she made while speaking with police prior to her death.
The Gabby Petito Foundation's Facebook page shared an article aggregated by the New York Post from an initial report by the Tennessean on a Hickman County, Tennessee woman who was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, Johnathon Smith, but rescued after signaling a secret alert to a convenience store worker.
The woman put her palm outwards, tucked her thumb in and closed her four fingers over it, showing the gesture to the cashier, who nodded, yes, in response and called 911, which led to Smith being arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated domestic assault.
"This hand signal works!!! We’ve heard a few rescue stories because of it! Learn it," the Gabby Petito Foundation wrote alongside the article on Facebook.
The foundation's acknowledgement of the signal comes months after internet sleuths claimed Petito made a similar gesture as Moab, Utah police officers approached the van she was traveling in with her boyfriend and suspected killer, Brian Laundrie, on August 12 in police surveillance video, the U.S. Sun reports.
One TikTok user commented that the department "didn't catch on" to Petito making the signal, while another wrote "the fact she started crying even more when she did it just hurt."
On October 12, Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue -- who performed an autopsy on Petito -- announced her death was ruled as a death by strangulation and the manner of death to be a homicide during a press conference.
Laundrie, the lone person of interest in connection to Petito's disappearance and death, was discovered weeks later at the Carlton Reserve campsite near his family's Florida home and confirmed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his family's attorney, Steve Bertolino, confirmed to TMZ.
Dr. Blue said Petito's death is believed to have occurred 3-4 weeks prior to her remains being found on September 19 and confirmed to match her days later.
On September 30, police released additional bodycam footage which showed Petito telling an officer that an argument with Laundrie got physical.
Police made contact with Petito and Laundrie after a bystander called the Moab Police Department and reported seeing a man hitting a woman.
Officers pulled over the van Laundrie and Petito were traveling in on their cross-country trip and Petito told officers that she initially slapped Laundrie before he retaliated.
"I guess, but I hit him first," Petito said when asked by an officer if Laundrie hit her in the face.
"Where did he hit you? Don’t worry. Just be honest," the officer asked.
"Well, he grabbed my face," Petito said.
"Did he slap your face? Or what?" the officer responded.
"Well like, yeah he grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why I definitely have a cut right here because I can feel it when I touch it, it burns," she said, while holding her jaw and crying.
The video then shows Laundrie recanting his side of the incident.
"She gets really worked up, and when she does she swings, and she had her cellphone in her hand, so I was just trying to push her away," Laundrie said.
The video added to previously released bodycam footage showing the couple addressing the incident with police, which an officer described as a mental health crisis, not a domestic assault, according to a police report.