By Antonio Planas - NBC News
Utah police responded to a physical altercation last month between the missing 22-year-old and her fiancé as they were both traveling by road across the country, an incident that occurred less than a month before the young woman's family reported that he does not know where he is.
A Moab City Police Department report released Wednesday says Gabrielle Petito slapped Brian Laundrie after an argument.
But both she and Laundrie told the officer who responded to the incident that neither of them wanted to press charges and that they loved each other.
The authorities have published this Thursday the video recorded by the body cameras of the agents of their intervention.
The young man, who returned alone in the truck to his home in Florida, refuses to cooperate with the authorities, who consider him a person of interest in the case.
The events occurred on the afternoon of August 12, a couple of weeks before the young woman's family lost contact with her.
That day, an agent responded to a call for possible domestic violence near a store in Moab.
The officer spoke to both of them and a witness.
"The three individuals gave me a similar and coherent story, consisting of the idea that the driver of the truck, a male, had some sort of discussion with the woman, Gabbie, as I recall," the report says.
"The male tried to distance himself from Gabbie by telling her to go for a walk to calm down, [but] she didn't want to separate from the male and started slapping him. [He] grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed on him and the truck, "he explained.
[Police consider the fiancé of the missing young woman as a person of interest while traveling in the US by truck]
Gabrielle Petito and Brian Laundrie Instagram
The incident appeared to be more of a mental and emotional "outburst" than a domestic incident, the police officer said.
"No one reported that the man beat the woman, both the man and the woman reported that they were in love and engaged and that they were getting married and did not wish in any way for anyone to be charged with a crime," according to the report.
"No significant injuries were reported and they both agreed that Gabbie suffers from severe anxiety," he adds.
When the police officer arrived at the scene, there were also two officers from Los Arcos National Park.
The couple told them that they had mental health problems, but that they were not undergoing any medical treatment.
A second officer in the police report wrote that he stopped the truck, driven by Laundrie, after detecting that it was going about 45 miles per hour in an area where the limit was 15. When he turned on the lights to stop the vehicle, it he staggered and hit the curb before braking.
Gabrielle Petito, 22, was traveling by road across the United States with her fiancé.
Capture via NBC News
Then he saw Petito "crying uncontrollably" and Petito told him that he was struggling with his mental health problems.
Petito was put in the back of the agent's car, according to the report, while he was talking to Laundrie.
Petito acknowledged hitting his fiancé on the arm to get his attention while the agent tried to stop them, causing the truck to hit the curb, according to the report.
But Laundrie said he believed the young woman was trying to grab the steering wheel while driving, which caused the steering wheel.
The officer said Laundrie's account "was inconsistent with Gabrielle's statement" and reported that he saw scratches on the man's arm.
[The police consider "strange" the disappearance of a young woman who was crossing the country with her fiancé in a van]
According to the report, the four or five months that the couple had been traveling had increased the tension between them.
"The past time created an emotional tension between them and increased the number of arguments," he said.
The couple agreed to separate rather than have police open a case against Petito for domestic assault, according to the report. The agent said he needed to make sure Laundrie was not a victim of "battered boyfriend syndrome." Finally the young woman kept the truck and her fiancé was transferred to a hotel. No charges were filed.