The aforementioned 911 caller had told the dispatcher, per the audio released to news outlets, “We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl…They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car, and they drove off.”
Another witness at the scene, identified only as Chris, wrote in a statement to police, per CNN, that the two were “talking aggressively at each other.” Chris said he thought he heard Petito say to Laundrie, “Why do you have to be so mean?”
Hulls, the Park Service ranger and visitor and resource protection supervisor for Arches National Park, admitted that she had a bad feeling about the overall situation between Petito and Laundrie.
“I was probably more candid with her than I should’ve been,” Hulls told Deseret News. “I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life. She had a lot of anxiety about being away from him, I honestly thought if anything was going to change it would be after they got home to Florida.”
And then she heard that a body had been found, matching the description of the missing woman.
“I honestly haven’t looked at my body camera footage for that night,” the ranger said. “It’s hard to think about now because I feel like I could’ve said more to help her. It’s hard not to second-guess myself, and wish I said more, or wish I had found the right words to make her believe that she deserved more.”
