In an interview with PEOPLE, Cornell University forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ziv Cohen acknowledged he has never met Petito or Laundrie and that he is speculating based on the video. But looking at the couple’s body language and interactions with officers, he says Laundrie appears to be “cold” and “calculating.”
In the footage, the officer approaches the van in which the couple were traveling cross-country. At that point, he immediately separates Petito and Laundrie before interviewing them about the altercation.
“We’ve just been fighting this morning, some personal issues,” says Petito, who is crying and appears agitated as she speaks with the officer. She then tells police that she had become frustrated with Laundrie earlier in the day about the condition of the van, saying repeatedly that she has obsessive compulsive disorder.
Referencing Laundrie’s calm demeanor in contrast to Petito’s, Cohen says, “I think that when you look at the discrepancy between the two of them, it does raise alarm bells about a potential domestic abuse situation.”
He adds, “Also makes you think of fitting the profile of a domestic abuse situation, where you have the victim self-blaming and trying to protect the abuser.”
An eyewitness who called 911 to report the incident told the dispatcher Laundrie had been slapping Petito.
Another eyewitness, who provided awritten statement, told police he saw the couple in the middle of “some sort of dispute” and that “something definitely didn’t seem right,“WABCreports.
That witness also said it appeared Laundrie was possibly trying to lock Petito out of the van and take her phone.
“Those are the things that make you think of a domestic abuse situation and what we call coercive control,” says Cohen.
The body cam footage ends with the couple being asked to spend the night apart, with Petito keeping the van and Laundrie sent to a hotel. Cohen says the officers “were really trying to be sensitive and work with the situation and they were trying to put together the best outcome as they saw it.”
But he says the resolution of the dispute was “distressing.”
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He adds, “I find it distressing because I think it was not meeting the needs of the situation.”
Once Petito was reported missing, Laundrie wasidentified as a person of interestin the case and refused to sit down with investigators to discuss his fiancée’s whereabouts. He has alsosince gone missing, with authorities in Florida currently conducting searches for him.
He has not been named a suspect at this time.
If you have information on this case, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Wendy Grossman Kantor
source: people.com
