FLORIDA — Two state Democratic lawmakers are pushing for law enforcement to take an extra step when investigating possible domestic violence cases.
The newly-filed bill is known as the "Gabby Petito Act.”
State Sen. Lauren Book and Rep. Robin Bartleman introduced the legislation, which would require officers responding to a domestic violence call to fill out a form with the Department of Justice assessing the likelihood of injury or death.
The legislation would add a layer of early intervention to prevent more tragedies like with what happened to Petito. Her 22-year-old body was found in Wyoming in 2021.
Prior to her disappearance, police in Utah got a call of domestic disturbance related to Petito and her then boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. It was later wrongly classified as a mental and emotional break, not domestic violence.
Laundrie, who took his own life, left behind a notebook entry admitting that he killed Petito.