Moab Police Department/Insider
- Gabby Petito's mother said she wanted to rescue her daughter after watching police body cam footage.
- The footage from the Moab City Police Department in Utah showed Petito in distress after a fight.
- Officers responding to the August callout to Petito and Laundrie were told that he had hit her.
Gabby Petito's mother said she "just wanted to jump through the screen and rescue her" after seeing police body camera footage of the aftermath of her daughter's argument with Brian Laundrie.
Nichole Schmidt said in an interview with "60 Minutes Australia," which aired Sunday, that she saw a "young girl that needed someone to just hug her and keep her safe."
"I just felt so bad for her," she added. "I wish that she reached out to me."
Video from the Moab City Police Department on August 12 showed police interviewing a visibly distressed Petito after the couple was pulled over in their van following an argument.
The police then made a controversial conclusion that Petito had started a domestic dispute between the two, rather than Laundrie.
Later reporting revealed that an initial witness told 911 that he saw Laundrie hit Petito first, leading critics to say the police didn't handle the domestic violence call correctly.
The city of Moab recently opened an investigation into the police's response to the incident.
Petito's body was found last month near a camping area of Grand Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
A Wyoming coroner determined she had been strangled to death and deemed her death a homicide.
Meanwhile, authorities have been searching for Laundrie, who was reported missing last month, at Carlton Reserve, a 25,000-acre nature preserve in Florida. They have not found any signs of him.