Episode Details

Gabby Petito’s father, Joe Petito, offered a deeply personal message to the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin as they navigated the aftermath of the University of Idaho murders. Speaking with NewsNation’s Brian Entin, Petito said one of the most important things grieving families could do was surround themselves with a strong support system and avoid trying to carry the pain alone. He pointed to the way he, his wife Tara, Gabby’s mother Nichole Schmidt and her husband Jim Schmidt leaned on one another after Gabby’s murder, saying that having people around who could hold each other up made an enormous difference when trying to survive an unimaginable loss. His advice to the Idaho families was not that the pain would disappear, but that having trusted people beside them could help them navigate something no family should ever have to endure.

Petito also spoke about the way his family tried to turn Gabby’s death into advocacy, particularly around domestic violence and law-enforcement reform. At the time, he was supporting Utah legislation that would require officers responding to domestic violence calls to conduct a lethality assessment designed to identify warning signs that a victim might be in immediate danger. Petito said he believed a system like that could potentially have changed what happened to Gabby after police encountered her and Brian Laundrie during their trip through Utah. His message to the Idaho families therefore came from someone who understood both the public scrutiny surrounding a nationally followed homicide and the long, painful process of trying to build something meaningful out of tragedy.



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