'The Light Remains' On Gabby Petito One Year After Her Death

Gabby Petito was taken from this earth one year ago.

August 27th marked the one-year-anniversary of her murder at the hands of Brian Laundrie.

On Saturday, Gabby’s family celebrated her life and legacy by lighting up the night sky. Nichole Schmidt, her mother, was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support on social media.

On Sunday, August 28th, Schmidt took to Twitter to share her absolute awe for all the supporters.

“Since there are too many to acknowledge individually, I just want to say #ThankYou to all of you for your posts and kind messages! Thank you for honoring #DomesticViolence victims, for honoring #Gabby, and for spreading the light around the world. #Love to you all,” she tweeted.

Her followers and supporters had a lot to say in the comments section.

“What you all are doing is beautiful. I know you’re in pain and will continue to pray for you,” one supporter wrote.

“No thank YOU, for your love and kindness and work to help ALL affected by domestic violence,” another added.

One fan doted on Schmidt writing, “#GabbyPetito will FOREVER be in our HEART this can’t be easy I can’t imagine but it’s amazing all you guys have done to keep things going and helping active truly AMAZING all of YOU are SO loved and appreciated.”

Gabby’s father, Joseph Petito, also shared video footage of lanterns being lit up and floated into the night sky.

He captioned the video, “#TheLightRemains #GabbyPetito #LightTheNight #DomesticViolence.”

On August 27th, Joseph shared a touching message to his fallen daughter.

“Exactly 1 year ago today you were taken from us. We miss you everyday. We cry everyday,” his tweet read. “You have inspired so many to live, travel, and leave their unhealthy relationships. We love you Gabby. #GabbyPetito#DomesticViolence#MissingPerson#TogetherWeCan#thelightremains.”

Gabby’s #LightTheNight celebration comes just days after one of the Utah police officers, who responded to the domestic violence call involving Laundrie and Gabby, was promoted to detective.

Eric Pratt was the senior officer on the scene during the August 2021 call, and was recently promoted to detective.

The Moab police department shared a photo to its Facebook page last week showing Pratt at an event with “Detective E. Pratt” embroidered into his shirt.

Petito’s parents have filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Utah police.

You may recall that on August 12, 2021, Utah police officers responded to a domestic violence call from an anonymous tipster.

Two weeks prior to her murder, the couple was pulled over by police officers in Moab, Utah, following an anonymous call about a domestic violence situation.

Incriminating evidence of their tumultuous relationship was caught on a police officer’s body camera.

While the couple was traveling through Moab, Laundrie was behind the wheel and driving her conversion van erratically.

On August 12, a domestic call involving the couple was made to Moab authorities, and the couple was pulled over. The call resulted in no arrests despite Utah state law mandating an arrest or citation in domestic violence incidents.

Police body camera footage show a tearful and distraught Gabby in the back of a squad car while Laundrie joked around with cops by their conversion van.

Fox News Digital first reported the domestic violence call which included allegations that Laundrie slapped and hit Gabby; however, both denied versions of the events to responding officers.

Laundrie had a cut on his cheek and Gabby had marks on her face.

An independent investigation into the August 12 incident was conducted and found “unintentional mistakes.”

The investigation included interviews with both officers involved and the city's acting chief of police and looked into the incident reports, body cam videos and other evidence.