Parents put 13-year-old boy in makeshift jail cell for over a year, Utah officials say

A 13-year-old’s parents were charged with child abuse after being accused of forcing the teen into a makeshift jail cell for over a year, Utah officials said.

On Aug. 18, Unified police officers went to the home of Melissa Gray, 41, and Travis Peterson, 49, and found the 13-year-old boy in a “pantry in the hallway with a metal and wood gate in front of it with a lock on it,” according to an Aug. 30 news release by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

Gray, the boy’s stepmom, told police he’d been there for the “past 24 hours,” prosecutors said.

During his interview, the boy yelled at the investigator that he wasn’t going to get dinner, officials said.

He told police he used to sleep in a cell in his bedroom with five locks on it that had been made a year and a half earlier, officials said.

The teen initially thought the makeshift jail cell was a “joke,” officials said.

But, according to the boy, when his parents strictly gave him three bathroom breaks, breakfast and dinner, along with papers to make “requests,” he knew they were “serious,” officials said.

Then the boy, who was only visited by the family puppy while being “sad” and “lonely,” stopped getting the paper, officials said.

He had been pulled out of school and was being taught at home by Gray, officials said.

Gray wanted the boy to know “what jail was like” and created a “reward system” called “Peterson Bucks” that allowed him to earn money he could use to purchase meals and food, court documents said.

She told investigators it was all part of her plan to teach the boy about “sacrifice” and “needing to go without to pay bills,” court documents stated.

Gray and Peterson were arrested and charged with child abuse, officials said.

This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Parents put 13-year-old boy in makeshift jail cell for over a year, Utah officials say."