Police: Parents locked boy in makeshift cell, said they’d do it again

KEARNS, Utah (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — Two parents in Utah have been arrested on a child abuse charge after allegedly locking up their 13-year-old son in a makeshift cell, oftentimes for up to 24 hours.

Travis Peterson, 49, and Melissa Gray, 42, were both arrested Tuesday on one count of Aggravated Child Abuse, while Gray faces an additional charge of Child Abuse with Injury.

Police responded to the Kearns home of Peterson and Gray after a report of a child locked in a cell. When officers arrived, they found the 13-year-old inside an alcove under the stairs with padlocked gates that did not allow the boy to get out.

Police arrested Travis Peterson and Melissa Gray at a Kearns, Utah home on Aug. 28, 2024 on allegations of child abuse. (Scripps News Salt Lake City)

The boy told police he had been locked in the cell for 24 hours after Gray, his stepmother, had spanked him for screaming in the house.

“Keeping (kids) behind makeshift cells is not the way children should be raised,” said Sgt. Aymee Race with Unified Police.

Both parents told police that they didn’t see anything wrong with what they had put their son through, with Gray saying she wanted the boy “to see what it was like in a city and the real world,” according to the arrest report.

The boy “reported being hungry, lonely and having to sleep curled up in the makeshift cells.”

During the investigation, detectives learned that the boy was fed only twice a day and only let out of his cell three times each day to use the restroom.

The boy added that before he was locked in the alcove under the stairs, Peterson and Gray had locked him in a makeshift cell made out of a loft bed “for months,” only being allowed out to go to the bathroom.

Police later learned that the boy’s 22-year-old brother had been locked up when he was younger, and was forced to defecate in his dresser drawer.

“These cases always hit home,” said Race. “These are young children who are being raised by people that should be taking care of them, providing them food, water, shelter, care, love, and not in these conditions.”

While talking with officers after his arrest, Peterson admitted to working in the health care industry and worried that he could lose his job, adding that “the nation and world is cracking down on this sort of thing,” the report showed.

Peterson allegedly told police that there was nothing wrong with what they had done, and if the boy was returned to the home, he would be placed in the cell.

The boy is now staying with relatives, while the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, as well as Unified Police, are investigating the crimes.

Unified Police said that if someone hadn’t called in to report the boy being held, officers would have never discovered the horrific conditions.

“If you see something, say something,” Race added. “It’s a very old saying, but it’s very true.”

Laurieann Thorpe, the executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Utah, responded to the news with a statement:

“Incidents like this one underline how important it is to prevent abuse from ever happening in the first place. Children deserve safety. Child abuse, and this case specifically, are particularly insidious because the very people whose responsibility it is to provide safety are the ones who have done the harm.

Research shows that children who experience abuse may have lifelong negative health and wellbeing consequences.

Parents need to seek resources before situations get to this point. Communities need to rally around and provide support, and children need education so they can seek help.”