Utah woman drove for hours with 2-year-old's body after shooting son, self: Sheriff
12/17/2020 10:58 am PST
VERNAL, Utah (TCD) --
A Utah woman drove around for hours with the dead body of her 2-year-old son after allegedly shooting the boy and herself, authorities said.
Uintah County Sheriff's deputies responded to a report that a woman and her child were shot in the area of Fantasy Canyon on Monday, Dec. 14.
Deputies found Valerie Peck, 40, and her 2-year-old son with gunshot wounds. The child was dead. Peck was hospitalized.
Deputies said Peck took her son for a drive through Dry Fork Canyon earlier Monday and stopped at a camping area on Red Cloud Loop Road. After staying for a while, she placed the child back in the vehicle, then allegedly shot him with a .22-caliber rifle, according to the sheriff's office. Then she shot herself.
Peck then "drove around Uintah County for several hours with her son in the vehicle" before arriving in the area where deputies located her on Glen Bench Road, deputies said.
Peck was taken into custody after she was released from the hospital Tuesday. She's charged with aggravated murder and child abuse.
The Deseret News reports Peck shot herself twice in her "upper extremities" in an attempt to end her life. When that didn't work, she drove to another nearby canyon to possibly “freeze to death,” according to a police affidavit. Investigators said Peck has a husband and another son.
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