Shivangi Sinha
In 2023, Ty and Brynlee Larson became popular all over social media after they began posting their videos online. At the time, they had barricaded themselves inside the home of their mother, Jessica Zahrt, in Salem, Utah, and refused to leave. This happened in the background of a court mandate that ordered the children to attend a reunification program with their father, Brent “BJ” Larson, for 90 days. Ty and Brynlee had accused their father of abuse, and in the years that followed, there had been several investigations into the alleged abuse as well. Hulu’s ‘The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn?’ features interviews with the siblings in which they tell their side of the story for the first time.
Ty and Brynlee Larson Barricaded Themselves in a Room Against Court Order
Ty Larson was born in 2008 in Provo, Utah, and Brynlee Larson followed in 2010. The children lived in a seemingly happy home with their parents, Brent Larson and Jessica Zahrt, but it was not for long. In 2012, their parents split up, and the children moved in with their mother. Jessica was working at the time, so she would often drop her son and daughter off at the house of her former mother-in-law, Jolleen Larson, for the whole day. It was on March 1, 2018, that Brynlee accused her father of sexual abuse. Jessica acted quickly and filed a temporary protective order against Brent, and the legal battle continued. The court also mandated that the children be sent to a therapist for their well-being.
It was in 2018 that Ty first started talking to John Paul “JP” Lilly, his child play therapist, and in November 2018, the then 11-year-old also accused his father of physical and sexual abuse. He subsequently refused to meet Brent for supervised visits, but Brynlee continued attending them. In April 2019, Ty decided to visit his father and confronted him about the alleged abuse, while Brent denied all of it. Brent later demanded that his custody arrangement be modified on the grounds of parental alienation. In December 2022, the court ordered that Ty and Brynlee be sent to a reunification program with Brent for 90 days, with no contact with their mother during that period.
Knowing that the court had allowed force to be used if necessary, Ty and Brynlee acted beforehand. The night before the scheduled visit from the police, they locked themselves in a room in Jessica’s home. They used furniture and planks of wood to block the door. Ty had even made a hole in the wall that allowed him and his sister access to the bathroom, and they stored ramen, chips, and other food items there. The police ultimately did not use any force to remove them. The standoff lasted for 54 days, during which Ty documented everything on his TikTok account and received around 400,000 views. He demanded that the court review its decision and refused to come out of the room.
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In March 2023, a trial was set up to determine parental rights. Ty and Brynlee Larson attended the court proceedings and demanded that their feelings about reuniting with their father be taken into account. The court ordered a pause on the reunification process, and the investigation into Brent over the alleged abuse continued, though no charges were filed. The case lasted for most of the year. Their situation became highly publicized in the media and sparked broader discourse on child protection laws in Utah and the process of forced reunification. The case continued, and in the meantime Ty moved out of the house and filed his own petition to be emancipated from his parents. He was around 17 years old at the time, but in December 2024, Brent himself withdrew all petitions and relinquished all parental rights.
Brynlee Larson is likely around 15 years old now and is believed to be living in Salem, Utah, with her mother, Jessica Zahrt, her stepfather, Aaron, and her stepbrother, Jagger. She is seemingly still in school, and it is understandable why she has stayed out of the public eye since the case attracted so much attention. Ty is now 18 years old and is a content creator on TikTok. The TikTok account that he used in 2023 is still active, and he now uses it to post content around technology and new devices. He has around 55,000 followers and no longer shares anything personal online. In fact, his former posts from the time when he was locked in the room with his sister are also no longer publicly available. He seems to be finding his footing these days, and it does not appear that either of the children has any contact with Brent anymore.
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