Parents, man arrested after 16-year-old found dead, wrapped in a blanket behind stone wall
03/08/2023 1:05 pm PST
KINGMAN, Ariz. (TCD) -- A 16-year-old male was found dead after his parents reported that he ran away.
According to a news release from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, on Feb. 25, deputies responded to the 2300 block of Packard Avenue after Amber-Leah Valentine and Jon Imes, both 41, told officials their son ran away, and the last time they saw him was the day before at approximately 10 a.m.
A few days later, on Feb. 28, deputies reportedly responded to an area near Anson Smith and Indian Canyon roads to a report of a death investigation, where they found a deceased male "wrapped in a blanket behind a stone wall."
On Thursday, March 2, Valentine called the Sheriff’s Office again and said she had "just freed her 14-year-old daughter, who was being held captive by Valentine’s roommates, Richard Pounds, 34, and Shioban Gujda, 39."
Valentine and her daughter were both reportedly transported to a hospital.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Valentine later admitted to investigators that she and Imes "disposed of their 16-year-old son’s body," and they lied when they "reported him as a runaway and acknowledged that he was already deceased at the time of the report."
Valentine reportedly said her son’s body was located where the deceased male was found on Feb. 28.
Valentine and Imes were arrested and booked into the Mohave County Adult Detention Facility for felony abandonment/concealment of a dead body, the Sheriff’s Office said.
During an interview, the 14-year-old daughter told the Sheriff’s Office Pounds shot her in the eye with a BB gun, and she "provided additional accounts of abuse in the home."
Valentine’s roommates, Pounds and Gujda, were reportedly brought in for questioning. The Sheriff’s Office said Pounds was arrested and charged with felony child abuse and aggravated assault, and Gudja was released.
As of Monday, March 6, the Sheriff’s Office said the autopsy results for the deceased 16-year-old male are pending.
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