A mother is facing charges after authorities say she fatally shot her 2-year-old son in the back of her car in Utah last week.
Deputies responding to a reported shooting in the area of Fantasy Canyon in Uintah County on Dec. 14 found Valerie Peck, 40, suffering from a gunshot wound and her son, Zack, dead in a car just west of Route 45 on Glen Bench Road, according to the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office.
Peck was taken to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries.
An investigation determined that Peck had taken her son on a drive to Dry Fork Canyon earlier in the day when she stopped at a camping area and spent some time there before putting her son back in the car and shooting him with a .22-caliber rifle, the sheriff’s office said.
She then allegedly shot herself.
Peck drove around the county for several hours with her son in the car and then eventually ended up in the area where deputies found her, the sheriff’s office added.
Upon Peck’s release from the hospital, she was taken into sheriff’s custody and transported to Uintah County Jail.
She faces charges of aggravated murder and child abuse.
The sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook that they “extend its most sincere condolences to all who knew and loved Zack.”
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