Note: This story has been updated with the parents’ probable cause statements.
A Utah couple was arrested this week, accused of torturing their children — actions that led to the death of their 11-year-old son.
Brigham Young Merrell, 35, and Melinda Marie Merrell, 36, were charged with child torture, while the father was also charged with child abuse homicide, KSL reports.
The police affidavit says the parents beat the children with belts, pans, spoons, and other items and used food restriction on them. When they were in trouble, an affidavit says, the kids were sent into an outside dog run. The parents admitted the abuse and said they were unaware that Utah’s laws prohibit it.
The arrests came after a months-long investigation into the death of the boy and began when Brigham Young Merrell called 911 on September 21, 2025, and reported that he had found his “minor child hanging by a coaxial cable.” He told dispatchers that he was conducting CPR on the boy, and arriving officers found him “kneeling by the child, but was not performing CPR,” a booking affidavit says.
Brigham Young Merrel PC by kc wildmoon
First responders began treating the boy and brought him to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Before they left, the booking affidavit says, the father, who was the only adult at the home at the time, left the room and changed clothes.
“This conduct is consistent with an attempt to destroy or conceal physical evidence,” police wrote in the document.
Video evidence contradicts father’s story
While police declined to identify the boy, a GoFundMe posted the next day asked for money following the “unexpected passing” of 11-year-old son Moroni Merrell.
“Within the week following the incident, multiple items were discarded from the residence, surfaces were painted over and rooms altered,” the affidavit says.
According to the document, police began uncovering inconsistencies in Brigham Young Merrell’s story in the course of multiple interviews. Police said the circumstances leading up to the incident kept changing. And then, police recovered security footage from inside the home.
“A clip was also found that showed the suspect carried the lifeless child past emergency responders who were actively knocking on the door and continued to carry him up to the room where the hanging is alleged to have occurred,” the affidavit says. “He has since never given the same reasoning or justification of why the body was moved to a different location.”
An autopsy said that the boy’s injuries weren’t consistent with being hanged by a coaxial cable, “directly contradicting Brigham’s account.”
“Other inconsistencies with the ligature markings were also present, that due to my training and experience, I do not believe are the result of a hanging but are from another force,” the officer wrote in the document.
The medical examiner also found bruising on the boy’s back that was not related to a hanging but “was indicative of bruising that occurred immediately prior, or during death,” the affidavit states.
The mother and father said they didn’t know how the boy got that bruising, although the father said it “could be from a belt.”
Boy’s siblings recalled torture abuse
And then came interviews with other children in the home. One recalled seeing the boy die “after receiving a whooping from Brigham,” the affidavit says.
Melinda Merrell told detectives that she was check for bruises after a child was beaten so the parents could “adjust their methods.” She said they switched from hitting the children with spoons to using pans because spoons left too many marks.
The parents “admitted to the abuse and stated they should have looked into the laws in Utah before they moved here. Melinda, specifically, stated she was not taught that leaving marks on her children was not acceptable,” police wrote in the court documents.
Further video footage showed that both parents participated in the beatings, but sometimes the mother watched while her husband beata the children.
The other children in the home were taken into custody by child welfare.
Brigham Young Merrell faces one count of reckless child abuse homicide and two counts of child torture. His wife is charged with one count of child torture, KTVX said.
Featured image: Moroni Merrell/GoFundMe
