The parents of a 16-year-old boy found dead in Kingman on Thursday have been arrested along with another man. According to Anita Mortensen, the teen’s parents called deputies on Feb. 25 and reported their son had run away from home.
A body was found wrapped in a blanket behind a stone wall behind Anson Smith and Indian Canyon Road on February 28th. Mortensen said the deputies didn’t know it was the remains of the 16-year-old when they first arrived.
Amber-Leah Valentine, the mother of the boy, recently called the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, reporting that she just freed her 14-year-old daughter from captivity by her roommates. She identified the roommates as Richard Pounds, 34, and Shioban Gujda, 39. When investigators interviewed the daughter, she described abuse she had suffered from Pounds.
After the mother and daughter received medical attention, Valentine told deputies that she and her partner had disposed of their son’s body and knew he was dead when they reported him missing.
A number of charges were filed against Valentine and Jon Imes, the boy’s father, including abandonment and concealing a body. A felony child abuse charge and aggravated assault charge were filed against Pounds, and Gujda was released after being questioned. An autopsy was conducted on the 16-year-old’s body, and the results are pending.
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said that any call that involves a child of any age is extremely disturbing, and its deputies and detectives are parents themselves, so going to calls like this is always extremely disturbing.
The investigation is ongoing.