Hulu’s new two-part documentary, The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn, centers on the true story of two Utah siblings who barricaded themselves inside a bedroom for 54 days in protest of court-mandated reunification therapy with their father.
Featuring never-before-seen footage, police interviews and court records, the true-crime documentary, streaming now, chronicles the bitter custody battle involving Ty and Brynlee Larson, then 15 and 12.
During the nearly two-month standoff, Ty documented their isolation through viral TikTok livestreams.
“My own word does not matter, and they don’t believe my truth,” Ty said in a TikTok video in January 2023. “The court system isn’t trying to save us; nobody’s trying to keep us safe. I am the one that’s going to have to choose my own safety.”
Who are Ty and Brynlee Larson?
Ty and Brynlee made national news in early 2023 when they decided to barricade themselves in an upstairs bedroom in their mother Jessica Zahrt’s house to protest a court order seeking to reunite them with their father, Brent Larson, who they had accused of physical, mental and sexual abuse.
In the documentary, Ty is shown placing dressers and other heavy objects against the bedroom door before drilling wood planks across it. He also reveals an assortment of food, including ramen, stashed in the bathroom, which he describes as their “cooking area.”
Speaking to People, Ty said he got the idea for the barricade from a high school criminal justice class. “If I barricaded, they couldn’t do anything because it wasn’t criminal,” he explained. “I thought, ‘What if I just locked myself in my room with a bunch of food, everything I need, and then I livestream it so everybody sees it. What are they going to do?’”
He added that during their isolation, they missed their mom, and that “every single day she would come talk to us to get us out, bribe us out with anything. And we would refuse.”
“It was a weird feeling, especially for months on end. I told myself almost every day that I needed to do it to save me and my sister,” Ty said.
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What were the accusations against their father?
Brent “BJ” Larson is the biological father of Ty and Brynlee. He was married to Zahrt for 13 years before divorcing in 2012.
Brent has denied abusing his children, claiming instead that their extreme response to the judge’s ruling was due to “parental alienation” caused by their mother. Parental alienation is a term for when a child refuses to have a relationship with a parent due to manipulation by the other parent, according to Psychology Today. It is a heavily debated concept and is not recognized as an official medical or psychiatric disorder.
Zahrt disputed Brent’s accusations, telling ProPulica at the time, “I literally had to wrap my brain around what I was even being accused of.”
Brent has not been criminally charged in relation to any of the abuse allegations.
Years before the case made national headlines, Ty and Brynlee were evaluated by clinical psychologist Monica Christy, per The Arizona Republic.
According to People, Christy testified during a custody trial that Ty told her about how “his father fondled [him] when they got in bed.” He further alleged that Brent had done it to “scare him, or to make him frightened of things.” Christy also recalled that Brynlee was “adamant about being upset with things that he had done to her.”
She additionally testified against Brent’s allegations of parental alienation, stating that she “didn’t have any evidence” of anyone directing the children to say or think a certain way.
Asked by Zahrt’s attorney Steve Christensen whether she felt the “children seem to have legitimate fear about what they were describing to you,” Christy replied: “Yes, they did.”
Meanwhile, ProPublica reported that in 2018, Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services found that Brent had sexually and emotionally abused his children. The agency described the abuse as “severe and chronic.”
State records seen by People stated that Brynlee was seven when she first told her mother about Brent’s alleged sexual abuse. Zahrt filed a report with the local police and DCFS.
After a case was opened, Brynlee told investigators about the alleged molestation she endured at the hands of her father.
Then, at 11, Ty also disclosed details about his father’s alleged sexual abuse, alleging it started when he was about four. He alleged that his father touched him in the bathtub, and that when he was seven, his father began molesting him while he was asleep in bed.
The investigation led to a significant reduction in Brent’s parenting time to only a couple of supervised monthly visits, as well as a 150-day restraining order that prohibited him from having any additional contact with the children.
Police records show authorities corroborated DCFS’s findings, ProPublica reported, but Brent was never arrested. Then, in 2021, a criminal investigation was launched into new allegations against Brent. However, it was eventually stalled after prosecutors determined they did not have sufficient evidence to secure a probable conviction.
Brent has consistently maintained his innocence against all allegations of abuse.
“The moment someone accuses you of abuse, you’re instantly separated from your children and forced to spend years apart,” he told People in a recent statement. “You endure years of supervised visits, reunification supervision multiple times, endless legal battles, social media attacks, countless lies thrown at you and a system that treats you as if you are a criminal. There are no checks and balances in family law.”
Where are Ty and Brynlee now?
After the siblings’ 54 days in isolation, a judge ultimately delayed the enforcement, bringing an end to Ty and Brynlee’s standoff. However, once the barricade ended, a ruling required the children to resume visits with Brent. The ruling prompted Ty to file for emancipation in April 2023 at the age of 17. Emancipation is a process in which minors can become legally recognized as independent adults.
To strengthen his case for emancipation, his attorney advised him to go no contact with his family to prove he could live on his own. Now 18, Ty was eventually granted emancipation and moved back in with Zahrt and Brynlee, now 15, in December 2024, People reported. Zahrt has full custody of Brynlee.
The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331.
