The Nightmare Upstairs: How Ty and Brynlee Larson Are Rebuilding Their Lives After Years of Abuse

For two months, Ty and Brynlee Larson lived behind a locked bedroom door inside their Utah home. The brother and sister slept in shifts, relied on social media for support, and even cut a hole through a wall so they could reach a bathroom without leaving the room.

But why did they take such drastic measures as children?

They were teenagers at the center of a bitter custody fight that drew national attention and raised questions about family courts, abuse claims, and the controversial idea of parental alienation.

Now, three years after the “Nightmare Upstairs” case exploded online, both siblings are trying to move forward privately with their lives focused on healing, school, and rebuilding a sense of normalcy.

Their story is also the focus of Hulu’s docuseries The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn, which revisits the years-long legal battle between their parents, Jessica Zahrt and Brent Joel Larson.

The conflict between the couple began long before the barricade. Zahrt and Larson divorced in 2012. At first, Ty and Brynlee split time between both homes. But in 2018, Brynlee accused her father of s**ually abusing her when she was only 7 years old.

Months later, Ty also reported abuse. According to child welfare investigators, he claimed his father warned him that if he spoke out, “he would kill his mother and sister.”

Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services later found evidence supporting claims of s**ual and emotional abuse. Court records described the abuse as “severe” and “chronic.” Larson denied the accusations and argued the children were victims of parental alienation, a disputed theory that claims one parent manipulates children into rejecting the other parent.

The theory became central to the custody fight. However, the American Psychiatric Association does not recognise parental alienation as a mental health disorder, which gained traction in court. Meanwhile, reunification efforts between the children and their father intensified over the years.

Everything changed for Ty and Brynlee after Thanksgiving 2022. Ty informed that his father became increasingly disrespectful during a visit and ignored his personal boundaries. After that encounter, Ty decided he would no longer see him.

Around the same time, a Utah judge ordered the children to attend reunification therapy at an out-of-state facility called Turning Points for Families. The program would require them to spend uninterrupted time with their father while cutting off contact with their mother.

Ty, then 15, came up with another plan.

Learning from lessons during a criminal justice class, he believed police could not easily remove someone from a barricaded room during an active court dispute. He and Brynlee, then 12, locked themselves inside an upstairs bedroom in January 2023.

Judge Derek P. Pullan authorized officers to use “reasonable force” to remove them from the home. But the siblings refused to come out.

Inside the room, they documented daily life on TikTok and YouTube. Ty already had a modest online following from posting tech videos and comedy clips. Soon, thousands were watching the family standoff happening in real time.

According to ProPublica, the children even cut through drywall to reach a bathroom without stepping into the hallway. In March 2023, the judge paused the custody order after new abuse allegations surfaced and a fresh criminal investigation into Larson also began.

“New information has come forward today regarding serious allegations of abuse,” Pullan said during a hearing.

Larson again denied wrongdoing through his attorney, who called the allegations “similar false claims — repeatedly, for years.”

The case went to trial later in 2023. During testimony, Ty mentioned years of alleged abuse.

“He abused me from the ages of 3 to ... 10, physically, mentally, and sexually,” Ty testified, according to The Arizona Republic. He described incidents involving threats with guns and grenades, along with nighttime abuse.

Mental health experts also testified about the effects of forced reunification and whether parental alienation applied in the case.

In the end, Ty and Brynlee never went for reunification therapy.

By late 2024, Larson agreed to stop pursuing reunification efforts altogether. Their mother later shared the update online after mediation between the former spouses.

“My ex has freed Ty and Bryn from the chains of the reunification industry and family court, for good,” Zahrt wrote.

Today, both siblings are largely living private lives. Ty graduated from high school early in 2025 and still posts online, though he now focuses mostly on tech reviews and TikTok Shop products instead of family matters.

Brynlee has spoken more openly about recovery and mental health. On TikTok, she has encouraged others facing trauma to find creative outlets and personal passions.

“Passions help you overall heal,” she said in one video. “I started getting into art, into more drawing and doing things I love.”

After years spent fighting to have their voices heard, the siblings are now trying to build lives away from headlines and controversies.