Pleasant Grove resident Nicki Peterson, 40, was found dead around midnight Friday by the Pleasant Grove Police Department. Soon after, police were approached by the victim’s son, Gage Dinehart, 21, who allegedly admitted to being “involved in a crime,” according to Pleasant Grove Captain Britt Smith.

Police responded to a report of gunshots near 200 West and 200 North in Pleasant Grove and found Peterson shot to death, according to a PGPD Facebook post.

“When officers responded to the area, they found a Chevy Tahoe in the roadway, and next to the vehicle, just outside of it, was the body of Nicki (Peterson),” Smith said. “As officers were securing the area to start the investigation, we had medical staged at our cemetery which was a few blocks away from the crime scene, so they could be nearby to render aid once law enforcement made the area clear. While they were staging, an individual walked up to them and said he had just been involved in a crime.”

The individual was later identified as Dinehart. Police recovered a .380 caliber handgun and clothing near Dinehart’s location in the cemetery. Smith said he believes the handgun to be the alleged murder weapon.

The PGPD Facebook post stated that the mother and son reportedly had been arguing earlier in the day, but police don’t have a motive for the crime.

“At this point, we still don’t have any motive,” Smith said. “We might not ever have a motive, which makes it so shocking. For a 20-year-old to shoot his mother like that just doesn’t happen every day. I think a lot of adolescent sons and their mothers argue, but whether or not they fought more than most, I couldn’t say. But certainly it is unusual.”

Arrest documents claim that Dinehart told police, “I shot my mom.”

Smith couldn’t confirm the statement, which was reported by multiple other news outlets, only that the information didn’t come from him.

“I don’t know where they are getting that information,” he said. “I haven’t released that. I guess you could say him saying, ‘I’ve been involved in a crime,’ as an admission, but I have not said that.”

Dinehart has been booked into the Utah County Jail under homicide charges.

The crime scene has been cleared, but the investigation is still ongoing, according to Smith.

“We’ve cleared the scene, but we’ve also removed evidence from it to bring back to the lab,” he added. “A lot of it has to be fingerprinted and checked for DNA evidence. We also have the vehicle seized that we will go through. It will take several days to process it and try to find all the evidence we need. It’s really just a lot of follow up things that will take a while.”

Smith said the investigation and evidence gathering could last for at least six to eight weeks.

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