Drunk woman locks mom, son in basement because ‘she didn't want to deal with them', police say

MONESSEN, Pa. — A Monessen woman was arrested early Sunday morning after police said she locked two of her relatives in the basement of her home.

According to police, 53-year-old Sherry Gillock locked her 75-year-old mother and 15-year-old son in the basement after she returned home because she didn’t want to deal with them.

Authorities said they received a call at 5 a.m. from another relative who said she had been locked out of the Alexander Avenue home.

When detectives went to the scene, they rescued the woman and boy from the basement and arrested Gillock.

Monessen police Officer Chris Gray reported when officers went up to a second-floor bedroom to try to wake Gillock "she was still intoxicated."

"She was slurring her words, and there was a strong odor of alcohol," Gray wrote in the affidavit.

Gray wrote that both Gillock's son and her mother reported that Gillock "came home drunk and put them in the basement so they could not come upstairs in the house."

"(Gillock) did not want to deal with them," Gillock told both victims before forcing and locking them in the basement, Gray said in the affidavit.

Gray said both victims estimated that Gillock came home from the unnamed bar about midnight.

Gillock was taken to the Westmoreland County Prison and was charged with two counts each of false imprisonment, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.

She faces a preliminary hearing Nov. 8.

Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE contributed to this report.

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