Utah officials are shutting down Safe and Sound Services after a caregiver left three disabled men in a running van in a garage, and the men died.

Licensing officials announced Wednesday that they have revoked the day program’s license. In its revocation letter, they said they were taking the step because the programs failed to provide “applicable health and safety services for clients.”

Shannon Thoman-Black, director of the Division of Licensing and Background Checks at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, said in a Wednesday news conference that she was “devastated” by the deaths of the three men.

“A trauma for one of us is a trauma for all of us, particularly those being served by the system,” Thoman-Black said. “... If you have any concerns, if you’ve seen something, if your loved one’s told you something — please go to our website and report that concern. We realize that we cannot be in every program every single day."

In the letter, the division noted 11 compliance violations since March 2024, including two findings that direct care staff were working with disabled clients unsupervised without proper background checks.

The program also had problems with keeping proper training records and making sure employees had completed all of the required training, according to the document.

And, the program was cited last month for not protecting three clients from “abuse, harm, mistreatment and any action that may compromise the health and safety of clients.”

Because of these “severe noncompliances,” Safe and Sound’s day program must shutter by the end of March and the owners may not reapply for a new license for 5 years, Thoman-Black said.

Safe and Sound does have other programs, but Thoman-Black said she could not comment on them.

Three men — Colton Moser, 25; Mosa’ati Moa, 22; and Tim Jones, 39 — died on Feb. 9 after authorities say a Safe and Sound Services employee left them in a running van in a garage for more than four hours as he ate and watched television in his apartment.

That employee, Isaiah Vaughn Pulu, has been charged with three counts of murder. He is being held in the Salt Lake County jail and was denied an opportunity to post bail.

A license revocation is relatively rare in Utah. The licensing division has been criticized by the Disability Law Center and others in the past, who say that the state oversight body has been reluctant to shut down problematic facilities. Their criticisms largely focused on long-term care facilities and the state’s booming industry for so-called “troubled teens.”

Although compliance violations from Safe and Sound’s day program dated back years, Thoman-Black said the division must balance the health and safety of clients with the availability of providers.

“We would prefer to always be able to work and help a provider,” Thoman-Black said. “... When that can’t happen, when we have tried other tools, then is when we really need to make that choice of even if we’re taking a provider out of the system, it is just irresponsible to have them keep operating.”

Safe and Sound Services has not responded to past requests for comment sent by The Salt Lake Tribune. There is an appeals process it can follow if it wants to fight to stay open, though it’s not clear if program owners will do so.