And now let’s head up to the border of Arizona and Utah, to an area known as Short Creek, where followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have lived for generations. The polygamist sect is largely known for its former leader, Warren Jeffs, who has been in prison for nearly two decades for sex crimes involving children.
Now, members of a new offshoot of the FLDS church are taking plea deals in federal court — admitting their roles in providing their new leader, Samuel Bates, with child “brides” as young as 9-years-old.
It’s a familiar story to those who have followed the FLDS community — but the facts of the case, including an organized kidnapping of many of the girls out of Arizona child welfare custody — are just coming to light.
Jessica Miller, an investigative reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, is covering the story and spoke more about it with The Show.
