Three siblings who mysteriously vanished more than two years ago have finally been found in a tiny town, ending a frantic search to make sure they are safe.
The children disappeared from their house in Beaver County, Utah, in October 2022, in what was considered a set-up by their father. Local police received a tip about the children’s likely whereabouts at the end of August, leading to a massive search for them.
Fredonia is a small desert hamlet located in Arizona, less than five miles from the Arizona-Utah border. Grandma’s supervision led to the discovery of the children. Officers from the Fredonia Police Department questioned the children and found that they had deliberately isolated themselves from the outside world, with family members helping to conceal their location.
In connection with their abduction in 2022, authorities have detained the grandmother and aunt of the unknown children. Meanwhile, their father is still at large. People believe the youngsters have been living with the renowned Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint sect, a religious movement often compared to a cult. According to reports, illicit actions such as child marriage, child abandonment, sexual assault, and human trafficking have occurred there.
Fredonia, regarded as the gateway to the famed Grand Canyon’s North Rim, has a population of only 1,203 people, according to the United States Census Bureau, MailOnline reported.
A press release from the department stated that Arizona and Utah law enforcement authorities collaborated to release the children on September 1. They have now returned the children to their mother. It stated: “The Fredonia Police Department would like to thank everyone involved for their support. As of today, the children are safe with their mother while the inquiry continues.
Recently, horror stories concerning church life have gained traction in the media. In December, YouTuber Peter Santanello interviewed married Utah pair Sam and Melissa, who discussed their upbringing there. The couple told Santanello that they grew up in Warren Jeffs’ polygamous Mormon cult, where girls might marry as young as 14 and men lived in fear.
Sam said: “My mom was the second wife. That’s a whole interesting story about how the wives got along and all of that – but my mom was the second and I am about the middle child of hers she had 12 kids. I have 36 siblings altogether. Marriages were all arranged and completely dependent on what Warren Jeffs decided at the moment – if someone deserved another wife, if they were righteous enough, it was up to him.”
Melissa expressed her concern about the alarming number of forced marriages taking place, where even girls as young as 14 are being married off to older men. She highlighted the prevailing fear within the community, where questioning the prophet’s decision is seen as equivalent to questioning God.
“He’s going to look at you and say so your questioning what God wants for you,” she said. “God told me that this 14-year-old is meant to be your fourth wife are you telling me you don’t trust God? And that’s what these men are dealing with and so who’s going to question that authority in that sense.”
She continued: “The women can have situations where they are oppressed or in circumstances that there’s abuse or these other things that can happen – but the men also can be victims as well and I think we overlook that a lot.
“We don’t think about the pressure that this man has to live perfectly and if his family’s not perfect, and if his wives aren’t perfect, and if his children aren’t perfect, if anything in his life and household isn’t perfect he can lose everything.”
Sam shared his insights on the disturbing trend of Warren Jeffs randomly expelling individuals from the community, often alleging their involvement in immoral activities. According to Sam, this practice was a means to create space for women to be shared among different men.
“People were constantly living in fear, always worried that if they didn’t obey every single rule, something terrible would happen to them,” he explained. “The leader made sure to punish and publicly shame many individuals as a way to instill fear in the rest of the church members.”
Warren Jeffs, a convicted felon, is currently serving a life sentence for two counts of child sexual assault.
