How 8 girls in Arizona protective care ended up back with a polygamous cult over 1,000 miles away

[Eugene]

Source: Insider

How 8 girls in Arizona protective care ended up back with a polygamous cult over 1,000 miles away

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz
Sat, December 10, 2022 at 8:00 AM·5 min read

• Nine girls were taken from the Arizona homes of an FLDS cult leader in August.
• The girls were placed in Arizona group homes for children but fled in November.
• Four days later, eight of the girls were found back with the cult over 1,000 miles away.

Samuel Bateman, the self-anointed "prophet" of a polygamous FLDS cult, was arrested in August after three young girls were found hidden in a cargo trailer that law enforcement said he was towing on a highway in Flagstaff, Arizona — over 1,000 miles from the group's stronghold in Colorado City.

Around that time, local officials raided Arizona residences used by Bateman — who has 20 wives, most of them children — and nine girls were placed in Arizona Department of Child Safety group homes, according to the FBI.

Two months later, though, eight of those girls had run away. Four days after they ran away, they were found with members of the group in Washington State.

"On November 27, 2022, eight of the nine minor females ran away from DCS group homes," Dawn Martin, an FBI special agent, wrote in an affidavit filed in federal courts in Washington and Arizona.

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/8-girls-arizona-protective-care-120000594.html

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Earlier DU thread: Polygamist leader claimed 20 'wives,' including minors, FBI says

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with Disgust

[sabbat hunter]

2. POS

asshole using the cover of 'religion' to molest, and rape children. And the people in his cult willingly give their kids to him!

They should all be arrested, charged with rape, endangerment of children. One count for each child obviously. The deserve to spend the rest of their lives rotting in prison.

[2naSalit]

3. +1

[Princess Turandot]

4. This guy could teach a master class in degeneracy...

From the Insider article:

Bateman has garnered a small following of around 50 FLDS members, splintering the sect, according to the FBI, and has taken 20 wives, most of them girls under 15 years old......

...In May 2020, Bateman went to his follower, Moroni Johnson, and took his daughter — born in 2010 — as his wife, according to the FBI.

...A law enforcement informant close to the child brides told the FBI that Bateman was "disgusted" over the youngest girl's bedwetting.

...While Moroni "expressed great anguish and was under extreme stress over having to give his youngest daughter to Bateman," the FBI affidavit said, he remained a faithful follower. Bateman has since taken all of Moroni's daughters and at least one of his wives as his own.

...Bateman's underage wives — several of them Moroni's own daughters — were made to watch in November 2020 as he had sex with Moroni in a Nebraska hotel room, according to the court document. The women and girls were told it was the "binding of brothers" and were forced to have sex with other men in the cult, the FBI said.