Where is the FLDS now?

Many remain in a remote rural area known as Short Creek, a ranching community comprising the sister towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, where FLDS members began settling during the Great Depression.

Where is Betty Jessop now?

Polygamy » Betty Jessop is writing her own account. Betty Jessop at the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. She is the daughter of ex-FLDS member Carolyn Jessop, whose book “Escape” chronicles her leaving the polygamist community. Betty, one of Carolyn’s eight children, returned to the FLDS sect when she turned 18.

Can I visit Rockland Ranch?

The Rock Rally is a private gathering; visitors need the hosts’ permission to attend. But every year, hundreds of polygamists visit Rockland Ranch, where they can carve out a place of their own in a remote corner of the West. Here, polygamy is accepted, even though the practice is illegal in the U.S.

Who is leading the FLDS?

Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), a polygamous denomination. In 2011, he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault, for which he is currently serving a life sentence plus twenty years.

Where do FLDS members live now?

Since his conviction in 2007, many of the cult’s members moved to enclosed compounds in Colorado and Texas. Previously, FLDS members lived in small enclaves along the border with Utah and Arizona.

What is it like to leave the FLDS?

Leaving is traumatic in many ways — including realizing that you never really chose, or maybe never even loved, the person the prophet paired you with. (In the FLDS, only the prophet can sanction a marriage.) Leona Bateman started the Creekers, then called the Girlfriend Club, in 2013.

What happened to FLDS members living in sheds and run down buildings?

FLDS members have been living in sheds and run-down buildings. At bottom left, members help sort donations. Now her only income is from a 16-year-old son working in construction. Her home is decrepit and has no furniture. She’s had to ask her brothers, scattered beyond the townships, for help paying utilities.

Why were FLDS members evicted from their homes?

Compounding these problems, the state had wrested away from the FLDS control of a trust containing many of the members’ homes. When the members declined to follow rules or pay property taxes, believing the buildings were consecrated to their church, they were evicted.