FREDONIA, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News/AP) – Three children from Utah who were reported missing two years ago are now back home with their mother after they were discovered living in a rural town in Arizona.
Fredonia Police Department Chief Jason Peterson received information near the of August about the children who had been reported missing since October 2022.
Authorities suspected the children’s father was behind their disappearance and hid the children with the help of family members of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint (FLDS) church.
After searching for nearly two years, the children were found in Fredonia, Arizona, a small town less than five miles from the Arizona-Utah border.
On Sept. 1, authorities from several Utah and Arizona agencies safely rescued the three children and returned them to their mother. The children’s grandmother and aunt were also taken into custody.
The town of Fredonia is also 31 miles from Colorado City, where polygamous leader and self-proclaimed FLDS prophet Samuel Bateman previously lived.
Bateman, who came into power in 2019 after infamous FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was imprisoned, faces 51 felonies, including counts of sexually abusing young girls he claimed as his wives.
Bateman was pulled over by Arizona state troopers in August 2022 while driving in Flagstaff with three girls — between the ages of 11 and 14 — inside a trailer.
Authorities say Bateman, who had taken more than 20 wives, including 10 girls under the age of 18, created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
He and his followers practice polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
Copyright 2024 KPHO via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.