[00:02] fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was trapped there for eight years. This is how crime works. Warren Jeffs being the prophet of the FLDS, he had full control. In the public
[00:18] eye, he was one person. In reality, he was a criminal. If Warren Jeff told somebody to do something, even if it was wrong, they can't really say no. I tried like 10 times to escape before I succeeded.
[00:39] I married Warren Jess at 18 years old. Arranged marriages were established because they had polygamy in the church and they said arranged marriages is the way it works because like if you go through the prophet that's the only way
[00:51] to be pure. I believed everything I was told by my parents. I believed everything I was told by Warren Jess. Even Warren Jess became the prophet in September of 2002. He was also the closest one to God on earth supposedly.
[01:04] That's why they call him the prophet. When I was little, I wasn't really asked always like, "You're going to be a mother in Zion." Stuff like that. Like it was just mapped out, you know, this is how it's going to be. Warren and Jess
[01:18] called my father. He told him I was ready to get married. And my father was told to take me on a drive. He didn't know who I was going to marry for sure at that time. It could have been any guy in the church. We get up there and
[01:30] believe God wants you to marry?" I didn't dare lie to him. I also didn't dare say no to him in the end when he confirmed that it was him because like I felt like I was groomed. I also felt like I don't feel like um I'm in a
[01:45] position to really have a say, but I also didn't know what I was going into. It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff. Now when I look back on it and off, you know, there was really no way to to have an easy path. The FLDS women
[02:01] did not really have a say in their marriages. They could refuse, but like they were strongly encouraged to say yes cuz like the punishments, you know, could be pretty steep. I had a sister who went into his family 5 years before.
[02:17] I was afraid like I I I saw how they treated her. She wasn't really high status in his family really. To reach into his family from where I stood was supposed to be a huge privilege for me. I did not love Jeff's like I was more in
[02:32] the marriage for God. Every marriage was separate at the time when I was growing up. Usually the first wife was the only legal one cuz that was the only one that could be legal. They had different rooms and they
[02:47] didn't usually combine all that until Warren Jeff's went to Texas. In Warren Jeff's house in Texas, they had bunk beds in some of the bigger rooms. He had a favorite wife and he was basically a monogamist. Um he uh said God would
[03:03] decide if ever you were worthy to be with him. He did not have a rotation cycle. So there was a chance you would never see him. But but for me, I didn't really attracted to him. When he went to Texas, had a guard tower and a gate
[03:17] around it. He started to introduce like what he was doing as group sessions. don't have to go into detail. Just >> Yeah. Well, he was having orgies. So,
[03:29] yeah, he was bringing underage brides in the room with like adult wives. So, like it was a very bad situation. You know, I didn't know at the time I married him. He wanted to make me an accomplice. He knew that part of the story is very hard
[03:43] knew that part of the story is very hard for me to like talk about. The Book of Mormon is one of the main teachings that define the FLDS. The FLDS
[03:57] teachings that define the FLDS. The FLDS church is a branch off of the mainstream Latter-day Saints church. The F stands for fundamentalist. In the LDS faith, they interpret the Book of Mormon to have eternal families and they baptize
[04:09] people in the temples for eternity and stuff. In the FLDS, they believe that interpreted the scriptures quite a bit different over the years. And they say that the children belong to the prophet, you know, to to the to God through the
[04:25] prophet. So, they actually have paperwork that you sign your children over to the church of the FLDS, which is not legal paperwork, but they don't all know that. In the early 1900s, the LDS and the FLDS split because of polygamy.
[04:41] If you are just in a monogous marriage, you'll never see God again. You have to have three wives to make it into heaven. LDS do not like LDS. They think they're following the wrong prophet. So, they call them apostates. LDS don't really
[04:57] like FLDS either for the same reason. Before Warren Jeff became the leader, Before Warren Jeff became the leader, there was 10,000 followers. I believe um there was 10,000 followers. I believe um that he has at least 5,000 today. Being
[05:09] that he has at least 5,000 today. Being the profit of the FLDS, um he had full houses in this legal trust called the UE. So the UE is um United Effort Plan. It's like the land in Colorado City in Hildell. He had control of who lived in
[05:24] the houses because he had the titles. he could decide if he wanted to move would just show up at your house and say you're moving today. He had control of, you know, the food, you know, how much, you know, people were able to like cuz
[05:39] he didn't let the ladies especially leave his ladies leave their houses. So he would have people bring food to us. So like what they brought was what he So like what they brought was what he wanted them to bring, you know?
[05:58] have the prophet, they have the bishops, they have the fathers, the mothers, children at the bottom. And in war and just family, he had a pyramid also. And it had to do with heritage a lot according to obedience. When I entered
[06:10] the family, I was number 65. I think he only had 49 children altogether. Family to family, it did vary quite a bit. Um, in Warren and Jess's family, we lived off donations, so we didn't really work for money. It was a hard balance when
[06:26] you forget like how how hard it is to earn money. And when you have 79 wives, you can only imagine, you know, like for a time there was Wendell Nelson and Mel Jessup who were the first presidency. And then the bishops over different
[06:39] areas were like his brother Isaac, his brother Lyall. He had different people over different areas that were bishops, but it varied quite a bit because he struggled with like trusting and feeling like people were going to overpower him
[06:54] someday and become the prophet later. So, he would excommunicate bishops and stuff for for temporary and sometimes for um out of the church like he would for um out of the church like he would just like accuse them of crimes and
[07:08] rotate them quite often. Um there were other reasons also why people were rotated but that was the main reason is because of his his insecurities. Each person had to prove their loyalty to get into like the higher positions. So if
[07:23] they were first presidency they were like pretty loyal to Warren Jeffs and had higher standards. Being a wife did not give you any power and control except for like with the community members like if you're with like in my
[07:37] family they would respect me more while I was part of the FLDS because I was married to Warren Jess because like I knew more I had I went straight to the source to find out information. Also like another thing was that if you're
[07:50] married to the prophet that's the highest a woman can go in the church. I That was basically impossible with 79 That was basically impossible with 79 wives. But um I did have some friends.
[08:02] People fight especially in polygamy like the wives they have the jealousy issue and like it's very hard to keep sweet no matter what you know like it's very very matter what you know like it's very very hard when like um it's not fair you know
[08:16] and there's not never going to be fair. People do fight they just don't fight like people would without the psychological component. they reach psychological component. they reach their breaking point and you know they
[08:29] hospitals, you know, they end up the same things, but like there's more pressure. So, it's going to happen more often. But then they're also denied medical resources a lot in these cults. So,
[08:41] So, it's very hard. Doctrine and covenants is the one section 132 talks about like polygamy.
[08:54] Um, that was the one that they use in the FLDS. The main duties of the wives were like cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, teaching, school, interacting school. When I first married Warren Jess, he put me on like every chore.
[09:09] Like every hour I'd be on like gardening for an hour, sewing for an hour. Like I was running from job to job and I was so exhausted by the end of the day. I don't rules were strictly enforced except for like more mild ones. you had more
[09:24] layway. Being late was like one of those milder ones like to the kitchen, to your responsibilities, but if you you were late because you slept in, you know, it's going to have it's going to be one of those ones that stack over time. So,
[09:38] at first it won't be that big of a deal, but over like 10 years, you're going to have more offenses and there's a chance that the punishments will become greater by the end of the 10 years. Punishments
[09:50] could be psychological as well as physical punishments. Psychological means like you can't grow beyond your state like into heaven. Um you will never see God again. If you are never highly promoted in the church, you're
[10:06] highly promoted in the church, you're going to like get deprived of like physical blessings too. Like your house might be more needy and then you can move out of it when you fix it up and never have a good house. So physical
[10:18] punishments happen that way too. Challenging the prophet was definite excommunication from the church, lose your family. It doesn't mean like, you know, execute them, you know, like death necessarily. It could lead to that, but
[10:32] they would never say like if you did die in the church, they usually put it in the name of an accident. Members were definitely expected to tattle. If they saw anything, saw somebody out of line, something bothered them, they were
[10:48] encouraged to talk to war and just and tell them about it. The people inside do realize they are being controlled. But they also are taught that there is they have a choice. They can say no at any time, but they don't know how it is to
[11:04] say no without pressure. It's not really agency. It's not really freedom. At 8 years old, when you're baptized, from that point on, God stops atoning for you. It's all up to obedience. If you disobeyed in the FLDS, then um you
[11:21] would never make it to the highest degree of glory in the celestial kingdom, which meant you would never see God again. You had to make it to the very top. One of their doctrines is like you cannot have relationships with
[11:33] pregnant women. And so War and Jeff would take men's wives away saying like, disobeyed God and go and have relationships with the same lady, you her while she's pregnant." But he didn't. He was the exception because
[11:48] didn't. He was the exception because he's the prophet. to the stores at times and stuff, but usually it was the men, you know, in War
[12:01] child, I did get to go to the stores in Sandy with my mother and father, but like we were encouraged to not interact. So, a smile or just a compliment about
[12:13] your hair or something meant a lot to me at that time. Um because when I got in know, those are the people that care, was told my whole life they didn't care, but those compliments and those smiles
[12:28] showed me a different story than what I was being told. He had a lot of control over which books were recommended to read, which books weren't, you know, and over the years that's got stricter and stricter. We had to get rid of the
[12:41] televisions when I was like 9 years old. And then internet was we couldn't have internet basically around the time that Warren Jess was caught. I think that was a lot to protect the true stories from getting to the people. Um, we did
[12:55] in and try to delete the internet option. Um, we also had radio in the cars, but like we weren't supposed to turn it on, you know? Like they did have stuff, but like they tried not to get on the internet.
[13:17] time frame that I was in Warren as family. The main locations at the time was South Dakota, Colorado City, and Texas. I did live in Texas the most because it was where I was supposed to be according to him. Houses in hiding
[13:31] be according to him. Houses in hiding were mainly set up for people that were struggling in the holy lands. So like the compounds. So South Dakota, Colorado City, Texas, they were places that if you for the most obedient people, the
[13:46] like Hilldale and Colorado City and the Holy Lands. And the main reason I think the purpose was so they wouldn't mix with the people in Hillell and Colorado City, but they couldn't stay in Texas because they were struggling. They
[14:01] information that was happening in Texas and and those would get more out when first signs of like questioning or anything, he would move you to another
[14:13] location. And most of the time they were told to just pray and work to be able to be sent back to the holy lands. For most of the people their experience in these houses I believe was like cooking and you know sewing and just praying. But
[14:29] like for me when I got there it was a different experience cuz I just read and became openly rebellious for 2 years. Usually there was like seven women in a family. They weren't allowed to leave
[14:42] the house because they wore the dresses and people could identify them. And also they're struggling, he's not going to want them going out and about in the stores and all that kind of stuff. If it's a caretaker over a woman, it was a
[14:56] man. If it's a caretaker over children, it's usually a lady. The man would have guard us. Like we couldn't go outside. on us and there was really no exit route. the more you struggled, the more
[15:09] ch times you tried to escape and didn't successfully escape, um the higher security tight ends on you. Even a child, like if a child tries to escape and then has to go back legally, they're probably going to have a harder
[15:25] up in the houses in hiding because I requested to go there. I wrote to War and Jeff right after one of those secret group sessions. I only went into one of group sessions. I only went into one of those. Like it was basically um the
[15:39] introduction to the whole situation and I wrote to him and I told him I don't really want to, you know, I just need more time. I didn't confront him on his ideas, but I just told him I needed more time and he bought into my story and let
[15:53] me go to a house in hiding to prepare further. And I became openly rebellious and did not go back until he was caught by the law.
[16:09] obedient. They they believe that by the time they're 3 years old, they should know what obedience is. They're taught like, you know, what would father like? What would father do in this situation? What would the prophet do in this
[16:21] situation? It's all about like the pyramid, like the girls, you're going to be a mother in Zion. There was so many different trainings. like he had one on almost every topic of life. What to eat, you know, like when to eat, if you can
[16:35] have naps during the day, like when to go to bed for the women and when to go to bed for the men. When I was a child, we had at least 4 hours a day of like sermons. And we had it in the morning when we woke up with our father for an
[16:47] got there for an hour with Warren and Jess. We had it after lunch, history training for an hour. and then at night before we went to bed and then Sundays of course were more education was mostly homeschool for people in Salt Lake area
[17:03] homeschool for people in Salt Lake area um the FLDS school but in I believe in like Colorado City and Hilda there are a lot of like the other children around even my age that went to public school for a time the schools were always
[17:16] controlled by the church to some level all the book work they had all that was printed off like old books that they had changed the wording and stuff to make it more churchy. It was all controlled by the church in the name of God.
[17:29] Psychological um warfare. Like I think that was the main thing he used to keep people obedient. Also like brainwashing from birth. By the time they're 18 years old, they have really strong, you know, brain
[17:41] cells for like the FLDS lifestyle. Children did not learn about the outside world very well, especially if they weren't raised around it. Lost Boys is a media term, but it kind of signifies something that is realistic. It's a
[17:55] patriarchal society. So the the rules were made stricter for the boys and also competition. They don't have enough girls to go around. Not everybody can have 79 wives, you know, like that's just crazy. So they would kick out the
[18:09] boys at young ages for for non-compliance. By the time they were 8 there were 8-year-olds that were kicked out. But more often, I think it was more like 12 and a little bit more teenage ages. They were seen as a threat because
[18:23] of marriage because of the polygamy. If they're young and, you know, able-bodied they're young and, you know, able-bodied and stuff that they might be wanted more 60-year-old, they're cut off from the family. They get cut out of the
[18:36] pictures. It's pretty traumatic. So, it's a miracle. I even have any pictures of me when I was younger cuz like I don't have very many but like I had a few secretly sent to me but like most of the time they they burn all that you
[18:49] it. >> What usually happens to them after they're kicked out. >> So in those days it was way harder for them cuz there was no organizations hardly. They would go to a local place
[19:03] in St. storage that had mattresses and they would open up the back door and all the boys would sleep on their beds during the night like their um packaged beds, you know, that are displays and they would all jump on those displays in
[19:20] up the shop and then the next morning activists got more wellknown and got more established, the parents would try to bring them straight up to the organizations.
[19:40] that they donate $1,000 per month per 18-year-old male in the household. So, it came from the followers and it was even at at the expense of their credit. either have no credit like what I had cuz I was his wife. if I didn't work for
[19:55] cuz I was his wife. if I didn't work for money. Women were not and are not to this day allowed to work. I think it's to keep them isolated and keep them without resources. I think that was a bad thing because like some of the wives
[20:07] had lived off donations for so long. They had no hesitation to ask for money. And for the community members, it was a lot to donate that much money. Like they would go in and say, "Can I get LASIC today?" And can I get like all white
[20:20] different things. It was very strict. The thousands a month was very strict like it mattered to them that you donated that. They had some FLDS businesses also like machine shops. So they just worked like a regular job and
[20:36] would try any way they could to get the money. That was the priority. More and Jeff spent it lavishly like he spent the money on like himself pretty much and he even denied his family medical care and stuff so he could have more money. When
[20:51] they caught him, they had evidence of like all these pictures of like he was going to strip clubs. He was getting tons of vehicles and rotating them so that he didn't get caught by the law. He was trying to like trade out his
[21:03] was trying to like trade out his vehicles quite often. He was very like selfish like he he had tons of money and he was just touring the world with it basically. Nowadays he hides his assets in his members names. He drained the
[21:18] people of everything and just left it sitting. He was a sociopath. He like taking away hope and taking away you know things slowly. The financial system was part of it to attain his goal which was to take away their hope
[21:34] antagonizingly and slowly and painfully make him isolated, make him lonely, you know, like he wasn't really he just wasn't a good guy. You know, he could but he didn't want to. You would find these people out in the world like
[21:48] mainly in the construction field where the boys are the 8-year-olds are driving tractors like and they're not getting paid. It's called labor trafficking, but like they bid the jobs really low so that because they're not paying labor
[22:01] because of that, you know, they're out bidding everyone else. like you can come across them like the women generally aren't out and about so it's harder to find them because they dress with the prairie dresses in the FLDS and if they
[22:16] did come to the stores you would see them but um it's just more rare people outside of the community they don't always know they just know they got a good bid you know for their project until like later after they're on the
[22:29] job some people don't care they think they're good workers they do a good job you know these polygamy Many families don't have marriages cuz it's not legal in America to be like married to the same guy. So on their paperwork it looks
[22:43] like they're single and so they get more food stamps, they get more all this stuff, government help. This guy was saying that he that one sister wife will claim the other sister wife's kids and get like daycare support in home child
[22:58] care. They actually get paid to watch their own kids cuz they're claiming the claiming this sister wife's kids. So then they get paid to watch their own then they get paid to watch their own kids.
[23:16] for Zion Wrench when I was married to him. There were like selected people who went to Texas and that's how he started to break up families and children even leaving without their parents because he was calling them forward. God called
[23:30] them supposedly to this holy land. And if War and Jeff told somebody to do something, even if it was wrong, they can't really say no. Like they would at that point and lose their family and their kids and you know, everybody. He
[23:45] sent me to a house and hide in Vegas. in Vegas. I didn't really choose that. And eventually I got to where I wrote him a letter and I told him like he told us never to talk about the orgy sessions, but I wrote him a letter about like I
[23:57] don't want to consummate our marriage in front of everyone. And I never had up after. I told him I wasn't going to pray until I wanted to. So I to ensure that I didn't like go back to Texas before I wanted to. I told him like I was going
[24:13] going to pray, but I'm going to read." That was mainly to stop the punishments from like stacking and like happening to me over and over. I never consumate the me over and over. I never consumate the marriage. So, like for me, I um I went
[24:27] to these houses in hiding, became openly rebellious, and he got caught by the law before I went back to Texas. In mid to late 2000s, the investigations began on Warren Jeffs. He was on the 10 most wanted list in America for a while
[24:41] before he was caught. He he ran from the law right when he became the prophet. Elisa Wall's case is the one in Utah. Her case was about like underage marriage that he had performed before he became the leader. The Utah case fell
[24:56] through on a technicality for a short time and he would have been released had not they had gone into Texas compound and found the records and put him in a Texas prison. In 2008, Texas authorities raided the yearning for Zion Ranch and
[25:13] hundreds of children were temporarily removed. And that's where like that that letter and flagged the authorities in Warren Jeff's version. It helped them find the evidence they needed to go into Texas. His brother Seth Jeffs was caught
[25:28] transporting his letters and put on trial for aiding in abetting a fugitive. When that letter got caught by the law and flagged the authorities to go into Texas, he was he was never going to forgive me. When Warren Jess called me,
[25:41] I knew he was angry to a point that I had never seen him angry at me. He letter? And I I confessed, you know, I told him, "Yeah, cuz he already knew like he he figured out, you know, cuz they had a trial and stuff and so he
[25:55] already knew they had that letter." I didn't know exactly what it meant. I authorities, you know, on his case. He didn't explain that to me. I was in survival mode from basically the time that letter was caught.
[26:15] required more money of his people. He also didn't want to be in Hildell or enforcement was watching that area more than the other newer ones and they didn't know where he was. When the Texas raid happened, I was in South Dakota and
[26:29] then they they were telling me the raid was my fault. more unjust capture was my fault. They transported us off of the compound because they were afraid of the raid going into Colorado City and South Dakota. Also, the Texas location played
[26:42] a big role because that's where they got the evidence that put him in prison. That was like the center stake. that was where Warren and Jess wanted to be most of the time before um they went in and they call it an attempted rescue or a
[26:55] raid but like the law officials went in and found the records and prosecuted There's been children come forward that were molested by him. As mothers
[27:07] realizing all this though is no, we had not enough power to save them from that because he was the prophet and you know he had done so much stuff already. I had no way of protecting those children. When I talk about the children, I talk
[27:22] about like the underage brides, also the younger kids. He said one time that one of the boys was going after him that was accusing him of molesting him in uh the school back in the day when he was the principal. He would give out like
[27:37] excuses and say like, you know, they fabricated the evidence is another way of like saying like it's not real. He had so much at his fingertips to gaslight people like convince them that their true memories are not real. They
[27:50] had arranged marriages first, then they established underage bride. So like they were commanded to have these wives and have children with them. So it's just so extreme. That's what makes me believe it is a cult. I was so devastated. Like for
[28:04] me it was like it was still like really heavy and really sad cuz like you know what happened to the children? Nobody was standing up for them. they're all deciding to just go along with it. I would say probably the most
[28:17] misunderstood thing in my experience is that anybody who was over age of 18 is that anybody who was over age of 18 is not necessarily an accomplice. In 2011,
[28:30] Warren Jess was convicted for sexual assault and sentenced to life in 20 assault and sentenced to life in 20 years.
[28:44] The drugs came when I was 23 years old. He started sending nurses and stuff to prescribed that I didn't even see the doctor for. You know, it was very very going to wake up. I didn't know what they were giving me. They told me it was
[28:59] for sleep. It was really for mood stabilizer and sleep. But like it was cerical. They had cult doctors. So they had doctors that were sent to college to become doctors that were born and raised in the FLDS. So they had like degrees
[29:14] and stuff so they could get medication for people. Warren Jeffs was never went for people. Warren Jeffs was never went to college, but he I believe demanded medications through the doctors telling the doctors if he didn't if he wasn't
[29:28] able to prescribe medicine for his family, then he would take away the doctor's family. I didn't have internet. I couldn't check up symptoms when I'm asking for safety and they want to give me medicine for sleep. I'm like, how am
[29:42] I going to sleep even if I have medicine if I'm not safe? So that was a big wakeup call for me. I didn't really feel like they were following this the protocol they would follow with most of their patients. To this day, I still had
[29:57] repercussions from like my tongue is like, you know, damaged from the medications they gave me. I've been told now that my uh caretaker who's left the now that my uh caretaker who's left the church now, he said that Warren Jeffs
[30:11] had me come cold turkey off all of those drugs two weeks before my escape. I knew I came cold turkey off, but I thought it was after they escaped cuz I didn't have resources. War and Jeff knew that, but he was willing to do that to try to
[30:24] collect the evidence, I believe, to put a guardian over me. But God had other plans. I believe the doctor who had control, most control over my health, control, most control over my health, lost his family a month after my escape.
[30:37] After I escaped, my father lost his family a week later. My brother lost, who was my caretaker at the time, lost his family a month later. When a person in the FLDS loses their family, there's times when War and Jess will reassign
[30:50] the family to another man or another person in the FLDS, it's more qualified to take care of them. But um when they lose their family, sometimes it's just a temporary time frame when they're not allowed to see their family and then
[31:03] they maybe can someday come back and see them. My father was told he can never come back to the church. My mother has not been reassigned to this day that I not been reassigned to this day that I know of. But um my father, he's never
[31:16] been able to be with her since you know that you even hardly see her for years that you even hardly see her for years now.
[31:29] escaped. I tried like 10 times to escape before I succeeded. Um 10 major times. I had little little things but like every time I got a hold of a phone book or you know try to figure out where to go they would see me you know so it was very
[31:45] hard to escape and I believe when I did escape it wasn't planned very well. I do have a documentary on HBO Max and Discovery Plus called Prisoner of the first attempts that I went off. The police actually had me and everything,
[31:59] but they wanted to put me in a shelter next to the compound, you know, like it was too close to the compound for comfort for me. I felt like it wasn't like going to work and I didn't know how to explain that. It was my first
[32:11] attempt. So, I didn't know how to communicate that. But, um, that was one of the attempts and it goes into great detail on that attempt, but I ended up going to the Utah compound. So, that was good for me because there's mixture of
[32:23] people there. There's XFLDS as well as FLDS. So that's actually ultimately where I did escape from. I have a few experiences where I was like trying to coordinate my escape and they ended up sending me back to Texas for a short
[32:37] time. And there is a picture that was taken in Texas that has like all of his picture behind him. I'm in that picture because of one of those times that they know, I didn't really have a lot of say in that. Now, I have testified against
[32:53] Warren Jeffs in federal prison and been told that my like it's been confirmed that like my whole experience was trafficking across state lines. I trafficking across state lines. I escaped on May 23rd of 2012.
[33:06] escaped on May 23rd of 2012. It wasn't actually in the building of like Warren Jessel house like it was in my brother's trailer at the park. I tried to escape that morning and took some main roads and was caught
[33:20] them that I was running away. So, they ended up bringing me back and then um later that day I was in a room. They had put like because I tried to escape, they put like two screws in the window pane
[33:34] so it would hit the the screws and then the the doorork knob was turned around so I couldn't unlock it on my side and without the key which I didn't have a without the key which I didn't have a key. So I um found some scissors in the
[33:48] room and I unscrewed one side that was really loose. The other side I just pounded on it until it broke off. and and the sister-in-law that was in the house, she she came and looked in the window outside and she said, "What are
[34:02] pounding on it. She came in and took everything I was using. I just found other stuff. She actually called my brother, but like he uh was in a meeting, which I believe was God myself. Um but the true God, you know, but like
[34:17] when I did break off that screw, they had told me to read earlier that day. So, I thought if I just if I open any drawers, they're going to know I left. But if I just climb out the window, they may think I laid down to read. They may
[34:30] not know I have both screws undone. So, I climbed out the window and I ran through back roads this time through the creek, got to a house that was specifically XFLDS. And the family I ran to by the end of the day drove me out of
[34:44] town to an activist who picked me up and brought me to her personal location organizations at that time. They weren't like they didn't have crisis houses. They had like outreaches. So she took me to her personal home in a neighboring
[34:58] town. The next day the police officers who were also FLDS at the time um I couldn't even call 911 in Short Creek cuz it would get the FLDS police force. I ended up finding an organization that had a family in Nashville that would
[35:11] take me in and they drove me to Colorado to make sure I wasn't intercepted at the me, you know, like my FLDS family was know, I need more support than what I'm getting cuz like they were always
[35:25] concerned that I wasn't eating, you know, my mental health was like kind of out of hand cuz I wasn't in SAR mode. I felt safe. Prior to going to Tennessee, in Tennessee and asked them if they would take me on my first case if I
[35:39] needed it and they said they would. So, I ended up like staying there for like 3 months and doing good on some days. Some days I would do bad. It took me about 6 transported me to another domestic violence shelter that was
[35:53] Christian-based and I stayed there also for 3 months. I had my first Christmas ever in my life in a domestic violence shelter in Tennessee. Like it was it was amazing. But like they they had a bunch of donations come. I remember being so
[36:07] overwhelmed that I just kept walking out of the room and coming back in. It was of the room and coming back in. It was interesting. But like um I ended up Nashville. I ended up in like a mental health more type facility cuz they had a
[36:20] health more type facility cuz they had a lot of resources in that area.
[36:32] before you see significant change in the community in the way people perceive you. I've seen now I've been out 14 years so I've seen that shift at 10 years about my name was Lynette Warner um before and I changed it to Briel
[36:46] Decker Blanchard and changed my social security number in America. When I got out of the church, um it took me a while to figure out like details banking. Um I
[36:58] did go I learned that in Nashville there was some bankers that came into the shelter and gave us some education and I opened up my first banking account based on that. I remember when I met my husband, I saw the ocean for the first
[37:10] time in my life on our honeymoon in Santa Monica, California. I you know because like I didn't think I'd ever get to like when I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time in my life. It was so special to me because like you know I'm
[37:25] finally gets to experience freedom you know and that's what the Statue of know and that's what the Statue of Liberty represents is freedom. My middle Liberty represents is freedom. My middle name is um liberte which is French for
[37:38] liberty. When the men leave they have more skills. They they usually have like they've been working for years and they also get higher paying jobs, but the women when they leave, they don't know how to survive out here as well. It's
[37:51] you know, and they don't get paid very much. It's harder to learn how to much. It's harder to learn how to thrive. I was changing my social my all that, but they didn't change my SSI in the same month. They qualified me for
[38:04] social security number, they were still going to change my SSI, but they hadn't yet. So, I couldn't pay my rent. So, I called my attorney in Utah and I was pay my rent." He's like, "I don't know how to do that. They're still going to
[38:17] up." So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you that there was this exfelliious man who walked in my office and told me that he was kicked out when he was a boy. He was like a lost boy. He grew up. He became a pilot, graduated
[38:32] office and gave him some crisis tickets. And he said, "If anybody's in crisis, tell them to fly home because Short Creek is changing from FLDS to XFLDS." airplane tickets that go on the back of the plane if there's any seats. So I was
[38:48] like, "That sounds crazy." But you know, I have to go back to Utah after going crazy. So I ended up in Salt Lake with an exfest
[39:02] for the recovery center. like it's a mansion. It has like 45 rooms. And I was awarded the house in 2016 on Thanksgiving Day. I applied in February of 2016. And then I went on a hunt. I did free tours of the house and media
[39:16] cuz it was a high-profile house. I wanted like the dream which was to build a recovery center. And I found like with the help of like some Christians that came through on free tours, um I was able to locate a worldwide organization
[39:31] called the Dream Center in Phoenix. and they own, make sure they could get their licensing in Hillell. That's the first business to get licensing after War and Jess left, you know, and now they've
[39:46] Jess left, you know, and now they've been open for like since 2017, you know, like, you know, it's been six years more, I think. So, I had a a salary position to do like media for the first three years. Today I am a peer support
[40:01] specialist, a case manager, also a um residential aid at the Short Creek Dream residential aid at the Short Creek Dream Center. The majority are like victims of something, but like we do prioritize people from the like FLDS or XFLDS,
[40:16] but um and also other polygamy groups. There's a lot of gaps in this area like we need senior citizen nonprofit. The elderly can't always get out right now cuz ours has stairs. We don't have elevators. Also, daycare in the town
[40:29] that we have is a big gap because like if we had a daycare, then we could um if we had a daycare, then we could um more adequately help the single moms.
[40:45] Warren just went to prison. He is the prophet of the FLDS church until he dies. So that's how their doctrine is. God would kill the leader before he'd allow him to lead the people astray. He's in prison for life in 20 years for
[40:57] a reason. Um, but he still is leading the FLDS from prison. I think it'd be worse if he hadn't have been arrested. I believe him being alive in prison has just starting over with a new leader immediately with his execution. the FLDS
[41:14] immediately with his execution. the FLDS um is usually linked to Warren Jeffs, but there are possibility that they could call themselves FLDS without being Warren Jeff's their prophet because it's just a branch off the LDS church. So
[41:28] they have doctrines that they highlight in their over the pulpit even that are dangerous for children especially like underage brides. They have doctrines in
[41:40] their in their faith about racism. The Mormons, I mean like the LDS, Latter-day Saints people have taken it out like they after several years they had a prophet that said now is the time to accept everyone. So they have less
[41:54] racism in the Latter-day Saints faith. But in the polygamy groups, there's like 23 polygamy groups. I don't know of one that has changed the original doctrine
[42:06] that has changed the original doctrine to be accept race like any race into their church. And it's really hard to to to figure out a way to to incorporate a new belief once cuz it would be like denouncing their prophets of the past if
[42:20] they say that doctrine was not true. So they have to figure out a a creative way to incorporate like modern day into their faith. So it's really complicated to to change the doctrine. So when they put underage brides in the FLDS faith,
[42:38] they can't take it out very easy. So if they're following FLDS necessarily, it Jeffs cuz that's just a branch off of the Latter Day Saints. But if they are following Warren Jeffs, most likely they have arranged marriages, also underage
[42:55] brides marriages. So they're going to need investigated. The main thing is need investigated. The main thing is underage brides in FLBS. There are other things like I know in like the AUB and the Kingston group, it's been more about
[43:09] like Jesus is our elder brother cuz in the Mormon faith Jesus is our elder brother instead of like an all powerful being in the Joseph Smith teachings. But in the FLDS they do have that but not over the pulpit so much. So still a
[43:24] problem. So there are criminal activities you know like you know because that could damage all the children you know if you're marry too in intermaring um they can get like
[43:36] handicapped more easily and then underage brides is also like you know they have children. you know, it's illegal to do that, but like, you know, enough to realize they're kind of trapped in a cycle. They have to feed
[43:51] trapped in a cycle. They have to feed their kids and also like escape somehow way bigger job when they have children at 13, you know what I mean? So, um it's at 13, you know what I mean? So, um it's definitely illegal. So there are reasons
[44:06] why it's illegal too because we want to protect instead of like protect instead of like take away people's freedom based on um what our country is made for you know freedom you know what I mean freedom of
[44:20] religion especially you know like we have to watch those those those lines why they're there and you know keep it safe this country safe polygamy in general in Utah is an infraction now where everywhere else in America it's a
[44:36] Like I think there's just going to be Like I think there's just going to be more polygamy groups over time.
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