BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – When the FBI arrested Heber Jeffs on kidnapping charges in Minot in February, many people were surprised to learn that Jeffs and other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the FLDS, are making connections in North Dakota and moving north.
Heber Jeffs is the nephew of convicted child rapist Warren Jeffs, who investigators say leads the extremist group from a federal prison in Texas. Prosecutors claim Heber kidnapped a 10-year-old from Utah and brought her to Minot as part of a revelation to “gather” the FLDS women at Warren’s order. They say Heber’s arrest is the latest event that’s arisen from years of criminal investigations into the organization.
To understand the group’s presence in North Dakota, Your News Leader first brings us up to Williston and then down to South Dakota to learn why and how people are leaving the FLDS.
The American Dream is simple: hard work pays off. Lorin is in Williston chasing that dream.
“As a kid, I always wanted to fix things,” said former FLDS member Lorin, as he worked on a tractor at his shop.
He says he was raised on American values…
“You’ll never find someone more patriotic than somebody from the FLDS,” said Lorin.
…but wasn’t free.
“You couldn’t have a computer, you couldn’t have a cell phone, you couldn’t listen to the radio, you couldn’t watch movies,” said Lorin.
For the first part of his life, he and his family followed orders from one man.
“Once Warren Jeffs took over, everything went downhill in a hurry,” said Lorin.
The FLDS is an offshoot of Mormonism but was ousted from the mainstream religion more than a century ago, largely because of their refusal to give up polygamy.
Lorin said Warren Jeffs led the group with increasingly strict rules while committing crimes he’s in prison for.
“I’ve seen pictures of him making out with like 11-year-old girls,” said Lorin.
“Warren Jeffs is sitting in life in prison plus 20 for arranging the marriage of underage people and the rape of these underage girls by these men,” said Investigator Matt Browning.
Browning has spent years monitoring the group. He says the issue he takes with the FLDS is not one of religious difference, but of protecting human rights.
“If you take religion out, you still have human trafficking, you still have frauds, you still have assaults, you still have child molesters, you still have kids thrown out to the streets that we as a society are going to have to take care of. And that’s without the religion. Now you put the religion back into it [and] God has sanctioned that,” said Browning.
Matt Browning and his wife Tawni have helped those who want to leave.
“You have to take the time to understand them,” said Browning.
“What they will tell you is it wasn’t the physical fence; it was the mental fence that kept them in the FLDS,” said Custer County, South Dakota, Sheriff Marty Mechaley.
Sheriff Mechaley was driven by the same quest for understanding that drove Browning. It brought him to Farmer Road again and again.
“As we get up over this hill, you’ll see the compound,” said Sheriff Mechaley, as he pointed to a grouping of trees.
A guard tower in a remote area of South Dakota’s Black Hills marks a former FLDS settlement. There, Sheriff Mechaley met his new neighbors; a group of FLDS girls and women. It took him three years to open the lines of communication in person and by phone.
Freedom. That’s what Sheriff Mechaley said some of the girls asked for.
“Think about it. What kind of world would we live in if we all helped each other a little bit? ‘Course I am going to help them. I couldn’t tell them ‘no.’ We’ll help them for the rest of our lives,” said Sheriff Mechaley.
Freedom. That’s the word Lorin used too.
“When you’re in something that deep, it takes a long time for you to decide that it’s worth giving up everything and everyone you know for something you know very little about, but you just want your freedom,” said Lorin.
He decided to leave the FLDS in 2017 as Warren Jeffs was giving a revelation virtually from prison.
“I moved up to North Dakota and I went to work. I worked the oil field where you could do all the hours you want and that’s how I covered the pain,” said Lorin.
After working on himself, Lorin says he has no regrets. He started his own business and wants to someday get married, buy a house and live the American dream.
Browning and Sheriff Mechaley said the former FLDS members they’ve helped are also doing well. Some are even going to college.
“Small Town America” describes Ruso, North Dakota.
“There’s four people out there right now,” said Ruso Mayor Greg Schmaltz.
Quiet. Remote. Little crime.
“We hear, we see what’s going on, and we kind of patrol the town ourselves,” said Schmaltz.
Isolated areas like that are a draw to the FLDS. At least that’s what investigators like Matt Browning say.
“It’s easier to build a compound in a place that they’re not known,” said Browning.
Former FLDS member Lorin agrees.
“Just searching for somewhere desolate where nobody messes with them,” said Lorin.
He found out on Facebook the FLDS was moving to North Dakota.
“It said to mail your letter of confession or whatever to a Velva, North Dakota, PO Box,” said Lorin, describing the contents of the Facebook post.
Now, law enforcement has confirmed the locations of at least a dozen properties rented or owned by FLDS members in North Dakota. Investigators say the areas are intentionally remote. They say the FLDS is trying to stay away from prying eyes.
But after Heber Jeffs’ arrest in February, others in North Dakota took notice of FLDS’ presence.
“I just thought, ‘Wow, Heber Jeffs is in Minot, and he’s kidnapped a little girl. Sounds like the exact thing a loyal FLDS member would do,’” said Lorin.
Heber has not yet gone to trial.
“All the neighbors out there don’t want that type of stuff going on,” said Schmaltz.
The stuff?
“There’s a lot of financial crime, child labor laws, there’s human trafficking, all those things, but I think the worst victims of the FLDS are the people in the FLDS,” said Custer County, South Dakota, Sheriff Marty Mechaley.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley told Your News Leader that multiple law enforcement agencies are aware of the concerns.
“In the fullest of time, we look forward to sharing that information publicly, if appropriate. And between now and then, people can rest assured that the BCI and other entities are giving it the full attention that it requires,” said Wrigley.
Michelle Erickson at the Abused Adult Resource Center in Bismarck says North Dakota has resources for potential victims too.
“The services we offer are for anyone trying to get out of a relationship that’s not healthy. A lot of the same things that are happening in domestic violence relationships are happening in those relationships: the power and control issues, the isolation, using your children against you,” said Erickson.
Lorin, Browning and Sheriff Mechaley say FLDS members are isolated and taught to distrust outsiders. They ask for empathy.
“They may have been led down a bad path by a pedophile leader, but I would say they are good people. If you deal with them, if you work with them, they’ll pay their bills, they’ll take care of you, they are honest,” said Lorin.
Lorin is proof. He’s building a new life, away from the FLDS, but his thoughts are never far from those still living under Warren Jeffs’ rule.
Investigators say they don’t know how long FLDS members will remain in rural North Dakota, and they don’t know how many members of the FLDS have moved to North Dakota in recent years. They say they’ve learned to fly under the radar by spreading out, traveling hundreds of miles to visit grocery stores, listening to Warren Jeffs’ revelations over Zoom, and frequently moving members and breaking apart families.
Browning says the group has asked members who’ve left to return. He adds the FLDS people are preparing for Warren Jeffs’ prophecy of the 2027 return of Jesus Christ. Current FLDS members did not respond to Your News Leader’s request for comment.
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