By BILL HANNA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ELDORADO -- The number of women and children removed from a polygamist compound in West Texas climbed to 219 Sunday as authorities spent the day busing them about 45 miles to San Angelo.
Investigators are continuing to search for more children at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' YFZ Ranch north of Eldorado, state Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said.
"I do not believe we have found all of them," Meisner said. "We are continuing to try and find them."
Meisner said District Judge Barbara Walther has instructed CPS caseworkers to remove every child from the 1,691-acre YFZ Ranch.
The 219 women and children were moved by bus Sunday to Fort Concho in San Angelo.
The fort, now owned by the city, was established in 1867 to protect frontier settlements and closed in 1899. It is now known as Fort Concho National Historic Landmark and includes 23 original and restored structures. CPS officials said medical personnel will be available on site.
Only 18 of the people removed from the compound have been taken into state custody to be placed in foster care. The rest will have to have hearings within 14 days, where CPS will be required to prove that the children are in danger to keep them in custody, Mary Jo McCurley, former chair of the State Bar of Texas family law panel, said Sunday.
McCurley said that if CPS has evidence that one child had been abused, that would be enough legally to remove all the children. She said she couldn't recall another instance in Texas history where so many children had been moved into protective custody.
"It's pretty amazing that the judge had the guts to do that, to remove all of the children," McCurley said. "I can't think of another case where so many children have been removed.
"Of course, that didn't happen in Waco with the Branch Davidian case, and maybe it should have, given what happened there. Maybe that's why the judge did it."
Many agencies collaborating
The extensive investigation started March 31, when Child Protective Services received a call from a 16-year-old girl at the ranch who reported she had been sexually and physically abused.
Authorities issued search warrants for the compound to obtain any records involving Dale Barlow, 50, the girl, her baby and her marriage to Barlow. On Saturday, Barlow's probation officer told the Salt Lake Tribune that Barlow said he didn't know the girl and that he has been in Colorado City, Ariz.
Meisner said Sunday that investigators still do not know if the girl has been removed from the compound or is still there.
An estimated 60 officials have been involved in the investigation. They have included Department of Public Safety troopers; CPS investigators and caseworkers; Texas Rangers; state game wardens; Texas Forest Service personnel; district attorney investigators; local sheriff's department officers; and a SWAT unit from Midland County.
Neighboring towns dispatched firetrucks to the ranch, the SWAT unit brought an armored personnel carrier, and dozens of official vehicles clog nearby roads. Authorities have also flown a helicopter for surveillance.
Averting a standoff
Tensions between the sect members and authorities peaked late Saturday, when investigators feared resistance as they prepared to search the church's temple.
"There was never any violent confrontation of any kind," Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said Sunday. "But some of them objected very strongly to [investigators] entering the temple."
Painter, whose SWAT team helped search the towering white building, said church members asked authorities to find a locksmith to open its doors. Painter said there have been no other problems since investigators searched the temple.
The sect's history
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, splintered from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the latter rejected polygamy in 1890. The FLDS has an estimated 10,000 members; most live in Colorado City and its twin city of Hildale, Utah, just south of Zion National Park.
In a crackdown on polygamy, Arizona authorities staged a massive raid on Colorado City, then known as Short Creek, in 1953 and removed hundreds of women and children.
Rulon Jeffs, who according to some reports had dozens of wives and fathered as many as 65 children, claimed to be a prophet and led the FLDS until his death in 1986.
His son, Warren Jeffs, who is also reported to have as many as 50 wives, was a fugitive for about two years after he was charged in Utah with arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. He was arrested in 2006 during a traffic stop in Las Vegas and in 2007 was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Some observers believe Warren Jeffs still leads the group from behind bars.
The sprawling compound
In 2003, FLDS follower David Allred purchased 1,691 acres that became the YFZ (Yearn for Zion) Ranch. But it wasn't until March 2004 that local residents realized it had become a polygamist outpost.
The compound now has 30 to 35 residential buildings and 30 more outbuildings. The residential structures are as large as 32,000 square feet, and the temple, the only one the FLDS church has built, rises to 125 feet tall.
"They've built a town right outside of our town," said Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success.
Most of the ranch's residents are believed to have moved there from Colorado City and Hildale.
Hundreds of residents, but mostly hidden
No one is sure how many people live at the compound, but Mankin's estimate is 350 to 400. The children have been home-schooled on the property.
The compound is believed to be home for Warren Jeffs' most loyal followers. The ranch supervisor is Merril Jessup, who is believed to be one the sect's leaders.
The operation includes a dairy, an orchard, grain silo, vegetable garden and machine shops. Residents make their own bread and cheese, but most grocery items are trucked in to the compound.
Mankin said that on rare occasions a few of the ranch's male residents pick up provisions in Eldorado. The editor said he has never seen women or children from the ranch in Eldorado, a town of about 2,000. Instead, the women, who wear long, old-fashioned dresses, head to San Angelo, where they're less conspicuous.
An uneasy coexistence
After initial fears about the sect's arrival, Eldorado residents developed an "uneasy relationship" with their neighbors. They worked with them to truck the compound's sewer water to the city's water treatment plant, which helped the sect comply with state environmental regulations.
But residents rarely saw church members in town and largely adopted a live-and-let-live attitude.
"In a sense I was surprised, but in a sense I wasn't," Mankin said. "If you look at their history in Arizona and Utah, it was almost inevitable. This is the same group that continually had run-ins with the law out there."
BILL HANNA, 817-390-7698
billhanna@star-telegram.com
Copyright 2008 Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd.
