CEDAR CITY, Utah — Lorraine Jessop's children vanished in February and she hasn't seen them since.
"They just went missing in the middle of the night," she said Monday.
She believes they have returned to the Fundamentalist LDS Church following a "revelation" issued by imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Holding photographs of her children, she expressed frustration that police were not taking her worries seriously.
"The particular officer assigned to my case... well he asked me if I think they could with FLDS people? I said yes. He said he felt like if they were with FLDS people they were safe," she told FOX 13 News. "I know, it was so hard to take. I finally told him, 'Who is to say they are safe?'"
Jessop, who left the FLDS Church in 2020, was among a number of ex-members who gathered outside a courthouse in Cedar City to call attention to their missing children and urge police and prosectors to do more to find them.
The ex-members cite Jeffs' revelation, first obtained and reported on by FOX 13 News last year, as cause for concern. It calls for some people who have left the FLDS faith to return to the polygamous church, bringing their children with them. Others have been cast out. The edict also makes references to death and resurrection as celestial beings — raising alarm among some parents of missing children.
"They wanted all the children especially to be consecrated back to the church. I’ve been told there’s underage marriages happening again and these children are going missing," said Tonia Tewell, who leads Holding out Help, a group that provides assistance to people in and outside of Utah's polygamous communities.
Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual assault related to underage "marriages." But it is clear he still leads his church from prison. The latest edict was distributed to his followers through his son.
"It’s hard to know how much day to day involvement he has. Texas has not to my knowledge been monitoring his visits or telephone calls like they did originally," said Roger Hoole, an attorney who represents some ex-FLDS Church members and has repeatedly sued Jeffs for alleged abuses.
Some parents pleaded with Utah authorities to listen to their stories and act quickly to save their children, instead of dismissing them as simple custody disputes between parents outside the FLDS Church and those still inside.
"I'm going to this court trying to the judge and people this is a real threat to my children," said Alicia Burnham, who is trying to find her own children. "But because I can’t prove he will do it? They won’t do anything until he does it."
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes insisted his office was monitoring the situation surrounding Jeffs' edict.
"The Utah Attorney General’s Office continues to monitor this situation closely. Evidence or complains brought to our office will initiate an investigation. We take threats against anyone in Utah very seriously," he said in a statement to FOX 13 News. "Our office has played a significant role in holding Warren Jeffs and certain members of his family who have broken the law accountable, and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon."
Some would like to see law enforcement do more.
"Follow through with the law and not say 'it’s religious freedom we have to let them have religious freedom,'" said Gladys Wayman, an ex-FLDS church member who just got custody of her own children. "If the law’s getting broken, let’s follow the law."
Prosecutors in Utah have leveled kidnapping charges against one member of Jeffs' family for kidnapping. Heber Jeffs, a nephew of the FLDS leader, was arrested in North Dakota with a 10-year-old girl whose mother obtained a court order declaring she had custody. On Monday, he appeared in a Paiute County courtroom where a judge denied him bail.
Dowayne Barlow, the father of the 10-year-old kidnap victim, said she is now safe. He urged parents who have left the church to assert their custodial rights.
"It's a hard battle. It's an emotional battle. It's a tough battle," he said. "But we're good for this and we want to see it all the way through. We have to be there for our children."
