[Faith] As a very young girl,
we were taught the younger you were when you got married,
the more righteous you were.
[Matt] These young girls are marrying guys that are
50, 60, 70-year-old men.
So many of these young girls were brought down from Canada
because it is easier to hide girls
when they have no passports. They have no birth certificates.
After this bishop surrendered his daughter to this marriage,
he received a 15-year-old bride in return.
-It was like a barter system. -That is so messed up.
I really wish I could be there for my sisters.
[Alyshia] Warren would come up into my room
and pick me up out of my bed.
He was taking me down to his room.
I thought that he was this kind man
and I got to see a whole different side of him.
[Nate] Warren was a sexual deviant.
He's got this entire community and its financial resources
to perpetuate sex abuse.
I don't know what it's gonna take to stop it,
but it definitely needs to [bleep] stop.
[Matt] My name is Matt Browning.
I'm retired law enforcement out of Arizona.
I was on both the Joint Terrorist Task Force
and the Fugitive Task Force with the FBI.
But most importantly, I'm a husband and a father.
And I was born and raised a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A few years ago, my wife Tawni and I
were contacted by women who wanted help
leaving the polygamous groups.
Since then, we've been contacted numerous times
by people asking for help.
Some of these groups have a history of incest
and child abuse
and are thriving right here in the United States.
People need to know about this, and that's why we do what we do.
[music]
[Matt] I don't think I fully understand this whole
child bride phenomenon.
Maybe it's because as a parent I would never let it happen
to my kids.
It's just not one person who is saying,
"Hey, I want this, this young person to be my wife."
There's actually a slew of people behind it all,
and they do it for a variety of different reasons.
One thing you see across polygamist groups
is they seek out isolation.
The group that eventually became the FLDS settled
in a place called Short Creek on the Utah-Arizona line.
They chose Short Creek because it was a long way
from any government, any authority
that could try to crack down on plural marriage.
[Matt] Historically in the FLDS, it's common for a girl
to be married at 16. And it was more common than not.
[music]
But when Warren Jeffs took power in 2002,
the 16-year-old marriages changed
to now they're 12, 13, 14, 15.
These young girls are marrying guys that are
50, 60, 70-year-old men. And that became Warren's legacy.
[Warren] You wake up each day yearning to please him.
You rejoice in his will towards you.
You pray for him.
The only way that we could get any--anything from God,
any messages or anything from God was through Warren Jeffs.
[Warren] In your life, there's no secret you keep from him.
But you keep his secrets.
You keep sacred your relationship with him.
There's a term that you hear often when you read
FLDS literature, and that is keep sweet.
And what that means is if you are obedient to
what we teach you, your life will be right.
It will be good.
[Faith] As a very young girl, we were taught that
the younger you were when you got married,
the more righteous you were.
[Nate] Warren was a sexual deviant.
You hear stories all the way back before he ascended
into power that he was molesting members of his family,
sometimes his own children.
And then he ascends to the top of the FLDS,
and now he's really unfettered. He's got this entire community
and its financial resources to perpetuate sex abuse.
And he's taking advantage of it.
It bothered a lot of people that Warren was marrying young girls,
but no one dared actually speak it because he was the prophet,
you know?
Even a lot of those men that he required to marry
underage girls too didn't want to do it.
[music]
That temple in Texas was not just a place to worship,
it was a place for him to commit sex abuse.
[music]
[Man] A Texas jury has sentenced polygamist leader Warren Jeffs
to life in prison plus twenty years.
The jury heeded the prosecutor's call
to give Jeffs the maximum sentence for
sexually assaulting an underage follower he took as his bride.
He was also sentenced for the sexual assault
of a fifteen-year-old.
[Matt] I am on my way to meet an extremely special young lady
that I've met before who has been involved
in a whole variety of different really traumatizing incidents
that involved the FLDS Church. And her name is Alyshia.
[music]
When she was 12, she was sent across the border from Canada
and she became Warren Jeffs' wife.
At that time, Warren was 50 years old.
She's willing to tell her story, which is unreal to me.
And it's a person who has been there, done that,
that is able to shed the light on the things
that we need to know because really our goal here
is to prevent this from happening.
All right, let's go.
-Hey, hey. -Hey.
-How are you doing? -I'm doing good.
-How are you doing? -I'm doing great.
Thank you for, uh, taking the time.
What you been up to?
I've just been working and hanging out with my kid.
-[laughs] -Happy?
Just loving my life. Yes, I am very happy.
-Nervous? -A little bit.
Well, if you don't want to answer something,
just say, "Yeah, I don't think so, Matt."
-Okay. -Does that work?
-Yep. -Okay.
My name is Alyshia Blackmore. I was born and raised
in the FLDS group.
At the age of 12, I was married to Warren Jeffs
as his 77th wife.
He has 79 wives in all.
Help me explain to people the difference between growing up
FLDS in Canada and in the Creek.
[Alyshia] I feel like, especially in our family,
we were allowed a lot more space as children to explore.
My dad, like, raised us to use our voices and
to think for ourselves a lot, which was unlike a lot of
other families in the religion.
I was five when I first met Warren Jeffs.
My two older sisters got married to him,
and I met him at their wedding.
Okay.
[Alyshia] And he was really kind to me.
I liked him and I was happy that my sisters were married
to a kind man.
My older sisters married Warren at the same time.
The oldest one was 17. The other one was 16.
He wasn't the prophet at that time,
but he was the son of the prophet
and still a part of the first presidency of the church.
My dad looked up to him, trusted him,
and it was considered a great honor that your daughter was
worthy to marry a man in high standing in the church.
He would call up to Dad's quite a bit and ask to talk to me,
which nobody thought was weird. Everybody told me,
"Oh, that's so special. That's so special."
I have no idea what a grown-ass man would be doing
calling a six, seven, eight-year-old girl and
how that conversation would be.
It was usually short and sweet. He would always just ask me,
"Are you being a good girl? Are you, you obeying your father?"
And I would always just say, "Yeah."
He's like, "Are you being Zion increasingly?"
Like, just simple questions.
What is being Zion increasingly look like?
Being obedient, not questioning, not asking any questions.
[laughs]
And as you look back-- As you look now back at that,
-what do you think? -It was [bleep] creepy. [laughs]
I didn't know any better.
When I was 12 years old, he contacted my dad and
informed him that the Lord had revealed that I belonged to him
and that I was to be sealed to him.
My dad's initial reaction to that was, "No. Uh-uh."
"She will finish growing up in my household,
"then that will be an honor if she's placed by your side.
But she's a child."
Two weeks later, he re-contacted my dad
and told him that the Lord had revealed to him again
that I was a special spirit and the devil was seeking to
take my life and to destroy me. And my only protection would be
in Warren Jeffs' immediate household
under his direct priesthood.
The thing my dad didn't fully understand through the fear
and the manipulation was that
that was the very devil that he was speaking of.
[music]
Every bit of it was scary from the first talk
that me and my dad had to watching it unfold,
and then all of a sudden, it was happening so fast.
There was all those feelings of knowing that it was wrong,
but feeling like you have to do it anyway
or you'll lose your salvation.
That was a lot to, like, process
and it's a very scary position to be in, especially as a child.
[music]
What'd you think?
Well, first impression of the place when you saw it?
The temple.
I forgot all my worries for a minute
'cause it was a very beautiful temple.
Do you know that you're getting married yet?
Yeah, Dad had told me, but he said,
"It won't happen until you're 18, 19 or 20.
I told him to wait."
My dad told him on no uncertain terms to leave me alone
until I was of age.
From what I understand then, Warren agreed to that.
He told my dad that I would be staying with my big sisters
and that they would be there for me and
I would complete my schooling. So my dad agreed to let me go,
not knowing that he planned to marry me immediately.
We got there the night of the 12th of December,
and then we got married on the 16th.
Before you were married, did the other ladies there
give you pointers on how to be a good wife or--?
Oh yeah. Mm-hm. My big sister especially,
then she would tell us everything that she thought
that we should know about what he wanted and what he expected,
which was a lot. It was a lot.
And did you know you were getting married on the 16th?
No. Not until the evening.
My sister didn't really let us know.
She was just like, "You need to--you need to get ready,
you need to get ready." And she told us, she's like,
"Somebody really special wants to see you."
And we knew we were gonna see him
'cause we hadn't seen him yet.
-And this is Warren? -Yeah. Everything was so secret.
[music]
[Matt] So they walked you over to the church?
[Alyshia] It wasn't in the church.
We got married in his office waiting room area.
[Matt] What was the first thing he said to you when he saw you
-in the waiting room? -"You all look beautiful.
I like your smile and your lips."
-He said that to you? -Mm-hmm.
-All of you? -To me, specifically.
"Nice lips."
But you're 12.
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Alyshia] There was a lot going through my head and
as a young girl standing there, knowing that I was about
to marry a 50-year-old man,
I knew nothing about sex.
I knew nothing about how my body was about to change.
And I didn't know even what to expect.
I mean, I knew enough to know that
I wasn't ready yet for sure.
[music]
He stood up and he said, "Alyshia, come here."
And--and, um, I got up and I walked up to him
and he held on to my hand. Then he, he, like, asked me,
like, while he was holding on to my hand like that.
He's like, "Will you marry me?"
-What'd you say? -I said yes.
I mean, what does a little girl say?
[music]
[Alyshia] On my wedding night, I was not physically prepped
how he usually had his wives prepped for him
if they planned on consummating the marriage or whatever.
But I do know that Warren usually had his wives, like,
engage in this ceremonial process of, like, prepping
to get the younger wives ready for him
or having them assist, like that's the word
that he always used is assist.
[music]
[Alyshia] Which consisted of them showering together,
making out with each other, touching each other all over,
shaving each other because the--his women's bodies
had to be, like, completely hairless.
And he would be in the room, watching,
and have them, um,
do everything on him, like, at the same time.
Growing up, I thought that Warren was this
awesome, sweet, kind man, and no,
I got to see a whole different side of him.
[music]
[Alyshia] Warren would come up into my room and
pick me up out of my bed, like I was dead--dead asleep.
And he would come and get me and, like,
make it out of my room and, like,
down the hall a little bit before I would, like, wake up.
And that happened several times.
He was taking me down to his room and whatever.
But, um, I would always wake up
and, like, fight him a little bit
and, like, make him set me down and like,
and then tell him, like,
"No, no. My dad said to wait, my dad said to wait."
And, like, that--that's one of the things, like, he's,
"Why are you always talking about your dad?"
Like, "Why would you obey your dad over the prophet of God?"
[music]
Like, he would grab my ass sometimes
and I would say "Don't." And he did not like that.
He did not like that at all.
As far as penetration, he never penetrated me.
Knowing as much as I did about where my dad
truly stood on the matter made me strong enough to
keep telling him no. And I just really didn't care.
I didn't care what Warren thought.
I remember overhearing Warren speaking to my older sister
about how he felt like that I was disobedient,
and he said, "I--I give you permission to do or say whatever
you need to do to break her."
Wow.
[music]
My brain went wild with just that phrase, like,
"To break me." Like, "[bleep] you, then."
Like, "You're not gonna [bleep] break me."
[Matt] You know, the whole grooming process
where they tell you how great you are,
how lucky you are, and then they build you up
to be something.
Tell me about that process that happened with you.
Well, it started clear back when I was a child.
Like, I felt special until
I remember the very day that it all changed.
Warren told me to go and try on a dress,
and I just simply asked him "Do I have to?"
Like, "Can I not?"
Like, "Not in front of everybody."
Because I was a young girl. My body was starting to change.
And I was very self-conscious about it.
And he felt like, that I was disobedient
and the fact that I even hesitated proved that
I still had gentile nature in me that needed--
I needed to overcome.
And how far into the marriage was this?
Three months.
I thought in my mind, if he genuinely cares about me,
I mean, I'm his wife, right? He will care how I feel.
Mm-hmm. Right.
And no, he, like, took it the whole opposite way
and made me feel that I was very unworthy
because I didn't want to.
Like, he didn't give a [bleep] how I felt.
If any of his wives or children even slightly
showed any resistance or hesitation, then he
turned to anger or gave you the silent treatment.
And then we're just trying to get back to the point like,
where he trusted us. We felt like we broke his trust
if--that we spoke out or hesitated
because that's how he made us feel.
Righteous indignation is what he called it,
where the Lord was very displeased.
[music]
From the moment that I wasn't with my dad anymore,
then there was zero communication.
It was completely cut off.
And so my dad was 100% unaware of anything that went on.
And even to this day my mom is completely unaware
of what was actually happening.
[music]
The thing that hurt the most was almost immediately after
Dad's funeral, Warren Jeffs contacted us as Dad's daughters
and gave us each individually a message about our dad.
Saying that our dad was a murderer of unborn children
and he was damned to hell, and all this bad [bleep]
about my dad that he didn't have the mother[bleep] balls
to say before my dad died. Then he...
Oh, [bleep]. It makes me so mad.
There was like a slow, growing hatred for Warren in my heart,
towards the end.
Like, all he was, was a monster to me.
[music]
It was the top of a mountain in Colorado somewhere.
I don't even know where it was.
But I lived in a little trailer, like, up there all alone
for upwards of two years.
Completely alone, like in total isolation.
He felt like that would be what broke me,
but even that didn't work.
That only gave me the clarity that I needed to actually
separate myself from the religion.
I stuck it out as long as I did in hopes that maybe he would
send me away and let me go be with my mom again.
That's all I wanted.
Because I knew my mom needed me so bad after my dad died.
And I did, I stuck around long enough.
And eventually that happened,
but it was after a lot of [bleep].
[music]
[Alyshia] I spent a year with my mom, which was my plan.
We needed to have that bonding time.
And I'm so very grateful that I did.
And then I knew okay, it's time.
It's time to be true to myself and it's time to start my life.
[music]
Now I'm 29 and I have an adorable little daughter.
And I could not be happier with where I'm at in life now.
[Matt] Do you have a picture? 'Cause I want to see her.
I do. Yes.
Holy cow.
[music]
Daughters?
Oh, I have a daughter and I'd do anything for my daughter
just like you will. Beautiful.
Thank you.
[music]
[Alyshia] It makes me very angry when I think about how many
adults there were in the situation.
It doesn't make sense to me why they wouldn't
want to guard and protect the innocence of children.
I don't know what it's gonna take to stop it,
but it definitely needs to [bleep] stop.
[music]
[Matt] We are in Creston, British Columbia.
What I have found in, in doing this investigation
into child brides is so many of these young girls were brought
down from Canada.
And I believe it's because in the US
we don't know who these girls are.
It is easier to hide girls when they have no passports.
They have no birth certificates. They don't have anything.
And Alyshia is just one example.
There was a pipeline from Canada to the U.S,
where these young girls were brought across the border
to be married off to the older FLDS men.
Specifically Warren.
In Canada, the RCMP was able to bring a lot of these guys
to justice and make arrests and convictions for this
transportation of kids.
I'm on my way to meet Shelley and Terry,
who are the lead investigators.
It'll be really interesting to see what they have to say
because I can learn what we can do as a community
to make this so it doesn't happen anymore.
[music]
-Shelley. Right? -Yes.
-Matt. Hi. -Terry, pleased to meet you.
Nice, nice to meet you guys. Thanks for being here.
So are you guys like the FBI? Are you like local guys?
We're all feds, but I was stationed locally so...
My name is Shelley Livingstone. I am a retired police officer.
And I worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
I investigated polygamy within the Creston community
for many years.
My situation is a little bit different than Shelley's.
So our unit was mainly responsible
for homicide investigations, but other serious investigations
also fell to our plate.
My name's Terry Jacklin. I was a sergeant with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
I was involved with an investigation in the
community of Creston relating to the FLDS.
And we were looking at different offenses there with respect
to sexual exploitation and polygamy.
[music]
Over time, obviously, we became aware to other
aspects which were happening in the community,
and that was the movement of these girls across the
Canadian-U.S. border into the U.S. for marriage.
Some of them as young as 12.
As a result of the 2008 raid at the YFZ Ranch
in Eldorado, Texas, there was evidence that was seized
that identified that there was these girls.
I think it was that 13 girls were identified
at that particular time that had been taken to the U.S.
[music]
They were going down south to marry much older men.
In some cases, like, 78-year-old men.
[Man] Child Welfare officials had argued kids
on the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas were in
immediate danger from what investigators believed was
sexual abuse of teenage girls.
The members of the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
deny any abuse.
The BC AG's office received a list of young girls
who had crossed the border from Canada to the U.S,
and in some instances, from the U.S. to Canada.
The list tended to grow rather quickly.
I was being sent more names of some girls that had crossed
the border at a young age.
[music]
Marrying older men in most instances.
And the list grew to 54.
We had been looking to speak with our victims,
to ensure that they were safe.
However, that proved very difficult.
[Terry] These girls, they were nearly impossible to find.
The FLDS have these so-called places called houses of hiding.
And they have these ways of moving them around
in these little utility trailers and they're towed behind,
you know, an SUV.
And they go from one place to the next place
in the middle of the night, under the cover of darkness.
And there's such an element of secrecy within the religion,
it's like you speak out, you're excommunicated.
[Shelley] Whoever we spoke to, it seemed that
they were told beforehand, uh, to say nothing.
They were very polite.
But they did just what they were told to do.
They said nothing.
[Terry] Shelley and I went first down to Texas
in December of 2011.
We were going down there to help bring back some
of the evidence that had been seized from the ranch.
What was the evidence?
The priesthood records, which were the records that
Warren Jeffs had dictated to himself, basically
on a recorder, and then he'd have some
of his wives and some of the women within the community
transcribe those records.
It was a diary of everything Warren did every day.
He would phone certain people in Canada or communicate
through other people with certain people in Canada
saying, I want you to bring so-and-so down in the next
couple of days and the Lord has revealed to me that so-and-so
is going to be sealed in marriage to whoever.
So you got--you got Warren down there in Short Creek,
calling up here to-- to Bountiful, saying,
I want this girl brought down here to marry me.
And not just marry Warren.
There was other men that were receiving wives as well.
So one of the bishops in Bountiful, his daughter,
who was 15 at the time, was told to go down.
And the thing that was shocking to us was that 11 minutes after
this bishop surrendered his daughter to this marriage,
he received a 15-year-old bride in return.
So it was like a barter system.
See, that's so messed up.
These records were beneficial for us in determining that these
young girls had in fact married these older men,
and we are wanting to prove that these girls had been
taken across the border and were living in the States.
But in order for us to get those records into court,
we had to either obtain the, uh, assistance of the person who was
responsible for those records, which was Warren Jeffs,
or we had to ensure that we did not have his cooperation.
So myself and Terry headed down to Texas to conduct an interview
with Warren Jeffs.
[music]
[Matt] So you're sitting there, and in walks Warren Jeffs.
What's going on in your head?
Geez. Initially, I thought he would be, like,
this powerful man. And he walked in as,
I just wanna say, a mousey guy.
Just his head was down. He shuffled his feet.
[Terry] "No answer, thank you" I think was the most common
thing that he said. He was polite.
Um, and then we got to the stage in the interview where he said
that he was done.
But by him not giving us any information, it allowed us to go
to the court when we got into trial here to say that
we've approached the author of these records.
He's unwilling to assist us with our investigation.
And the fact that we had approached the author
and he was unwilling to assist us
allowed it to put him in through the exception
-to the hearsay rule, -That's what we wanted.
That was amazing.
In being able to enter these records,
it spelled everything out to the courts and to the judge.
It spelled out how the girls were transported,
who they were transported by, who they were being married to.
So, these records were invaluable to us.
Did you find in these missing girls that the family was
supportive and helpful-- helping you guys?
Or were you on your own?
No, we were on our own for the most part.
We were investigating those families
because they took them to the U.S. for the purposes
of those marriages, so we investigated
those families for the offense of a removal
of a child from Canada for a sexual purpose.
And we were successful in prosecuting.
It was the first time in Canadian history
that the offense of removal of a child from Canada
for a sexual purpose had ever been prosecuted.
We convicted three persons of that offense.
All three of them went to jail
as a result of those convictions.
[Shelley] Both Terry and I were hoping that we could change
the thoughts of some of the parents within the community,
that maybe that would give them some teeth to tell the prominent
people within the religion that, "I can't--I can't do
"what you're telling me to do because
I could be prosecuted in Canada."
Hopefully, we stopped a few young girls
from going down to the States.
I personally, from a cop in the States,
think you guys did an amazing job.
Thanks, Matt.
I look back at my career and I hope that I affect people
the same way that you guys have affected people.
The more it gets out there, the more these people are
gonna realize here's what the real truths are.
I hope that we've been able to change some lives
and hopefully that some lives may be changed in the future
as a result of me speaking out about it.
You're awesome.
[Shelley] It was a pleasure, Matt.
-Thank you. -Thanks, Matt.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Matt] Out of all the conversations I've had,
the child brides has been the hardest,
not only as a father of a daughter,
but as a law enforcement professional
and as a religious person, it is hard for me to have
the realization that there's people out there specifically
hunting, grooming and hurting young kids.
[music]
[Matt] Warren Jeffs is in prison for the rest of his life.
Because he's in prison,
there has been a split within the FLDS Church.
You have those who still follow Warren,
who believe that he will step foot out of the prison
and come and conquer and reign and rule
almost like the second coming of Christ.
But then there are those who are still searching for a leader
and a prophet,
somebody who can guide them in their everyday lives.
And in 2020, a guy named Sam Bateman
just popped up and declared himself a prophet.
[Sam] Warren's not in prison.
Everybody thinks he is, but he's not.
My firm belief is that he's not in this life.
Sam Bateman and Warren Jeffs have a lot of things in common,
but the two prominent things they have in common
is they both like young brides.
And they're both now in custody in a prison and jail facility.
I'm on my way to meet with a young girl named Dollie.
She doesn't want me to use her last name.
She's ex-FLDS.
And she can tell us more about these underage marriages.
Dollie is 19 years old.
She left the FLDS group in 2021.
And most of her family is still in it.
[music]
[Matt] Dollie has two sisters that were married off
to Sam Bateman when they were children.
I need to find out what it is that we can do to stop this,
prevent it from happening again, and how I can help out.
[Policeman] Put your hands behind your back.
[Matt] Just getting Dollie's story out is going to help
so we can stop the cycle of these false prophets
that are just proclaiming their leadership
just to get these young girls.
Dollie wants to talk and just bare it all.
And not hold anything back.
[music]
-What's up, Dollie? -What's up?
-How are you? -Good. How are you?
I'm--I'm good. Thank you for meeting with me.
I think it's awesome, super cool.
But--but I gotta ask why-- why are you even talking to me?
Uh, honestly, at first I didn't want to
because I still have people in, in the religion that still
love the prophet, and I have a lot of respect for them.
And I love them, and I don't want to hurt their feelings.
My name is Dollie. I'm 19 years old.
And I grew up in the FLDS.
My dad had one wife.
And my mom and dad had seven kids,
four boys and three girls.
Did you believe that Warren was your prophet back then?
Yeah, a hundred percent.
-You were all in? -Yeah.
We all were under Warren Jeffs. Like, there was pictures
on the wall and we were doing everything
that he told us to do.
And what finally made you realize that Warren Jeffs
wasn't your prophet?
Growing up, they made it sound like
it was something that we wanted to do,
but after I realized it was something I didn't want to do
and they were constantly trying to convince me of that.
Is they the church or your--your parents?
They is the church and my parents.
I could say honestly, I wanted to leave the religion
when I was 10.
I wrote on this piece of paper and put it on Mom's wall.
And I said--it said, uh, "I wanna be apostate.
"I want to dress how I want.
And I want to think how I want and do what I want."
[music]
So how did this whole Sam thing start?
So, uh, Dad talked my mom into doing--into doing it
over the course of about a year.
-Into joining Sam's group? -Yeah.
I was 16 when Sam was introduced to my family.
And my mom somehow ended up getting married to Sam.
And my dad found someone else.
What is it about a guy like Sam Bateman
that would make your mom and your dad and your uncles...
Right? Your uncles are part of it, too?
Mm-hmm.
Basically, your whole family wanna be part of that?
What--what was it about Sam that he could do that?
They kind of act like he would've been kind of like
Jesus to where a lot of people misunderstood him
and his ways of doing things.
I don't know. Mom definitely talked to--talked about him
like he was a Jesus.
What would she say?
She just-- he was everything to her.
Really?
After mom went through all this Sam stuff,
she came and worked at the dairy up in Pereguna
where I was working for about three months.
-This is after Sam was arrested? -No.
-Before? -This was before.
About a year before. And the whole time
she was trying to talk me into doing what she's doing.
Every day she would try to pressure me into joining.
And one day, she told me,
not in these exact words, but she basically said,
if you do not join, the people you love will die.
I just told her,
I wanted nothing to do with her god.
Our gods are not the same.
And you--you heard that your younger siblings
-were married to Sam? -Yes.
So how do you feel about your sisters being married?
I don't like it, but I couldn't do anything about it.
Another thing is, like, Mom, I know she wouldn't do something
if... she knew it hurt the children
unless she felt like there was a reason,
unless she was being...
I don't know, unless she felt like it was...
religious.
So if religion backs up the reasoning, she's okay with it?
-So if-- -I feel like that,
but it's hard to say because I don't--I don't want
to accept that because...
it hurts that my mom actually let that happen.
I don't know when they officially became Sam's brides,
but they did.
I didn't hear about this until after Sam was arrested.
And I can only hope that he hasn't
destroyed their lives forever.
Your dad listened to Sam and all these different things,
and he had the decision on what to do just like your mom.
The unfortunate thing about this whole thing
is that the younger siblings,
they had zero choice.
[Dollie] Children do not have the capability to understand
what was going on.
I have no clue if they consummated the marriage,
but I can only hope and pray to God that they didn't.
There is a lot that can be said about Sam Bateman.
I mean, there's, of course, he hasn't gone to trial.
What he has been charged with, he hasn't been acquitted.
He hasn't been convicted.
We're still waiting for that to play out.
[music]
But when I was talking to this friend of mine
that was with the FBI,
he couldn't even finish the story about Sam Bateman
-without-- -He's too disgusted?
Without breaking down.
And he's been in law enforcement for a long time,
but he could not finish.
And what-- what does that do to you?
It kills me inside.
Kinda just takes a chunk out of my heart, you know?
Our conversation here is showing how Sam destroyed
not just your life, but the life of your family
and the life of--of who knows how many people around him.
It's just messed up.
Why do people like that exist?
[music]
Your father and mother should be protecting you
and loving you and being there for you,
not pressuring you into doing things
that you don't want to do and you know that are wrong.
It's so unfair and just disgusting.
Bad decisions have bad consequences.
I really wish that I could be there for my sisters.
[music]
You know, you-- you did nothing wrong.
You did nothing wrong.
You have no say in other people's decisions.
You can only just do things for you. And you did that.
You did you.
I think you're amazing for 19 years old to be where you're at,
to have gone through everything you've gone through.
You're claiming the survivor role
and wanting to help get other people to understand
what's going on, because that's the only way we get help, right?
Isn't that pretty powerful?
That's really powerful.
My goal is to let my sisters know that I am here for them,
even though I can't be physically,
but kind of trying to be their voice.
I'm doing this interview because I'm hoping that
it can help my little sisters
and any other girl that feels like that they
don't want to do something, but they don't know how to say it.
I want them to know that they're not alone.
My hope for the future is that I can...
see my little sisters
and be with them again.
Live a life with them. Be a good sister to them.
Nice to meet you and see you.
I think the journey that we've all been on together
through this whole thing is the simple journey of
history repeats itself. Warren Jeffs, now Sam Bateman.
If we don't do anything, it's going to continue
to repeat itself.
We want our kids to grow up and be successful and strong
and make decisions for themselves
and not be told who they're gonna marry at nine years old.
Of course, as law enforcement needs to get involved,
but this is a society, we need to stand up and say,
"This cannot happen."