Samantha was married in the Jordan Temple into the mainstream Mormon Church. Fifteen years later, when she became pregnant with her seventh child, her husband started making jokes about polygamy. Soon after, the joking became serious discussions.
Locked in a shed with a thin blanket in below freezing temperatures, Isaiah sat by the fire that he had built from scraps, fully convinced he would be dead by morning. Two years earlier, at the age of 14, Isaiah had been sent to a “house of hiding” in Wyoming with other troubled and “unworthy” FLDS boys.
Enoch was only 15 when his father came to Salt Lake City and signed over guardianship papers to the Gutzwiller Family. He was immediately enrolled in school, which was more difficult than he had anticipated.
Rachel was married off at the age of 14 to a polygamist man three times her senior. Her sister, who was 15, was married to the same man.
It’s very hard for many in polygamous communities to leave either because they don’t know where to look for help or because they don’t have enough trust to reach out, particularly when help might come with the price tag of joining some other religious group or being involved in promoting hatred.
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