FLDS Child Bride Escapes, Details Abuse Under Cult Leader Warren Jeffs
After an FLDS child bride escapes the clutches of a polygamous community, she is detailing the abuse and bizarre practices that went on under leader Warren Jeffs,
Ruby Jessop said she was forced to marry her step-brother when she was just 14 years old. While she was younger, the FLDS child bride thought up escapes, but the plans didn’t work out.
“Twelve years ago, I got a call from my sister who has 14 years old and had been placed in an arranged marriage,” Flora Jessop told ABC News. “She had managed to get away and I gave her a promise that I would do everything I could to keep her safe. Then, before I could get to her and get her help, she disappeared and was taken back into the group.”
Flora said she was able to escape the FLDS in 1986, and has tried to help others break free, including her own sister.
“I never did give up. I never thought I would see the day that I would be reunited with her either,” she said. “I’ve been on cloud nine since I got the call.”
Ruby Jessop ended up trapped with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until earlier this month. The 26-year-old now will serve as one of the central figures in a trial against Jeffs. She contended that he ran the cult with an iron fist, forcing arranged marriages of underage girls and imposing an all-beans diet for children.
While authorities didn’t divulge exactly how the FLDS child bride was able to escape, they said it did some with the aid of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.
“It is unacceptable that anyone would be married against her will and forced to live in a community in which she feels unsafe, ” Horne said in a news release. “Ruby Jessop was forced into marriage by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs who compelled her to marry her second-cousin Haven Barlow in 2001. Her exact whereabouts were unknown for years until very recently when she was able to escape the town.”
The FLDS child bride escapes in large part because of $420,000 Horne made available, Fox News reported. The money was used toward more deputies working in Colorado City, a stronghold of the FLDS.
