Police Save Over 200 Women & Children From Polygamist Compound

Police remove 220 women and children from a polygamist sect in Eldorado, TX. Cult leader Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been arrested charged with multiple counts of incest & sexual conduct with a minor.

As reported earlier on DJ, police have been investigating the marriage of a 16 year old girl to a 50 year old man said to be part of a polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas. Today, CBS news reports that police have arrested polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and released over 200 women and children from the religious cult's compound. The 16 year old girl came to police and said that she was being abused at the 1,700 acre West Texas compound and had married 50 year old cult member, Dale Barlow. The marriage was illegal according to Texas law and was the reason the invasion happened. The compound was being led by Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Although Dale Barlow has not yet been arrested you can imagine he's going to be next on the list. It has been reported that the girl gave birth to a child at the age of 15. The women and children were moved to a historic fort-turned-museum in San Angelo, about 40 miles north of the compound. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the location was chosen because it was big enough to keep all of the women and children in one place to be interviewed. Officials say it has been very hard to get anyone to cooperate or talk about what was actually going on inside the compound.

"When children live in a pretty secluded environment and they're as sheltered as these children, it's very difficult to get them to talk to you and to open up. If you can get them to a neutral place, they're a lot more prone to answer you truthfully," said Debra Brown, who is with a local child advocacy group that is representing the children in legal proceedings.

Jeffs is currently being held in Kingman, Arizona, where he will stand trial for four counts of incest and sexual conduct with a minor due to two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their own older male relatives. You can only hope that the caseworkers working with these women and children will be able to make a breakthrough and give them the help they need to get past this sick and twisted lifestyle they have been involved in. Thankfully, this did not end up in a shootout like the compound raid in Waco, Texas years ago.