UNITED STATES
CTV News
November 15, 2017
By Jeff Lagerquist
Warning: This story may contain details that some readers may find disturbing
Rachel Jeffs finds it hard to watch family videos of the life she left behind inside the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) compound in Utah.
The reclusive breakaway polygamist sect of the Mormon Church from which she escaped in 2015 is totally isolated from the outside world, hidden behind six-foot concrete walls. Women are often married to men twice their age while still in their teens. Most husbands take several wives.
Jeffs’ trauma started much earlier. Her abuser was her father Warren, the church’s self-proclaimed prophet and leader, now serving a life sentence plus 20 years for child sexual abuse. He’s run the cult from his cell since 2011.
Jeffs is one of 53 children born to her father’s 78 wives.
In her vivid new memoir, Breaking Free, Jeffs details her years of sexual abuse at the hands of her cult-leader father and explains how she found the strength to escape with her five children to start a new, happier life.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.