Three children missing for 2 years were found in a rural town. They were reunited with their mother

FREDONIA, Arizona (KPHO/Gray News/AP) – Three Utah children who were reported missing two years ago are now back home with their mother after it was discovered they were living in a rural Arizona town.

Fredonia Police Chief Jason Peterson received information in late August about children who had been reported missing since October 2022.

Authorities suspected the children’s father was behind their disappearance and hid them with the help of family members of the Church of Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints (FLDS).

After nearly two years of searching, the children were found in Fredonia, Arizona, a small town less than five miles from the Arizona-Utah border.

On September 1, authorities from several agencies in Utah and Arizona safely rescued three children and returned them to their mother. The children’s grandmother and aunt were also detained.

The city of Fredonia is also 50 miles from Colorado City, where the polygamous leader and self-proclaimed prophet of the FLDS lived Samuel Bateman previously lived.

Bateman, who came to power in 2019 after the imprisonment of infamous FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, he faces 51 crimes, including cases of sexual abuse of young girls whom he claimed were his wives.

Bateman was arrested by Arizona State Troopers in August 2022 while driving around Flagstaff with three girls, ages 11 to 14, in the trailer.

Authorities say Bateman, who had more than 20 wives, including 10 girls under the age of 18, created a vast network spanning at least four states in an attempt to establish an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was historically based in neighboring communities Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah.

He and his followers practice polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe that polygamy ensures exaltation in heaven.