0:00

A content warning. This series deals

0:02

with dark themes including child and

0:04

domestic abuse, sexual assault,

0:07

and content that is inappropriate for children.

0:09

Please be advised.

0:11

We'll crush the lemon and the pride, we'll

0:13

cast aside our own lives, we

0:15

will be together until the

0:18

end of time.

0:23

I want to know right now, my

0:25

family is there. No, they're

0:27

not here.

0:29

And they called the farm and told us the police

0:32

were there looking for me and we left in five

0:34

minutes. What do you want

0:36

us to do about it? And I said your job.

0:39

We're not law enforcement, Jerry. We're

0:42

the church.

0:44

Hi everyone, it's Tim here.

0:46

Today we're going to the United States where there's

0:49

a new story unfolding. You know what,

0:51

at this point I don't care. Use

0:53

my name. Yeah, that's fine. That's

0:56

fine. You know, at this point I just need

0:58

to take a strong stand and,

1:00

you know, you know, because it's not just

1:02

my family. There's other families that

1:05

this has happened to. Anthony was 55 years

1:07

old and a married father of six.

1:10

He's out of the tribes now, but he is unfortunately

1:13

still very much a part of their orbit.

1:15

Anthony joined in 2013 on a particularly inauspicious

1:20

day. Well, I came in April

1:24

1st, April Fool's Day.

1:30

He joined the tribe of Manasseh, a

1:32

huge area which encompasses Missouri,

1:34

Kansas and Colorado, all the way

1:36

up to the Rocky Mountains on the Canadian

1:38

border.

1:42

The tribes regard Manasseh as a kind

1:44

of heartland community, where,

1:46

as they put it, members are learning

1:48

to forget the past, past hurts, past

1:51

offenses, past troubles and press

1:53

on towards the goal.

1:57

Anthony and his wife and kids were

1:59

put His wife worked

2:01

in the deli and he and the kids had a number of

2:03

jobs, including on a construction crew.

2:06

But soon things started to go wrong.

2:12

There was a botched home circumcision

2:14

on one of his sons and one night

2:17

his two-year-old daughter fell out of one of

2:19

the homemade bunk beds. Anthony

2:21

ran in and found her on the floor howling

2:23

in pain.

2:26

I'm saying, hey, we need to get my daughter to the

2:28

hospital. We don't know what's going

2:30

on. I don't know if she has broken neck.

2:33

I don't know if she has, you

2:35

know, internal bleeding. She's in a

2:37

lot of pain. There's swelling going on

2:40

and she won't even let us touch her neck.

2:43

And he just grabs me and he's like,

2:45

you can't do that. You cannot do

2:47

that. If you do that, you're

2:49

going to put your family in

2:51

jeopardy, your children. Another

2:56

time, two of his young sons were

2:58

riding in a hay wagon when they were caught

3:00

against a fence and crushed.

3:02

The boy's legs looked as if they'd been mauled

3:05

by sharks. When

3:07

Anthony begged to take his kids to the hospital, an

3:10

elder told him he was overreacting. And he

3:13

goes, you listen to me. It doesn't

3:15

matter. They lose their legs.

3:18

That's God's will.

3:20

You need to get a hold of yourself.

3:24

One of the communities they were living in operated

3:26

an organic sprouts business called Chlorofields

3:29

in Loris, Kansas. The

3:32

tribes had just been exposed in a TV

3:34

program on CBS for using

3:37

kids to work in their factory in Cambridge,

3:39

New York, and were afraid of

3:41

a similar thing happening at the Sprouts factory

3:43

in Kansas. They

3:45

were also concerned about any surprise

3:47

visits by workplace and food

3:49

safety regulators. And

3:52

so they set up a hidden doorbell.

3:54

If a disciple comes, there's

3:56

a doorbell, and you had to reach

3:59

down. And that doorbell,

4:01

when you rang it, it was four rings. And

4:04

they would joke that it sounded

4:06

like on a disciple. And

4:09

so they knew if someone rang that,

4:11

that it was a disciple. There was another

4:14

doorbell to the right, right by

4:16

the handle of the door. And that

4:18

would go, doo doo doo. And when

4:20

they heard that, they would joke and say,

4:22

well, that sounds like Gentile.

4:24

It wasn't a 12th

4:26

driver. It would be a delivery

4:28

person, or a health department, or

4:31

somebody that they didn't know. In 2017,

4:37

Anthony's daughter came to work at the Sprouts

4:40

factory. So she

4:42

was about nine and a half at that time.

4:45

And that day, we were mostly

4:47

doing packaging.

4:49

But towards the end of the day, I was

4:51

set to go watch seats. Because

4:54

if you get seats, they can't

4:57

possibly carry bacteria

4:59

in the holes. So

5:01

you wash them with a solution

5:04

that's kind of like a bleach solution.

5:07

At some point,

5:08

somebody had grabbed my daughter and

5:11

had sent her to go work in

5:13

this iodine solution. Suddenly,

5:16

there was a god-awful wailing from his daughter.

5:19

Rather than taking

5:21

care of her, though, the woman in charge

5:23

was trying to shut her up. And

5:26

I heard her say, you stop that

5:28

right now. You stop it. You're just

5:30

faking it. You're just trying to get attention.

5:34

The girl was complaining that her arms itched,

5:36

her throat was numb and swollen, and

5:39

that her eyes were burning.

5:42

It turned out that the water had been mixed with

5:44

a dangerously high concentration of iodine.

5:47

Anthony and his daughter spent

5:49

the next few hours vomiting and delirious.

5:54

Fed up, Anthony decided to leave

5:56

in 2018.

5:59

But being apart from the his kids was harder than

6:01

he could ever have imagined. So,

6:04

really, I was kind of in this place of not

6:06

really knowing what to do. And even though

6:08

I believed I was right, still having

6:11

all that doctrine floating around in my head

6:13

and kind of second-guessing

6:15

myself and going, what if they're

6:18

right, I'm wrong.

6:22

Eight months later then, he returned.

6:25

He told the elders he wanted to come back and

6:27

repent. In reality,

6:30

he just wanted to be with his family. He

6:33

was even rebaptised, promising to

6:35

be faithful to Yahshua. But

6:39

by 2022, he couldn't put up and shut

6:41

up any longer.

6:45

He began seeing clearer than ever all

6:48

the emotional manipulation, the

6:50

punitive rules and the inequality

6:52

between members.

6:54

He didn't recognise God in any of it.

6:59

I started speaking more and more

7:01

of what was really going on in my heart. Then

7:03

I was sick of all the control and

7:05

it just opened up a bee's nest.

7:08

You know, in the end, I was considered

7:10

a divisive person. Literally

7:13

the last week, it seemed like they were

7:15

trying to push me out the door.

7:19

In the end, it came down to a digital

7:21

camera

7:22

given to his children. A

7:25

few weeks prior, my wife had

7:27

brought up to me about this camera

7:29

that she didn't like the fact that they were looking

7:31

at this camera. That they would look at it and

7:33

play with it and laugh at

7:36

the pictures and laugh at the people in the pictures.

7:39

I made a comment. I said to her,

7:41

why do you mind?

7:44

Why does it matter that our children are

7:46

looking at this camera?

7:48

Can't they have some kind of fun at all? Can't

7:51

they just be children? She

7:54

looked at me kind of astonished. They're

7:56

not here to play. They're

7:59

here to be discipled. I said,

8:01

well, it's so funny because all

8:04

the other children around here, their

8:06

families have cameras and the

8:09

shepherd's children have cameras.

8:12

His wife then reported back to the shepherds

8:15

and Anthony was hauled into a meeting.

8:17

This meeting literally felt

8:20

like a barrage, what they were just beating

8:22

me up through the whole thing. And

8:24

Hushai is a pretty big tall

8:26

man and he

8:28

kind of stands up and hovers

8:30

over me and he says, you really think that

8:32

that's okay? That your

8:34

children have a camera? And

8:36

I looked at him square in the eyes and I said,

8:38

yes, I did. I think it's fine. I

8:41

think children should be

8:43

able to be children. That was in April 2022.

8:47

I didn't choose to leave on my own.

8:49

They sent me away.

8:55

He's

8:55

only seen his kids once since then

8:58

when he visited the community around

9:00

New Year's Eve. Each

9:04

and every one of them down from the smallest

9:06

to the biggest were very

9:08

apprehensive at first, very like,

9:11

like they looked at me like they're almost ashamed.

9:14

That was the look that they gave me.

9:16

Wasn't like, and running

9:19

up, it was like, clammed

9:21

up like they had been told things.

9:24

It had been a few minutes into it. They all

9:26

warmed up, but it just left

9:28

me with a very uneasy feeling.

9:33

Anthony had been mailing his kids letters,

9:36

but as he discovered when he saw his wife,

9:39

they hadn't been getting them. Now

9:41

he began to fear the worst. I

9:44

still feel this since that they would move

9:46

my family. I'm in great fear

9:48

that they will move my family and I'll

9:51

never see them again. Every

9:55

time he reached out for another visit, he

9:57

was blocked. 2023, he

10:00

reached breaking point. I

10:04

was coming from the South and heading

10:06

up towards Overbrook and

10:09

I was having to pass right through on

10:11

the highway there. So it was literally

10:14

going to be right there. And so I, I

10:17

texted them asking if

10:19

I could come by and see my family.

10:21

And I, I was very humble about it. I

10:24

said, I'm sorry, I don't want to bother y'all.

10:26

Um,

10:27

I just want to be able to

10:30

see my family. Can I come by

10:32

and visit for a few minutes and

10:34

just say hello to my family?

10:37

There was no response.

10:38

So he decided to

10:40

drive straight to the community 20 minutes

10:43

away.

10:47

When I got there, I pulled

10:49

off into a Casey's convenience

10:51

store that was right there

10:54

in town and I texted him again

10:56

and said, Hey, I'm in Overbrook

10:58

right now, would it be fine

11:01

if I come by and see my family?

11:03

I immediately got a, right

11:05

now is not a good time. He fired a text

11:08

back. When would be a good

11:10

time?

11:12

No response. So he waited.

11:15

He pulled out of the Casey's driveway

11:18

and continued toward the homestead. He

11:20

was getting more nervous.

11:22

He texted again. Hey, I'm getting

11:24

a really weird feeling. Is

11:27

my family even there anymore?

11:30

Still no response. Anthony

11:33

replied, look,

11:34

I want to know right now, my family

11:37

is there and, and that's

11:39

what I got. No,

11:42

they're not here. Where

11:47

were they? Where had his children been

11:49

taken? And would he say

11:51

them again? Every

11:55

time I think about this, it just makes me start. It

12:00

was a very difficult day when that happened.

12:03

I just lost it. I was balling. I

12:06

mean uncontrollably weeping. Could

12:09

not stop and I was having

12:11

horrible thoughts go through my head thoughts

12:13

of just

12:14

you know, I just

12:16

horrible thoughts in the midst

12:19

of it. I thought man, I just

12:21

isn't the way I want to go. I don't want to

12:24

I need to reach out to somebody

12:26

and so I called Nicole and

12:29

I couldn't even couldn't

12:31

even say what was going on for

12:33

a while. I was just bald and

12:36

bald.

12:39

Nicole is Nicole Dorfman a

12:42

reporter for the CU Independent University

12:44

of Colorado's paper.

12:47

She has been working with Anthony since he left

12:49

the community in 2022 and

12:51

is aware how worried he is about

12:53

his family.

12:55

So when he called her sobbing one

12:57

night in April 23, she knew

12:59

what it meant. That night

13:01

was definitely a tough one. It was you know,

13:05

really traumatic for Tony and I can understand

13:08

that. Together they called the local

13:10

sheriff in Kansas and

13:12

put in a request to go check on the welfare of

13:14

my family and to find out where they were. So

13:17

the sheriff showed up and

13:20

before they showed up they called me personally

13:22

and said, hey listen, we need to know

13:24

if we need to go in with

13:26

assault rifles if we need backup.

13:29

We need to know what we're facing here.

13:32

And I said look they are an unarmed

13:35

group. I feel like that they

13:37

are dangerous but not in that. When

13:39

the cops visited the community, however, they

13:42

were told that Anthony's family had been

13:44

moved across the border to Colorado.

13:47

Nicole and Anthony then put a call in

13:50

to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office asking

13:53

them to do a welfare check on the six

13:55

kids.

13:57

A couple of hours later, they called

13:59

the cops again.

13:59

to see what had happened.

14:02

This is a recording of that phone call supplied

14:05

by Nicole. We've edited

14:07

it slightly for clarity. Hi,

14:10

this is Nicole Dorfman. I'm here with Tony.

14:14

So it seems like we reported

14:18

an instance of potential human trafficking about

14:20

a couple hours ago and it seems like you didn't

14:23

go to the community at all. Are you intending

14:25

on going to the community tonight?

14:27

Right, Ante didn't say anything about the

14:29

people being in danger. He said that,

14:31

as you said, that they were transferred from

14:33

Kansas to Boulder. So I need

14:36

to get more information to make sure that

14:38

Ante doesn't have any protection. Yes, they did. They

14:40

didn't hurt many times before with

14:42

no good medical care. So

14:51

yeah, I feel

14:53

like the federalized aren't in danger. I

14:56

don't feel like if we're trying to do it intentionally,

14:59

that they are such idiots that

15:01

they do stuff that put our

15:03

children in danger. Okay, can

15:05

you describe that a little more in detail? Well,

15:08

Ante, upset, listed the incidents. And

15:12

so there's

15:14

more information that's given to the Kansas jurisdiction and

15:16

they can investigate. I

15:18

obviously can't

15:20

fly out to Kansas to investigate an

15:22

iodine poisoning situation. I'm kidding. I

15:25

can tell Kansas needs to do

15:27

that on behalf of you. Just like

15:29

Ms. Nicole, no

15:31

offense, but Ms. Nicole can't have

15:34

me do a welfare check on your behalf or in

15:36

a different state, if that makes sense. Because

15:38

too many, we started playing telephone at that point

15:41

because she's telling me that

15:44

I'm not doing anything for a possible human

15:46

trafficking, but that's not what it's exactly,

15:48

it sounds like. It

15:51

sounds like you're more concerned that they took your family

15:53

from Kansas. Well, yeah, but

15:56

what's that? Will they

15:58

start hiding families and step back?

15:59

It does, yeah. It

16:02

does become that. And also we talked

16:04

to the Osage County Sheriff's Office, which

16:06

I mean, he even said that we

16:09

should contact the FBI. So if

16:11

he has reasonable cases to suspect that

16:13

it is human trafficking, then I don't understand

16:15

why you can't communicate to another jurisdiction and

16:18

talk to them. The detective

16:19

told Anthony he should go to the

16:21

Kansas police station he first called

16:24

and apply for something called an intent

16:27

to locate on his wife. I

16:29

mean, I understand that you're concerned because there's like

16:31

negligence going on with medical stuff.

16:33

But unfortunately, I can't go in or

16:36

go or go rank or angle

16:38

up your family and put them on a plane to Kansas.

16:40

That's not how this works. That would

16:42

be a very egregious violation of the Fourth

16:44

Amendment. The boot in someone's door

16:47

or what is essentially telling me that there's

16:49

a

16:49

medical neglect. Now what

16:51

I said I was like I was going to do once I got the information,

16:54

which I do now have, is I can go knock

16:56

on the door. I can't promise that they're going to come to

16:58

the door. I can't promise that they're

17:00

going to allow me to talk to you.

17:02

I can't promise that they're going to tell me that hey, it's even there

17:05

or the kids are there. That doesn't happen until

17:07

there's a court order or there's a warrant or

17:09

a search warrant or something like that. Okay,

17:12

so how can I do that when they're in

17:14

a different state that I was not made

17:16

privy with?

17:17

I mean, I

17:20

was just going to say the Osage County Sheriff's

17:22

Office said that they can't do anything at this point

17:24

because the family has been transferred

17:27

to your jurisdiction. At this point, it is

17:29

your responsibility to take care of the case

17:31

is what they told us.

17:33

Yeah, that's unfortunate.

17:35

It's not correct. It's

17:37

based on information. I mean, are you as

17:39

a reporter expecting you to go boot in this person's door?

17:42

I'm not expecting you to

17:44

boot in anybody's door. I'm expecting you to

17:46

go and investigate something. I don't

17:49

think that

17:50

if you don't have a search warrant that you can lawfully

17:52

go in there. That's not what I'm saying at all. But you haven't

17:54

even gone to the location. You waited

17:57

on information that you didn't have. You didn't

17:59

contact.

17:59

Tony or asked him for the birth dates, you just waited

18:02

for him to call you.

18:03

I definitely did text him

18:05

to ask him for that. You texted

18:08

him or called him? Yes, I have other

18:10

calls that I have to handle too. Understandable.

18:12

I texted him, he had an answer back and I texted him

18:14

twice and there was no response. So

18:18

I didn't know he was in

18:20

question, which is okay, it happens.

18:22

So now that I have that information, I was able

18:25

to do a little research to make sure like I said, this

18:27

person doesn't have any warrants, there's no protection

18:29

orders in place or anything like that, then yes, we're going to

18:31

go over there and like they said, knock on the door and

18:33

try to talk to them. But because

18:35

right now, as of right now, based

18:37

on the information that you're telling me, it's a welfare

18:40

check,

18:40

I can't force them to do anything. And

18:42

that's understandable. Yes. I

18:44

mean, that's understandable. We know that you're limited

18:47

in your resources that you

18:49

can't force in the door. That's not what we're

18:51

asking. What we're asking is for a welfare check.

18:53

That's it. Which is what

18:56

my plan is to get off the phone. I get another

18:58

deputy down here to go with me.

19:00

Okay. But the thing is, even when the officers go

19:02

knocking on the community's door in cases like

19:05

this, they can't do much without

19:07

evidence that children are in

19:08

danger. It's very difficult

19:11

because they can come in and say,

19:13

hey, is everything okay?

19:16

And Tony's wife will probably be like,

19:18

yes, because she has what,

19:20

at least 30 people watching.

19:23

And it's very, very difficult to

19:25

prosecute them in any situation,

19:28

even if it was human trafficking, which is not

19:30

considered to be in the US.

19:31

But if it was, they

19:33

still, whoever is investigating, would have

19:35

to say, okay, well, here's my number.

19:38

Let me know if you need anything. And that's all we can

19:40

do.

19:47

You're probably wondering why

19:49

Anthony doesn't just divorce his estranged

19:51

wife and petition the courts for

19:53

custody of his kids. That

19:55

would give him some legal recourse.

20:00

Well, for one thing, he doesn't have the resources.

20:03

He has little work, which means hardly

20:05

any money and no fixed address. Ten

20:08

years inside the tribe, without an income,

20:10

and work history has taken its toll. That

20:15

and his lack of knowledge of the legal system has

20:17

rendered him virtually powerless. And

20:20

there's also the complicating factor

20:23

that he still loves his wife. He

20:25

doesn't blame her for what's happening. He

20:27

just wants to be a family again. I

20:30

have been so all over the place

20:32

and, you know, a mess. There's

20:36

days that I don't even know how I get through

20:38

it, you know. There are days

20:40

where I wake up bawling and

20:43

end my day by bawling. So all

20:46

I can say on days like that

20:48

is I've gotten through. I'm still

20:50

alive.

20:53

As a journalist, Nicole has helped reconnect

20:55

ten families, whose children or

20:58

loved ones were hidden from

20:59

them inside the community. It

21:02

was a very difficult process

21:05

to even find them and get into contact with them. I

21:07

had to go to the community myself

21:10

and, you know, kind of stake out there

21:12

with a camera and get pictures

21:15

and all sorts of identification for the

21:18

families or the children are missing. But

21:21

it was definitely

21:23

really just a mixed bag because I was very happy to

21:25

see them get reconnected. But

21:30

also there's only so much you can do in that situation

21:32

as a journalist. And a lot

21:34

of the times, or a lot of the time,

21:37

it's not as easy as that. It's

21:39

a lot more difficult to convince the

21:42

children to leave, especially

21:44

when they've been born in.

21:46

Nicole has now spoken with more than 200 former 12

21:48

tribes members and

21:50

believes questions need to be asked by American

21:53

authorities.

21:53

Even back a couple of years ago after

21:56

we had evidence of all

21:58

this, you know, we had tickets.

21:59

pictures we had proof

22:03

and we had reached out to the FBI who

22:06

is knowledgeable of everything

22:08

that was going

22:09

on and essentially what they told

22:11

us is that due to freedom

22:13

of religion in the US and

22:15

especially after what occurred

22:17

in Island Pond

22:19

during the raid of 1984 they

22:22

don't really want to make a mistake

22:24

like that again. All this shady

22:27

stuff is going on and it's not being investigated.

22:30

Throughout all of this she's been

22:32

stonewalled by the 12 tribes much

22:35

like we have been when we've sought comment on

22:37

numerous issues. Yeah pretty much any time

22:40

I do a report

22:42

on them

22:42

because I have been reporting on them for the past three

22:44

years I do send

22:46

out a request the only reply

22:48

I've received is we've

22:50

received your message. They

22:54

don't deny anything they don't want to talk

22:56

to reporters and they know me because I went undercover

22:59

three years ago into the Boulder community so

23:03

they're very they're

23:06

not big fans of me.

23:10

We don't know the 12 tribes plan for Anthony's

23:13

family they declined to respond

23:15

to our inquiries.

23:24

I'm mourning over the you

23:27

know I don't know how else

23:29

to say it but I am absolutely mourning

23:32

it it's like it never ends

23:36

at all it never ends.

23:41

You know it's like being in a bad dream

23:44

I can't wake up from.

23:50

We know that the group has a long well-documented

23:53

history

23:54

of hiding children and estranged spouses

23:56

in the middle of custody disputes

23:58

and playing This is Courtney, a former member

24:01

of 30 years,

24:03

who we met in earlier episodes. You know,

24:05

in Allen Pond we had 14 houses

24:08

and some of them were right next to each

24:10

other or across the street from each other. It

24:13

was a little town, you know. I

24:16

think it was less than 5,000 people in the town. It's

24:20

one of those one street light, you know, towns. And

24:24

we had a store in the down, you

24:26

know, in the Central Park area. It was down, you know,

24:28

in the Central Park downtown Main Street.

24:32

And so a lot of times, when they were

24:34

looking for someone, they would first go

24:36

to the block, go

24:38

into the restaurant and ask which

24:41

house, because they don't know which house

24:43

they are. And it would be like playing

24:46

musical chairs, you know. They'd

24:49

go out the back door while we're talking to them

24:51

on the front door, and they'd

24:53

go around,

24:54

you know, into the woods or that backyard

24:57

neighbours and to another house. And

24:59

say, oh, I think we saw them over there. And they

25:01

would lead them from one house to another.

25:04

And they were always just, oh, you just missed them.

25:07

Several of these

25:09

cases have been in the press, and

25:11

some have even been the subject of FBI

25:13

investigations. Right, right, right.

25:16

Often, children and adults have

25:18

been shifted secretly between states

25:21

and even countries. Like Jessica.

25:26

You've already met Jessica from

25:28

episode six. She's

25:31

Paolo's wife and was known

25:33

in the community as a mooner. When

25:36

she was five, she, her mother

25:38

and stepfather joined the community. Her

25:41

dad was never a member, that he'd

25:43

always had a friendly arrangement with his ex,

25:46

that he could visit the little girl whenever he

25:48

wanted. Then when Jessica

25:50

was eight, the community in Ireland Pond

25:53

began attracting a lot of negative attention.

25:56

This

25:56

was September,

25:59

October. of 84 and

26:01

the raid had happened in June that year. So

26:04

the community was like on national television

26:07

multiple times. My grandmother saw

26:10

it. She was like super worried about me being there.

26:13

So he tried to serve Jessica's mother with

26:15

custody papers, but every time he

26:17

called into the community, he was told

26:19

that his ex-wife and Jessica weren't there. He

26:23

finally got a court order for Jessica to

26:25

come and stay with him in Florida. But by

26:27

that time, she was gone. They

26:33

had us leave the state in like a bus that was transformed into like

26:35

a mobile home when

26:37

my sister was five days old. So that

26:39

he couldn't take me.

26:43

It was really clear she wasn't allowed to leave the state.

26:45

And she did. For

26:50

nine months, they drove through the US and Canada, stopping

26:53

in various communities. But

26:56

it was dangerous to contact the leaders as

26:59

the group was under heavy scrutiny from the

27:01

FBI and even Interpol.

27:05

My stepdad was the only one that could call the community and

27:08

he could only talk to one person. He

27:10

was the only one that knew where we were and he

27:12

had to use a different name. We lived

27:15

at the farm in Nova Scotia for like six

27:17

months.

27:18

But then Interpol

27:21

went to look for me there. They had been this

27:23

whole time looking for me everywhere in the US. In

27:26

Nova Scotia, there was a farm. And it

27:28

was probably two or three hours away from the

27:30

other community. The other community was on the water

27:33

and they had a huge restaurant there. So

27:36

the police went to the restaurant and

27:38

searched everything. Because it was like a

27:41

four-floor building and the restaurant was

27:43

on the first floor and people lived above it. So

27:45

they went into every

27:46

room and searched everything. And they

27:48

called the farm and told us the police were there

27:50

looking for me. And my stepdad put a blanket

27:53

on the floor and said, anything you want,

27:55

put on the blanket. And we left the farm in

27:57

five minutes. So they didn't know if the police

27:59

were already. on their way there too. So

28:02

we went to

28:04

a hotel for a night and then

28:07

we flew to Boston. But

28:09

we weren't allowed to go to the community there. We stayed

28:11

in a hotel there for a few days, got

28:13

visas to Brazil. They needed

28:16

a place to send me to get

28:18

me away from my father and the situation

28:20

here in the US. By now, it

28:22

was 1988 and Jessica's

28:25

mother was wanted in the US for kidnapping

28:27

her daughter and breaching custody

28:30

orders.

28:35

And we flew out like six days later. I

28:38

didn't even know what language they spoke there. My

28:41

mom and my stepdad went

28:44

to Brazil along with another couple to

28:46

start a community there. And during all

28:48

this time, I couldn't like write letters or talk

28:50

to any of my friends

28:52

or like I could have no communication

28:55

during any of this time. And then we went to Brazil

28:57

and for another two years, I didn't talk

28:59

to anyone.

29:04

And I didn't see my dad for 12 years. While

29:11

in Brazil, she met and married

29:13

Paolo, known as Yadoutin,

29:15

a bright young guy who was

29:17

rising up the ranks in the Brazilian community.

29:21

In 2000, the community moved

29:23

Jessica and Paolo to the US. With

29:27

Paolo's encouragement, Jessica

29:29

reached out to her father. So,

29:35

looked him up, called him and

29:37

we started visiting him. I was 20. I

29:41

hadn't seen him since I was eight. I really

29:45

didn't know him. Not

29:50

only had I not seen him very

29:52

much, but it was like so

29:55

ingrained that growing up with

29:58

him would have been like being in the world. and

30:03

just

30:05

scared of hearing police sirens or anything the

30:07

whole time. I didn't know when I was

30:09

just going to be taken.

30:11

Jessica remembers it as a strange and painful

30:14

time with grief and joy in

30:16

equal measure. Four years later,

30:19

police finally caught up with Jessica's

30:21

mother. Police arrested Lynn

30:23

Delosier, 48, at the Basin

30:25

Farm in Bellows Falls, home of 12

30:27

tribes, a religious community for

30:29

custodial interference.

30:31

It goes on. Investigators

30:33

used an active arrest warrant, which dated back

30:35

to February 11, 1988.

30:38

The court affidavit alleged that the married

30:40

couple had consistently and persistently

30:42

conspired to not comply

30:44

to the Superior Court's parental rights orders,

30:47

despite repeated warnings. The

30:49

affidavit also said the couple had renamed

30:52

the girl, allegedly creating a further

30:54

separation between her and her father.

30:57

Craig Delosier said he and his wife were

30:59

young at the time and thought everything was

31:02

over since the girl had reconciled with

31:04

her father.

31:05

Lynn Delosier was 32 in 1988, according to court documents.

31:11

It's not like we're living like fugitives

31:13

or something, he said. We're just

31:15

surprised something like this is being

31:18

brought up.

31:18

Someone told them where she was. She

31:21

was living back in southern Vermont.

31:23

Like, they could have put her in any community.

31:26

She was living back in southern Vermont. She was arrested. She

31:29

was taken to jail for a night

31:31

and they bailed her out. It's

31:34

a lot of money. They

31:37

bailed her out and

31:40

she had to sign

31:42

in the police station for like a year during the whole case.

31:45

But the judge was like, I took

31:47

my kids

31:48

and pictures of them with my dad and all that.

31:52

I had been married for like six or seven

31:54

years at the time. I had two

31:56

kids. I was pregnant with my third. kind

32:00

of too late, you know. The

32:03

judge was like, I think that whatever

32:06

punishment I give her isn't going to stop

32:08

the next mom that just wants to run off with her

32:10

kid. And the point

32:12

of this is

32:15

to reconnect the

32:17

daughter with her father, which obviously has already happened.

32:19

So that

32:22

was that. The group's

32:24

history is littered with similar stories.

32:27

But one case would eclipse all others

32:29

in the eyes of the public and create

32:31

a fully fledged media storm.

32:38

It's the 1990s and Jerry

32:40

Springer, a veritable Godzilla

32:42

of American daytime television, rules

32:45

the airwaves with his tabloid talk

32:47

show, a circus of middle

32:49

American moral panics, including

32:52

adultery, race wars and on

32:54

air Jell-O wrestling.

32:58

And so it was then in 1994, Springer, the

33:02

ringmaster, managed the impossible,

33:05

getting senior 12 tribes members to

33:07

appear on his show.

33:09

I hope that the boys end

33:11

up staying with their father. But it's

33:14

not your decision. It's not your judgment. It's

33:16

not your judgment to make. You're not the judge.

33:18

I know. You asked me. I asked you, will you

33:20

help her? No, I won't help her. I

33:22

was invited to do the Jerry Springer

33:25

show and Eddie Weissman

33:27

was on the show. Jeannie

33:29

Swanko, his wife, who's an attorney.

33:31

This is cult deprogrammer Rick Alan

33:34

Ross talking about a case he worked

33:36

on with a woman named Laurie Johnson,

33:39

whose two boys were abducted in 1989 by her

33:41

estranged husband and 12 tribes

33:43

member

33:46

Steve Wooten. This mom's six and 10

33:48

year old sons were kidnapped four

33:50

and a half years ago, not by a stranger,

33:53

but by her ex-husband, whom she claims

33:56

is part of a religious cult, a

33:58

cult that is keeping her children from

34:00

her.

34:02

Joining

34:02

us now is Jean Swanko. She is

34:05

a member and attorney for the community of believers.

34:08

Eddie Wiseman is her husband and one

34:10

of the leaders of this community and

34:12

sitting next to them is Rick Ross.

34:15

He's a nationally recognized cult expert.

34:18

Okay first let me start with Eddie

34:20

and Jean. You have heard backstage

34:23

these are pretty serious allegations that are being

34:25

made. How do you respond to them? Well

34:29

it's a lot to respond to in a little bit of time but

34:31

I guess really people

34:33

make choices in their life

34:35

and then they are accountable

34:37

for the choices that they make. Swanko

34:40

is on stage sitting next to her husband

34:42

Eddie who is in light blue long

34:44

sleeve shirt and slacks with long hair

34:47

in a neat ponytail and beard. Jeanie

34:50

is wearing a white puffy sleeve blouse and

34:52

navy pinafore dress with her hair

34:54

tightly pulled back in a low pony. What

34:56

I see is the problem is

34:59

she's changed her mind but instead

35:01

of saying that she's changed her mind and

35:03

she no longer believes what she believes

35:05

then she tries to come

35:08

against us as the community and

35:10

her husband and say that what

35:12

we... her husband excuse me... and her former husband

35:14

and what we believe is wrong. Yeah

35:17

right now I understand it but right

35:19

now it seems from the outside she simply

35:22

wants to see her kids and it's

35:24

hard for those of us in the outside to believe that

35:26

you couldn't be a little more help than your being

35:29

in finding out where he is. I guess maybe

35:31

she should have thought about what the harm

35:33

that might come to her children would be before

35:36

she totally abandoned them left

35:38

them for several months of activity gave

35:40

herself to total promiscuity and knowingly

35:44

had all sex with a man who

35:46

had

35:47

eggs. Wow! What

35:49

had eggs? I would add no choice

35:51

to leave the community they expelled

35:53

me from the community when I begged crawling half

35:56

naked to stay with my children I did

35:58

not abandon my children.

35:59

Indeed, when Laurie Johnson left the community,

36:02

she had taken their children with her. But

36:05

one day, after a scheduled visit with

36:07

their father,

36:08

they never came home.

36:10

This is Eddie Wiseman,

36:12

Gene Sprigg's second-in-command. The group

36:14

is not controlling Stephen Wooten.

36:17

Are you paying Stephen? I can live with you. We

36:19

don't know where Stephen Wooten is. Today, the meeting, you don't know. You

36:21

can't find him. I can't find him. I do not know

36:23

where he is. Tomorrow, you don't know. We're not law enforcement,

36:26

Jerry. Yes. We're the church. We're

36:28

not law enforcement. We interviewed Rick

36:31

Alan Ross 28 years after

36:33

he appeared on the show. Later, I bumped

36:36

into them

36:37

at the hotel and I said

36:39

to them, look, if you want people

36:41

to think you're not a bad cult, why

36:44

don't you just provide the children

36:46

to Laurie, bring them out.

36:48

It's what you have to do legally. And

36:51

I even quoted the Bible to them. I

36:53

said, doesn't the New Testament teach that

36:56

you must obey civil authority?

36:58

I mean, that's what Jesus taught. He said,

37:00

given the Caesar that which is Caesars.

37:03

And you're not doing that. You're withholding

37:06

the children illegally. And

37:08

they kept saying, we don't know where they are. We

37:10

don't know where they are. And I said, that's

37:13

rubbish.

37:14

You absolutely know where they are. Why

37:16

are you lying about it? So the

37:18

good thing that came out of that Jerry Springer

37:20

show was that the boys, their

37:23

photos were out there. People were looking

37:26

for them.

37:31

By 1994, the tribes had learnt from past mistakes.

37:34

They didn't keep the

37:36

Woottons in communities themselves. Instead,

37:40

they kept them in private houses dotted

37:42

around the country.

37:45

Remember how earlier in the series,

37:47

we mentioned how the tribes owned an extensive real estate portfolio,

37:49

including homes that apparently sat empty most of

37:52

the time. Over

37:55

the years, many of them had been gifted to

37:57

the group.

37:59

group by prospective members. But

38:02

often, someone from the group would move in

38:04

to help renovate or just house sit. This

38:07

is apparently how Steve Wooten lived

38:10

undetected for almost a decade.

38:13

While in hiding, Steve met

38:15

and married another woman. Courtney

38:19

remembers staying with him in a member's home.

38:23

And so that's where I visited

38:25

with Julie and Steve.

38:28

Julie had black hair at that time. She was

38:30

keeping her hair dyed because it was normally reddish

38:34

brown, more brownish red.

38:37

You know, it just wasn't

38:39

like flaming red, but it was a brownish

38:41

red. And Steve Wooten didn't

38:44

have his hair tied back. And

38:47

he didn't have, you know, he was clean shaven.

38:50

And the boys looked

38:52

like regular people. They didn't look from

38:55

the community. The two boys

38:57

changed their names,

38:59

and Steve used fake identities or

39:01

borrowed them from other tribes members.

39:04

One day, Courtney saw a different name

39:06

on Steve's car registration

39:08

papers. I just said, hey, who

39:10

is Steve Wooten? And he laughed. He goes,

39:13

oh, that was my name for

39:15

a while. You know, he had a driver's license. He

39:17

showed me. He had a driver's license.

39:20

He had all these IDs. And

39:22

there was another member who actually's

39:25

name was Steve Wilson.

39:28

And so he used this

39:30

other man's ID.

39:38

After the Jerry Springer show in 1994, posters of the boys appeared

39:43

in shop windows and on lamp

39:46

posts. There were also missing

39:48

persons ads on TV. And

39:51

by April 1997, after

39:54

eight years on the run, the game

39:56

was finally up. The

39:58

search for the Wooten boys.

39:59

ended with a raid on a property in

40:02

Florida.

40:04

This is a snippet from a piece in the Buffalo

40:06

News newspaper, a month after

40:08

the boys were returned. After eight

40:10

years on the run with cult, boys

40:13

readjust to life with mother. Wooten

40:15

defended his flight with the boys. In

40:18

my heart I was resolved that whatever I went

40:20

through was for the sake of the boys, he said.

40:23

Jean Swatko, a lawyer and community member,

40:26

said Wooten had no choice but to run with

40:28

the boys. The courts would not

40:31

treat him fairly, she said. He

40:33

knew in his conscience that he could not

40:35

turn them over to her.

40:37

In the months since, with the help from a hired

40:40

cult deprogrammer, the boys

40:42

have reclaimed Mrs. Johnson as their

40:44

mother, and the word mom now

40:46

comes naturally from their lips. Mrs.

40:49

Johnson, who declined to have her sons

40:51

interviewed, said the boys look forward to living

40:53

a normal life.

40:54

And it was a very difficult

40:57

deprogramming, because those boys

40:59

had been raised in 12 tribes, and

41:02

they didn't know anything but living

41:04

in 12 tribes.

41:07

By the time they were reunited with their

41:09

mother, the boys were 12 and 17 years

41:11

old.

41:15

And they confided in me that

41:17

the group had moved them around, that

41:20

they had seen Jean Spriggs, aka

41:24

the prophet, Yoneh, the leader

41:26

and founder of the group, they had seen him,

41:28

he knew where they were, he was

41:30

managing where they were being

41:33

moved to. It was like a shell game,

41:35

they were being moved from place to place. And

41:38

what I realised is that even

41:40

in the situation with these two children, he

41:43

was involved, personally,

41:45

hands on. Charges against

41:47

Steve were dropped by Vermont

41:49

Court in 1998, but

41:51

reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2000.

41:56

He ended up spending close to a year in

41:58

custody.

42:02

Upon his release, the community

42:05

in Cambridge, New York held a summer

42:07

banquet welcoming him with open arms.

42:12

It's difficult to say how many families

42:14

have been hidden over the years, but

42:17

it's also important to acknowledge that

42:19

in some cases the 12 tribes were

42:21

genuinely afraid for the safety of their

42:24

members and children and had legitimate

42:26

reasons for hiding people, for

42:28

example from abusive partners.

42:33

Cult deprogrammers, starting

42:35

with Ted Patrick in the 1970s, have also made misguided

42:38

and sometimes

42:41

illegal efforts to remove

42:43

members from the group against their will.

42:48

In 2015, three

42:50

people were arrested for allegedly

42:52

kidnapping a man from the 12 tribes

42:54

community in Southern California.

42:57

The trio, including a cult

42:59

deprogrammer, were caught by police

43:02

after reportedly abducting the 23-year-old

43:05

who had been living with the 12 tribes since

43:07

he was a teenager.

43:10

His family claimed that he'd been brainwashed.

43:15

The three alleged kidnappers were

43:17

never charged. The young man,

43:19

meanwhile, returned to live with the 12

43:21

tribes.