This story is very troubling on so many levels. I am glad they went in and took the girls, boys and babies, but I am a bit nervous about their safety being on the outside. Why? Being confined to that camp was the only life they knew and they are not or should I say, were not aware of what goes on outside. I do believe that human nature took over when the 16 year old called for help. She instinctively knew that being forced to get married and have sex with a 50 year old man was wrong.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
Here is a follow up story:
Nearly 220 women and children removed from the secretive polygamist sect’s compound in Schleicher County have been relocated this afternoon to San Angelo so state child case workers can better interview them in a neutral setting, officials said today.
The state’s Child Protective Services agency has removed 159 children from the compound, which local and state authorities are in their fourth day of searching.
CPS moved the women and children because San Angelo has more resources to provide both the girls and case workers.
“We are still in the midst of interview them,” said Marleigh Meisner, CPS spokeswoman, adding that CPS still has yet to identify the 16-year-old girls whose phone calls last weekend led to the Thursday night raid of the compound.
The women and children who were removed from the compound were bused to Fort Concho National Historic Landmark in San Angelo, where Meisner said they could be housed in one place and medical and other services would be more accessible. Most of those who boarded buses in Eldorado were women and girls, dressed in long pastel dresses. Many were carrying bedding.
The state Department of Family and Protective Services has offices in the Ralph Chase building next to the fort.
I am afraid it is Far worse than you fear. While it is true (or may be true), there was child sexual abuse going on. That is Nothing compared to the CPS in-Terror-gations the children are about to face. For more on that, read the following post from The Trash Dispatch “Here”
Better the children had been arrested and taken to jail, than to fall into the hands of the CPS. May God Help them.
So you believe that the CPS is going to question them and somehow that will be far worse than 11 and 12 year old girls being forced to have sex with 50 year old men?
I think not!
Did you even Read the article? Have you, yourself, ever witnessed the atrocities of a CPS investigation? The threats? The Coercion? The Brain-washing? (note: these things were also covered in an ABC News investigation. They are Not something I made up.)
Was it Your little girl they Forced to Play “Mommy and Daddy” with sexually explicit (anatomically correct) dolls?
Was it Your little girl they coerced into testifying against her father simply to Please the CPS Officer?
Have you ever sat on a Grand Jury and listened to the testimony of a CPS Official?
I think not!
You said it yourself Pam; “I am a bit nervous about their safety being on the outside”. I too worry for their safety. Just maybe on a different level than you do.
For it is, as I said. The Muslims do Exactly the Same Thing in their marriage practices, but do you see the CPS going after them? No! Why? Because this is not about child sexual abuse, Pam. This is about “Due Process” and “Equal Justice Under the Law”. Yes, child sexual abuse is wrong. But once those Constitutions are gone, what matters anything else, but Slavery?
A Muslim man in Dallas Murdered his two daughters for the sake of “his honor”, as it was a Shame to him for his daughters to “dress” like Americans. The man is now wanted for murder. But Not, for child abuse! Go figure.
Oh, and just for the record; “I HATE Pedophiles!” But I’ll be damned before I throw out the constitution and take the law into my own hands. That ain’t right, Pam. And you will never convince me that it is.
I think people should be free to do their own thing, but not when it involves abusing children and this whackjob pervert and his cronies are apparently major abusers.
Whay a sick situation; over 400 kids and these victimized women. Imagine how difficult this is going to be to sort this all out? And logistically, what to do with 400 kids?
This nutjob leader and his lietuenants, if convicted, should die in prison.
No, but I am guessing it was your daughter testifying against you..
I am thinking you were not on the grand jury but the topic of
Pam, you have judged, and that is not wise. Nevertheless as you have judged, so too I judge.
I suspected as much from you, and that is sad. For it only shows that “in spirit”, you cannot see past the pain and the agony of your own torment. And for that, I am sorry.
For “in truth” it means, there is no longer any use in talking to you. But in “deed”? Oh in deed it means, that you have become that which you hate. And that you are, your own worst enemy.
I’m sorry Pam. I really am. But need I say anything more? No. For in spirit, you, will say it all.
=))
Now that I have stopped laughing at that, let’s get to the issue. These people living in the compound are free to practice their religion as long as the religious practice does not break any laws. Keeping people against their will is kidnapping, a crime. Having sex with underage children is a crime and forcing them to marry in order to have the sex is a crime. At last count, 450 people had been removed. It does not mean that all 450 people have been raped or beaten.
The Muslim man accused of the “honor killings” involving his two daughters is on the run but he will be caught. The man hasn’t been caught, nor has he been arrested. Did they write up all the charges they plan to bring against him? When he is arrested, he will be charged with 2 counts of murder. I wish they would go for the capital crime but I bet they won’t.