Affidavit: Teen bride's cry for help led to raid (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

From Ed Lavandera
CNN

SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Tipped that girls as young as 13 were being forced to enter "spiritual marriages," have sex and bear children, Texas officials raided an isolated polygamist retreat in West Texas, according to court documents released Tuesday.

The information came from a 16-year-old girl who called a family violence hot line March 29, "expressing the need to leave her current living situation," according to the affidavit.

The teen bride said she was in an abusive "spiritual" marriage to an older sect member, the documents stated. She reported that she was the man's seventh wife and had been beaten and choked.

She said she had been hospitalized in the past with cracked ribs and hoped to escape the abuse by faking a medical condition.
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The affidavit said while child welfare workers and law enforcement officers were searching the ranch, they saw a number of apparently pregnant teen girls who appeared to be minors and others who already had children.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/08/texas.ranch/index.html

[thereismore]

1. Fuckers. nt

[crikkett]

2. it takes a lot of guts to ask for help like that

if it goes wrong the consequences are dire.

She's a very brave girl, she freed her whole community, that camp is closed, the horrors are over. I'm very proud of her.

[Wanet]

3. I'm so afraid for her safety

She hasn't been located yet, as far as they know. I pray that she hasn't been harmed -- her "husband" and the other men in the compound would probably not hesitate to beat or even murder her. Her courage saved all those children and the mothers who chose to leave.