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Busloads of women, children taken from Texas polygamist compound

1 hour, 48 minutes ago

By Michelle Roberts, The Associated Press

ELDORADO, Texas - Authorities who removed 219 women and children from a polygamist compound were struggling Sunday to determine whether they had the 16-year-old girl whose report of an underage marriage led them to raid the sprawling rural property.

Many people at the compound, built by followers of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are related to one another and share similar names.

Investigators said in some cases they were giving different names at different times.

Investigators on Sunday bused them out of Eldorado, northwest of San Antonio, as other law enforcement agents continued to search for more children and evidence at the compound, the former site of an exotic game ranch.

State troopers armed with a search warrant raided the compound on Friday to look for evidence of a marriage between the girl, who allegedly had a baby at 15, and a 50-year-old man.

Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

The women and children were taken out of the compound Friday and Saturday and had been staying in a local church and civic centre.

By midday Sunday, dozens of women and children, mostly girls, were seen boarding buses on their way to San Angelo, a larger nearby town. The women wore long pastel dresses and many carried bedding; several had infants.

Officers entered the temple on the grounds late Saturday, but by Sunday they still had not located the 16-year-old whose initial report of abuse led to the raid.

"There were some tense moments last night, but everything has remained calm and peaceful and they are continuing their search," said Allison Palmer, a prosecutor from a nearby county who is handling the case.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said investigators are trying to determine whether the girl who called authorities last week was among those removed from the compound.

Meisner said the adults are co-operating with investigators and she didn't believe any had been forced to leave the compound.

Investigators also were looking for the man the girl allegedly married, Dale Barlow. Palmer said other law enforcement agencies "know where (Barlow) is and have talked to him, but our investigators have not."

Barlow's probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.

"He said the authorities had called him (in Colorado City, Ariz.) and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn't even know who she was," said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

Palmer said Texas authorities have been in contact with those in Arizona but have not yet talked to Barlow. No arrests have been made.

Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking her to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the white temple can be seen on the horizon. Authorities kept onlookers several kilometres away from the compound.

A caravan of K-9 unit vehicles were seen headed down the road to the compound on Sunday morning. Palmer said she couldn't say whether authorities had entered all of the compound's many buildings but called it "a detailed search."

Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz.

He's awaiting trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.

In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.