DNA Not Working & FLDS Man Dies

Clashing stories, similar DNA hurt FLDS prosecution
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5922407.html

Excerpts

"The problem isn't so much proving the issue that there had been sexual contact," Marrus said. "The bigger issue is proving who did it. ... So unless the child testifies that she had sex with a Mr. A or Mr. B, you don't have any proof who did it."

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After interviewing more than a dozen teen girls inside one of the sect's 19 lodge-like homes on the night of April 3, CPS investigators reported evidence that not only were underage girls married, but also some became mothers before turning 18. Concerned that younger girls and boys were being raised in an environment where girls could be made wives once they menstruated, CPS and law enforcement huddled with state District Judge Barbara Walther, who ordered all children to be removed.

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The confusing tangle of family relationships within a sect where a handful of families have intermarried for decades and often use the same names has been a major hurdle for both CPS and the Texas Attorney General's Office now prosecuting the case.

According to one state source close to the investigation who asked not to be identified, at least 5 percent of DNA samples taken from children and parents was so similar when compared, it could not be determined in those cases which child belonged to which parent.

Also, investigators have complained of inconsistent stories from young women about whether they were married to adult men.

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However, despite the silence or varying versions about who is related or married to whom, investigators have been aided by an unlikely source: the sect's penchant for writing journals, recording family trees and scrapbooking their lives.

This practice appears to be one adopted by many members, including the young girls who write about their hopes to be united in marriage to a worthy FLDS man, an act considered their legacy and duty to their breakaway Mormon faith.

In a Dec. 27, 2006, entry submitted recently to Walther's court, a teenage daughter of FLDS president Warren Jeffs wrote: "The Lord blessed me to go forward in marriage July 27, 2006, the day after I turned 15 years old."

The girl also kept scrapbooks that included pictures of her passionately kissing her new husband, 34-year-old Raymond Jessop. In another picture, she is seen seated closely to her husband on a couch.

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"I was shown that I should perform three marriage sealings tonight," states a journal entry dictated by Warren Jeffs in which he describes marrying off his daughter and two others on July 27, 2006.

"I did gather my daughter and her mother Annette in this afternoon and gave her a training on how to be a heavenly wife and to get close to her husband," Jeffs stated.

The girl's own diary, excerpted and attached in the court filing, corroborated that series of events.




FLDS man dies

this story didn't get much press, but it was on the front page of http://www.myeldorado.net/ a little while after it happened.

The Success has learned that William Sunderland Jessop, 29, died Thursday, July 31, 2008, of unknown causes at the YFZ Ranch. The official cause of death has not been released pending an autopsy but, authorities say they do not suspect foul play. Jessop was the son of YFZ overseer Merril F. Jessop. He is believed to be survived by two wives and at least six children, as well as his parents and numerous brothers and sisters.