The Two Fawns




The Two Fawns
Together, the two girls who were best friends and both named Fawn, ran away from Colorado City, Arizona. They each feared that they would be married against their will. Their only wish was to just be able to be "normal" teenagers. The state of Arizona soon declared them "Fugitives". How did their yearning for freedom become such a bureaucratic nightmare? Read the story of their attempting to escape from becoming "child brides" in polygamous celestial marriages. These articles are in chronological order.


Seeking shelter in a storm
Amid flurry of controversy, girls flee polygamous enclave
By Betty Webb East Valley Tribune Originally published January 15, 2004
Flora Jessop was 16 when she fled a forced marriage to her cousin in the community of Colorado City in northern Arizona nearly 18 years ago. On Sunday, she helped two other 16-year-old girls escape life under the area's polygamous stronghold and the forced marriages she said were sure to come. "I knew at 13 that I didn't want to live like that," said Fawn Louise Broadbent, 16, who is staying at a safe house in Phoenix. "I want to be able to choose who I'm going to marry, and I want to go to a real school, not a church school. And I want to be a clothing designer, not somebody's 15th wife." "How can you be happy if you don't have a choice?" asked her friend Fawn Holm, 16. The girls spoke to the Tribune this week even as state officials were scrambling to address their situation. At least one state senator called on state officials to intervene to protect the girls, who fled just as a controversy flared up in the polygamist community this week. Read more


Colorado City upheaval could be big break
By Le Templar East Valley Tribune Originally published January 16, 2004
A feud that escalated this week between leading families of Colorado City and the escape of two 16-year-old girls might shed new light on allegations of child abuse and welfare fraud in the isolated, polygamous community, Gov. Janet Napolitano said Thursday. But Napolitano admitted to the Tribune's editorial board that years of investigation have failed to resolve frequent reports of underage girls being forced to marry older men at the behest of community and religious leader Warren Jeffs. Napolitano said a close-knit society, combined with the broad protections granted to parents under state law, has thwarted efforts to collect evidence of possible child rape and other crimes. "Don't just sit at the table and ask �What are you going to do,' " Napolitano said. "Give me a suggestion. We are at wits' end unless you want to go in and declare martial law." Read more


Two girls from polygamist families safe in Phoenix
By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published January 17, 2004
ST. GEORGE -- Like many Colorado City girls, Flora Jessop said she was ordered at age 14 to marry a man with five wives. Unlike most Colorado City girls, she ran away. She walked about 60 miles on foot across the desert, only to be found on the streets in St. George and returned to her father. She would run four more times in the next four years, be locked up for three years, baptized nine times in public, sexually abused by her father, beaten repeatedly and mentally tortured. "The reality is, when these kids are turned over, they pay dearly," said Jessop, 33, who finally fled successfully in 1986. "Sometimes I wonder how I succeeded, too. Then I look around. I saw these kids. I succeeded so these kids don't have to go through what I went through." This is true for the two most recent runaways, Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm. In the aftermath of the recent shakeup in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the two-16-year-olds fled in Jessop's van on Sunday, for fear that the Prophet Warren Jeffs would order them to marry older men. On Friday night, the girls received court orders from the Maricopa County Juvenile Court in Phoenix, protecting them from being returned to homes they no longer miss. Read more


Push to free kids from sect growing
By Mary K. Reinhart East Valley Tribune Originally published January 20, 2004
Most of the children who ran from the Colorado City polygamist community over the weekend have returned, but four others reportedly left Monday and more were expected to try to flee their isolated hilltop homes in the days ahead. Conflicting stories and rumors swirled about the teens who fled Saturday to a home in St. George, Utah, including just how many there were. Their whereabouts, as well as how and why they might have gone home, also was in dispute late Monday. What appeared clear, however, was a growing momentum on the part of antipolygamist activists to free teens from the closed society that they say condones forced marriages and child abuse, and a willingness on the part of authorities in Arizona and Utah to help the children. "We're hoping that lots of them will come out while they have the opportunity," said Flora Jessop, who last week brought two 16-year-old girls from Colorado City to live in Phoenix. "We hope to get the message to these kids that they are going to be safe." State Child Protective Services confirmed that Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent are in state custody. Jessop said they are living with a foster family whose licensing was expedited by the Arizona Attorney General's Office, allowing a juvenile court judge to make the girls temporary state wards pending a CPS investigation. "They are absolutely doing amazing for these kids and offering protection and guaranteeing that they won't be sent back," she said of Arizona officials. Read more


Girls flee polygamous sect as leader splits families
By Nick Madigan The New York Times Originally published January 31, 2004
Colorado City, Arizona -- A power struggle between members of a fundamentalist Mormon sect has exposed deep fissures in the largest polygamous community in North America, a town in which most men have several wives and sometimes dozens of children. A handful of congregants normally subservient to the dictates of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have begun to rebel against his rule. The rebellion was put in motion this month when Mr Jeffs expelled more than 20 men from the church, separating them from their wives and children and forcing them from their houses, over which the church claims ownership through a land trust that Mr Jeffs controls. Invariably, in such purges, an excommunicated man's wives and children are placed under the control of another man, who may then marry whomever he chooses, including the female children, church members say. In recent days, at least three teenage girls have fled Colorado City, just south of the Utah border, with the help of anti-polygamy advocates. One of the girls said she had escaped to avoid being married, on Mr Jeffs's orders, to a man many years her senior, a common practice here. Read more


CPS FAILS THE FAWN'S; CPS FAILS MADDIE
NEWS RELEASE
Statements by Joni Holm and Flora Jessop Press Conference held at 11 am Tuesday, February 17, 2004 CPS offices located at 3802 North 53rd Avenue, Phoenix, AZ
I am Joni Holm, the sister in law of Fawn Holm, one of the 16 year old runaways from Colorado City. Myself and my husband Carl, Fawn's older brother, are willing to provide care and security for both Fawn's. My husband and I are convinced that the best interest of the girls is served by placing them with loving family members living outside of the polygamy system. My husband was raised in Colorado City and he understands the abuses that children suffer inside. Crimes were committed against my husband by his father and also against his baby sister, Fawn. This is the main reason why she left home in the first place. I was not raised in Colorado City, nor in polygamy. We can provide the mentoring and love these girls need at this time to transition to the outside world. Read more


Girls from polygamous homes flee CPS
By Karina Bland The Arizona Republic Originally published February 18, 2004
Two girls placed in state foster care last month after fleeing from the polygamous community of Colorado City are on the run again. The 16-year-olds left Sunday while on a weekend camping trip in west Phoenix, said Flora Jessop of Phoenix, a former Colorado City resident who left as a teenager in 1986. She said the girls were scared they would be returned to their parents. In letters they left behind, Jessop said, the girls wrote that they feared being locked up or forced to marry much older men if they were sent home. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Liz Barker said Tuesday that police have been notified, and law enforcement officials statewide have orders to hold the girls if they find them. Barker said CPS had no plans to return the teenagers to their parents. Earlier this month, a 17-year-old who also ran away from Colorado City was returned to her parents. An investigation determined that child was not in danger. Jessop said the other two girls knew the 17-year-old: "They were very, very afraid that that's what was going to happen to them." Read more


Girls from Polygamous Homes Flee
John Hollenhorst Reporting KSL TV Channel 5 Original broadcast February 18, 2004
Two teenage girls who ran away from a polygamist community on the Utah Arizona border are drawing attention to another tough issue involving parental rights: Do polygamist parents have the same right as anyone else to maintain control of their kids? Because of a membership shakeup in the polygamist town of Colorado City, critics have been predicting a flood of teenage runaways for weeks. That hasn't happened. But two teenage girls are currently unaccounted for and they highlight a troubling issue for authorities. The girls fled Colorado City several weeks ago. 16-year olds Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent first went to anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop. Arizona authorities placed the girls in a temporary home, but they fled again last weekend, fearing the state will send them back to their parents. Fawn Holm's brother who lives in Sandy is offering his home as an option. Carl Holm, Fawn Holm's brother: "I think they need to be in some schools and I think they need to be around family. And I think they need to be around people who understand what they've been through and what they're gonna be going through." The girls left letters spelling out their feelings about Colorado City. "I do not want to go back," Fawn Holm wrote, "because I will be locked up and even married." Fawn Broadbent wrote the polygamy community is like prison: "I won't go back, so I guess I'm going to be running until I'm 18." Read more


Missing Girls
Glendale Police Department City of Glendale, Arizona Originally published February 19, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 19, 2004 CONTACT: Matthew Brown Public Information Officer 623-930-3060 GLENDALE, Ariz. � The Glendale Police Department is asking for the public's help in locating two missing girls. Fawn Holm, 16-years old and Fawn Broadbent, 15-years old, of Glendale, were reported missing on Sunday, February 15th. The girls were last seen at an outing in the West Valley on Saturday, February 14th. Fawn Holm is described as a 16-year old white female, five feet seven inches in height, 160 pounds with red hair. Fawn Broadbent is described as a 15-year old white female, five feet four inches in height, 150 pounds with red hair. Read more


FLDS girls flee Arizona safe house
Child protection officers, police search for teens
By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published Thursday, February 19, 2004
ST. GEORGE -- Two Colorado City girls who fled to Phoenix amid turmoil inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ran away from their safe house last weekend, prompting a police investigation and a hunt by Arizona Child Protective Services. Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm, both 16 years old when they escaped from the polygamist enclave on Jan. 11, were found missing Sunday from their placement home owned by a private music teacher in Phoenix. In two signed, hand-written letters dated Saturday, the girls said they were afraid that CPS would send them back to Colorado City, which the agency denies. "I do not want to go back because I will be locked up and even married," Broadbent, who turned 17 over the weekend, wrote in a single-page letter provided to The Spectrum. "I am not happy with CPS because they are not doing their job and are lying." The girls' disappearance came two weeks after CPS returned another 17-year-old Colorado City girl, who had run away to St. George and spent two weeks in Utah and Arizona state custody. Despite the girl's claim that her father had hit her in the head and beaten her with a willow branch, officials from both states said they found no abuse in the girl's parents' home. Read more


2 runaways hiding again
They fear being sent back to Colorado City
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, February 20, 2004
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. � Two teenage girls who ran away from their Colorado City homes last month are in hiding again, this time from the Arizona officials who are trying to help them. The girls, who were placed in Arizona protective custody after Flora Jessop, an anti-polygamy activist, drove them one night from Utah to Phoenix, are now the focus of a search by Arizona officials. "We want them back and we want them back safe," said Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. "We don't know where they are right now." Most of the residents in the twin border towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Polygamy is a central tenet of the FLDS Church, and most children grow up in homes with strict moral codes of conduct and little contact with outside media or influences. Colorado City's runaway teens ran again, said Jessop, because they feared Arizona officials were planning to send them back to their parents in Colorado City. Read more


Colorado City girls are in hiding, say Arizona officials
2 teenagers are believed to be in the Phoenix area
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published Tuesday, March 2, 2004
COLORADO CITY, Ariz.� Arizona officials say they suspect two teenage girls who ran away from their Colorado City homes in January with the help of an anti-polygamy activist and later fled a Phoenix safe house are not missing but are simply in hiding. "Obviously there are people who know where these girls are," said Matt Brown, Glendale, Ariz., Police Department spokesman. "We believe they are deliberately missing. We believe they left and did not run away. This isn't really a missing-person case." Glendale police detectives have checked places where the girls were last seen or might be, without success, Brown said. "We believe they might be with people they know," he said, adding the department has released a photo of the girls and listed the pair on a national missing person database. "We believe they are in the Phoenix area, but we'd like to make sure they are OK." The released photo shows anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop with her arms around the girls, 16-year-old Fawn Broadbent and 17-year-old Fawn Holm. The same photo is posted on Jessop's Web site with the word "Fugitive" printed in bright red letters on the girls. Read more


Escapees face uncertain future
Advocate says gaining victims' trust key to helping them break from cycle of abuse
By Brian Wedemeyer Today's News-Herald - Havasu City Originally published Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm at first didn't know what to think when a truck and trailer loaded with donated clothes, toiletries and other items from Lake Havasu City arrived at their safe house in Phoenix a few weeks ago. That is because the teenagers had no idea the items were for them. Flora Jessop, the woman who helped the girls escape polygamy in Colorado City last month, said they were not accustomed to such generosity. "These kids are taught that everybody outside their community is evil," said Jessop during an interview with Today's News-Herald. "It was just beyond their comprehension." Jessop encouraged the girls to sift through the bags and boxes and pick out whatever they wanted. "They looked at me and asked, �Why?'" Jessop said. "I said, �Because people care.'" Both girls were 16 years old when they escaped from their polygamous stronghold Jan. 11. Jessop claims both have been victims of ongoing sexual abuse and were destined for forced marriages. "It was amazing to watch those girls turn into teenagers for the first time, going through clothes and fighting over who got what shirt," Jessop said. It could have represented a happy ending to a sad story that Jessop says is shared by many other girls in Colorado City. Instead, their future is now very much undecided. Read more


2 teens who fled polygamy in hiding
Girls move from home to home, give frequent interviews
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published April 7, 2004
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. � Two Arizona teenage girls who ran away from their polygamous homes will remain in hiding despite several official requests to turn themselves in, a family member says. "I talk to the girls every day and know they are safe, but I'm not going to advise them to come out because I can't guarantee their safety," said Joni Holm, a sister-in-law to 16-year-old Fawn Holm, who left her Colorado City home in mid-January with a neighbor girl, Fawn Broadbent. Anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop, a former Colorado City resident who also ran away from her parents nearly 18 years ago, drove the girls from a safe house in southern Utah to Phoenix as news cameras and reporters recorded their flight across state lines. The teens were placed in temporary state custody, but the two look-alike redheads fled again when Jessop was ordered by a court to stay away from the girls. Jessop maintains the girls ran a second time because they feared Arizona officials were planning to send them home. Since then, the teens have been moving from home to home and granting numerous interviews with local and national media. Read more


Runaway Bride
By Carl Holm as told to Liz Welch The New York Times Magazine Originally published May 9, 2004
I got a call from my mother one Sunday evening in January, which was odd, because she never calls. There was panic in her voice. She said: "Fawn has run away. If she shows up on your doorstep, please take her in." Fawn is 16 and my youngest sister. I said, "You bet I will." The funny thing is I hardly know Fawn. I'm 40 and happily married with four daughters, 15 to 22, but the moment I heard she'd run away, I felt a twang in my gut, because two decades ago I left my family, too, and never looked back. The next evening, my wife was watching the news, and there was Fawn with Flora Jessop, a children's advocate who rescues girls from polygamy. I spoke with Fawn soon after. She told me that she didn't want to go back home because she thought she'd be married by 18. At least two of my nieces were married at 14 and now have children, so the fear was real. I decided at that moment I'd fight tooth and nail to get custody of Fawn. Read more


Fleeing teen turns up in Sandy
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published Tuesday May 11, 2004
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. � Four months of hiding is over for one teenage girl who said she ran away from a future life of polygamy. Fawn Broadbent, 17, has resurfaced in Sandy, Utah, where she now lives in the home of Carl and Joni Holm. "It's good," Broadbent said Monday in a telephone interview. "I can settle down now and go get my stuff and call home whenever I want. I think I'll like it better." Broadbent and Fawn Holm, a 16-year-old neighbor girl, ran away Jan.11, just one day after Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headquartered here, excommunicated nearly two dozen men. Anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop drove the girls from southern Utah to her home in Phoenix as television news cameras recorded their flight. The teens were first placed in a home of Jessop's choosing by Arizona authorities, but Jessop was later ordered by the court to stay away from the girls. That's when the two Fawns, as they have come to be known, suddenly disappeared from Arizona's oversight and went underground with Jessop's help. Custody hearings have since been held and rescheduled numerous times for the girls, their parents and the many attorneys involved. Read more


One of the two girls who fled their homes in the twin polygamist communities on the Utah-Arizona border for fears of being married off said she has found refuge in suburban Salt Lake City.
The Associated Press KVOA.com Originally published May 11, 2004
Fawn Broadbent, 17, said she now lives in the home of Carl and Joni Holm in Sandy. "It's good," Broadbent told the Deseret Morning News for a story in Monday editions. "I can settle down now and go get my stuff and call home whenever I want. I think I'll like it better." Broadbent and Fawn Holm, a 16-year-old neighbor girl and Carl Holm's younger sister, ran away Jan. 11, just one day after Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, excommunicated nearly two dozen men. An antipolygamy activist drove the girls from southern Utah to Phoenix. Fearing the state of Arizona would return them to their parents, the girls disappeared from Arizona's oversight and went underground. Broadbent's parents, Mathew and Kathryn, have disputed the girls' claims, and said their daughter was never forced to do anything against her will while in their home. "We want the best for her," said Mathew Broadbent, who agreed late last week to allow his daughter to live with the Holms. "Of course, we'd like it if she was happy here at home. But if she doesn't want to be here, then we aren't going to force her." Read more


Colorado City runaway safe
She's happy to be living with her brother in Sandy
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, August 22, 2004
ST. GEORGE � A teenager who ran away from her polygamous community in Colorado City, Ariz., seven months ago has surfaced at a relative's house in Sandy. Fawn Holm, 17, said Friday she is glad to finally call her brother's house "home." "I'm OK. I am now," said Holm, whose life changed dramatically the day she and a girlfriend, Fawn Broadbent, ran away to a friend's house in Washington County on a mild winter's night in mid-January. Anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop picked up the two look-alike redheads and drove them to her home in Phoenix. An Arizona news crew filmed the late night road trip, which Jessop described as a "rescue" operation, and the girls became a top story for many news organizations. It was the first of many interviews Jessop arranged for the girls, who stayed with one of Jessop's friends under an agreement with Arizona child-protective services. But the two Fawns, as they came to be known, didn't stay in Arizona's custody for long. The girls' parents objected to their living arrangements and Jessop's involvement in their lives. A court order mandated that Jessop stay away from the Fawns, and that's when the girls allegedly ran away again. Read more


Stand up, Creekers, and stop the abuse
By Fawn Holm Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published August 15, 2005
To all ex-Creekers: Those who judge me for being on TV, for standing up and doing something about the crimes and abuses at the "Creek," who say I am "hurting my family" or "ratting on the Creek" - I have something to say to you. I, at least, am not sitting around pretending it never happened. I am not trying to run away from the pain by working myself to death or partying with drugs and alcohol. You can only run for so long. People say I hurt my parents. What did they do to me? I asked them nicely if I could leave. Do you think they said, "OK, let us find you a safe place to go?" No! My parents got a restraining order on my brothers who had left, and had me placed under house arrest. Since I left, I am no longer welcome in their house. Why? Because I will bring "evil spirits" with me, and they would have to "rededicate" their house. Our families talk about having to stand before God and atone for our sins. How do you think our loving God is going to react to parents who say, "We could not let our kids into our house because they might bring in evil spirits"? Read more


Teen who escaped goes back to polygamy
By Daphne Bramham Vancouver Sun Originally published November 4, 2005
Two years earlier, when she was 14, Fawn Broadbent's name was entered in the Joy Book, the list of girls waiting for the prophet to have a revelation about who they will marry. Fawn Broadbent wanted no part of that, nor did Fawn Holm. "I wanted to leave because I wanted freedom," Holm told me in August. "I didn't feel like I was normal and I wanted to be normal . . . "I thought I would go to hell if I left. But I'd rather go to hell than stay there. In FLDS, the man is everything. You don't bargain. You don't question." To escape Jeffs's harsh dictates, Holm said, she and a bunch of other kids -- boys and girls -- used to sneak out every night, have beer parties and do drugs up in the desert mountains. Carl Holm, Fawn Holm's oldest brother, and his wife Joni eventually got custody of both girls after court battles with Arizona child protection services and the girls' families. Read more


One of "The Two Fawns" Returns To Polygamist Life
John Hollenhorst reporting KSL TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast November 6, 2005
One of two teenage girls, who gained national attention two years ago when they fled the Warren Jeffs polygamy group, has given up on her new life. Fawn Broadbent, Sandy Resident: "I'm scared for her because I don't think she really knows exactly what she's done." She's gone back to her old lifestyle, causing worry and alarm for those who tried to help her escape. They became nationally known as "The Two Fawns," sixteen-year old friends, both named Fawn, both fed up with a life controlled by polygamist patriarchs. But almost two years later, one Fawn has apparently found the outside world too difficult. Although she hasn't gone back to Warren Jeffs, Fawn Holm has returned to the polygamist culture. A week ago she apparently moved in with a middle-age polygamist loyal to another leader. Read more


Young Woman Escapes Polygamous Cult
KHNL-TV Channel 8 - Honolulu, Hawaii Originally broadcast July 26, 2006
SUNSET BEACH, Oahu (KHNL) - A young woman who says she escaped life in a religious cult received a special reward today - surfing lessons on Oahu's North Shore. Fawn Broadbent says she was never supposed to learn how to surf. For most of her life - she thought she wouldn't learn much at all. "I was alive physically, but inside i was dead. And when I left I was able to come back and experience freedom, choices, says Fawn Broadbent." Fawn grew up in Colorado City Arizona - home to a polygamous religious sect. Flora Jessop left Colorado City at age 16. She says she wanted to escape a life where men have many wives and women are used only to produce children. "I have 27 siblings and over 300 step siblings. My mother had 17 children herself" says Flora Jessop. Flora helped Fawn leave Colorado City two years ago and gave her a fresh start. "She came out of there with a fifth grade education. Education is denied, it's forbidden." The promise of Hawaii's sun and surf motivated Fawn to study hard and adjust to a new life. Read more


Teen Who Fled Polygamy Keeping Eye on Jeffs
Amanda Butterfield Reporting KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast September 6, 2006
Among the people closely following the Jeff' case is a 19-year old woman who fled the polygamist lifestyle. You may remember stories about 'The Two Fawns' -- two friends, both named Fawn, who escaped the rule of Warren Jeffs three years ago. Well, one of the Fawns has struggled ever since. The other, is getting ready for college. Fawn Broadbent has been working really hard since she fled the Warren Jeffs clan. Fawn Broadbent: "I went to school for two years, 11 and 12 grade. I made almost four years in two, still working on it." When Fawn left, she had the education of a fourth grader. Fawn Broadbent: "When I first left I thought Warren Jeffs was president of US, now I know better. Didn't believe in dinosaurs, or that man landed on the moon, I thought it was all staged." Now she's one of the brightest kids in her district, receiving several awards, including most improved student in the Jordan school district. This spring, she'll go to Weber State University on a scholarship. Fawn Broadbent: "I am so excited, but then I'm scared of moving away from home, ha ha." Read more


Woman who fled polygamous sect tries for new life
By Amanda J. Crawford The Arizona Republic Originally published October 21, 2007
Fawn Broadbent woke in her basement bedroom to the sound of people talking upstairs. She pulled on a sweater and a floral skirt that reached her ankles but with a slit up the side - taboo in Colorado City where women wear long traditional dresses. She went upstairs to where her parents and several brothers and sisters were talking in frightened voices. When she asked what was going on, her father wouldn't tell her. She went to the refrigerator, pulled out a hotdog and took a bite. "We're fasting," her father yelled. "Well, I'm not," she said. Her mother explained what happened. But Fawn didn't want to hear any more. She went outside and crossed the street to see her best friend. The girl was named Fawn Holm, and she lived in a trailer with five of the 34 children born to her father's three wives. Both girls were 16 and shared the same first name, red hair and rebellious streak. The girls went for a walk, talking about the prophet's latest act: That morning at the Saturday work meeting, Warren Jeffs had excommunicated 20 men, stripped them of their wives, children and property. He ordered the rest of his followers to fast for two days, stay at home and repent. Jeffs was the voice of God in this polygamist sect. He said the Lord had revealed these men as "master deceivers." The banished men included the town's longtime mayor, influential elders and four of Jeffs' own brothers. One was the father-in-law of Fawn's sister. Another was married to two of her aunts. The girls walked a couple of miles across town, through the hodgepodge of unfinished homes, old trailers and mansions. They crossed the border that splits the town between Arizona and Utah, walking up a winding street that ended at the red cliffs on the Utah side of town. Fawn Holm pulled out a cellphone and made a call. The girls decided to keep going. Read more


After fleeing polygamist sect, woman struggled to find her way
By Amanda J. Crawford The Arizona Republic Originally published October 22, 2007
Fawn Broadbent was shocked at how little the girls wore. Short skirts. Low-cut shirts. Spaghetti straps. Fawn arrived for her first day of high school in the fall of 2004 in a baggy, long-sleeved pullover and her favorite pair of jeans. But she might as well be wearing the long dresses she left behind in Colorado City. Eight months after running away, Fawn walked down the hall certain everyone must be staring at the polygamy kid. Now living in a suburb of Salt Lake City, high school was the new start in Fawn's life. No more running or hiding. The problem now, Fawn discovered, was fitting in. Over the summer, Fawn tested at the fifth-grade level in a placement exam. She could barely read. She had never taken science. She'd been taught dinosaurs did not exist and the moon landing was a hoax. But because of her age, she entered high school as a junior. Fawn made her way down the crowded halls to the small classroom listed on her schedule. When class started, the students were asked to introduce themselves. Fawn said her name. She said she grew up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints where men had multiple wives and teenage girls were forced to marry. And that was why she ran away. Read more

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