| Colorado City runaway safe She's happy to be living with her brother in Sandy | |
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By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News | |
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. This time the teens were listed on a nationwide missing persons database, although many people, including an Arizona police officer working the case, said it was obvious the girls simply didn't want to be found. Jessop, who denied knowing where the girls were, accused Arizona officials of betraying the girls and trying to return them to Colorado City. Photos of the girls, posted on Jessop's Web site, helpthechildbrides.com, were branded with the word "fugitive" by the site's Web master. Arizona officials denied Jessop's charge and tried for months to seek a resolution with attorneys representing the girls and their parents. The state eventually gave up trying to settle the custody dispute and withdrew from the case, saying it was impossible to find a solution when the girls wouldn't cooperate. Fawn Holm's oldest brother, Carl, and his wife, Joni, had offered to give both girls a home and were working through Utah's approval process. Carl and Joni Holm said they, too, didn't know where the Fawns were, although their own teenage daughter was with the girls and able to call home often. While the Broadbents entertained the idea of allowing their daughter to live with Carl and Joni Holm, the elder Holms were against it because their son was considered an apostate of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Both of the girls' parents are members of the FLDS church, which teaches that plural marriage is central to one's eternal salvation and key to the highest degree of heaven. Faithful FLDS men typically have one legal wife and several "spiritual" wives. In May, the Broadbents signed a power of attorney document that allowed their daughter to move in with Carl and Joni Holm. But Fawn Holm continued to wait in limbo, hoping that her parents would do the same, which they did on Aug. 15, said Joni Holm. "We met them on the Utah side of the border, and they signed the power of attorney for Fawn Holm. They can revoke it at any time, but right now Fawn's with us," she said. "We enrolled her in high school, and she's excited to go." For her part, Fawn Holm said she doesn't understand why it took her parents so long to let go. "I don't understand why my parents didn't want me to live with my brother," Fawn Holm said on Friday, adding she would still like to see her family in Colorado City. "I'm just glad it's over. I'm looking forward to graduating from high school." Colorado City and Hildale, in Washington County, is home to about 7,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The twin towns straddle the Utah/Arizona border in a remote corner of the Arizona Strip about 35 miles northeast of St. George. | |
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deseretnews.com Originally published Sunday, August 22, 2004 | |
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