Inside private world of polygamist ranch

Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

ELDORADO, TEXAS - There is a place, here in the heart of Texas, where the pain runs very deep just now.

Lorene: Clinging to my skirt. My baby's sick.

Keith Morrison, Dateline NBC: How old is your baby?

Lorene: Seventeen months -- and he's so sick.

Keith Morrison: Who has him?

Lorene: I don't know, some woman has him, I don't know who it is.

Here they were, coming home in clumps of threes or fours, minus their children -- who had just been taken from them and bused away to foster homes, shelters, and group homes.

But where? How far? They do not know.

They are carrying in their hands envelopes they were given when authorities took their children, with little pamphlets inside: parenting guides.

Mother: As if we don't know how to be parents.

It’s a very strange story you're about to hear.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is now embroiled in the biggest child custody case in the history of the United States.

A sports stadium is packed with frightened women and children. A local courthouse swarms with prosecutors and legal aid lawyers by the hundreds, thick stacks of briefs, and chaos.

Perhaps you know of the state's allegations about these people, the stories about their insular world of multiple wives and many children.

You've seen the prairie Elvis hair-do, those dresses, the long underwear in the Texas sun.

But who are these people? Why do they shut themselves off from the world?

There are so many stories.

This, for example, is from the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott:

Greg Abbott: From information we have, that we'll see if it turns out to be true. Children were removed from their parents at birth. Some of these mothers may not even know who their children are.

Yes, and did you hear about that bed the Texas rangers found in the huge mysterious temple? Could that have been used for some ritual sex ceremony with underage girls?

And what about their prophet, Warren Jeffs? He's in prison, after all, convicted of being an accomplice to rape. Could these people be predators?

When the FLDS came to Texas, they sneaked in quietly, didn't tell the neighbors, and it wasn't long before the stories started flying around, courtesy of some ex-members.

Flora Jessop: Be aware that this is a group that is systemically abusive to their own children.

Flora Jessop was one of the first to sound the alarm. When the FLDS moved in, in the spring of 2004, she held a press conference outside the Eldorado sheriff's office to warn the town folk.

Flora Jessop: And I was like "OK, yeah, the polygamists are moving in." And that concerned me very much.

Jessop ran away from an FLDS community in Colorado City, Ariz., when she was 17. And ever since -- that's 22 years ago now -- she has encouraged others to leave, campaigning against what she says is the church's practice of fostering an environment where women are abused, forced to marry and bear children at a very young age.

Flora Jessop: It's terrorism hiding behind the skirt of religion. Because this has nothing to do with religion. Has everything to do with a culture of abuse.

And then this spring, the scene was set, and the drama began.

It was the end of March. First, there were phone calls to a family shelter. The caller said her name is Sarah, and she was calling from the Yearning for Zion Ranch -- the Texas home of the FLDS. She was 16, she said, pregnant, in trouble, being beaten, sexually abused, by her much older husband. She begged for help to get out.

And then there was this: April 3. Five days later. Texas state troopers and child welfare officials swarmed the ranch, moving in with tanks and weapons. It was a massive raid, with overwhelming power.

They searched the apartments, the school. They broke open unanswered doors, wrenched open doors to the temple. Over the next few days, they removed hundreds of mothers and children -- 462 children all together.

Pictures taken by church members as the raid went down show women huddled in terrified groups; children wail.

The church has posted the pictures and videos on a website for the entire world to see.

This clip shows families asking in vain to see a warrant and get an explanation.

(FLDS video)

The attorney does have the search warrant.

FLDS woman: But we don't get to see it?

No ma'am.

Richard Jessop says his family was in the midst of a nightly gathering of storytelling, praying and singing.

Richard Jessop: When they knocked on the door, I just told the family, "Keep singing."

Keith Morrison: Did you feel like you were being treated like a criminal?

Richard Jessop: Oh yes. What's all this manpower and these two SWAT teams standing here? Why do these men have machine guns?

The women and children were held first at the complex of Fort Concho, an hour away, then taken to this sports coliseum. Three weeks elapsed. During which the mothers said they were offered a choice.

Keith Morrison: Were you allowed to leave at all?

Mother: If we left, we couldn't come back to our children.

So here they stayed. The media, and even their own lawyers, were refused entry. While the state raised serious questions about the welfare of their children.

Attorney General Abbott: This is something that the child protective services deals with all the time. When they find that a child is in a home of four children where one has been sexually assaulted, they will remove them all to make sure they're removed from a zone of danger. This happened to be a home with 400 kids, as opposed to four kids.

Legal aid lawyers rushed in to help, insisting the FLDS members were being unfairly persecuted, targeted for their religious beliefs.

Julie Balovich, attorney: I can't imagine any other community in the United States that would stand for this. I can't imagine any individual mother that would stand for this. Imagine someone coming into your home, rounding you up, taking your child, putting you in this building, never giving you any type of piece of paper that says why your children have been taken away.

They made a plea in court, but the judge said sorry, the state will keep custody of the children -- all 462 of them, at least until individual hearings are conducted. Which could take months.

And the court ordered DNA testing of every man, woman and child, looking for evidence. Were those who claimed to be the parents, the actual parents?

Marleigh Meisner, Texas CPS spokesperson: This is not about religion, this is about children, keeping children safe from abuse and neglect.

In the process of getting his DNA tested, one male FLDS member was asked if he found the process humiliating. “You ever read about a concentration camp?” he asked. “You're getting it pretty close.”

And then, this past Thursday, they bused the children off to foster homes and left the mothers behind. The women thought they had more time, they said. They'd hoped the state would allow them to at least stay in the same place as their children, they said.

Then, for the second time, they were offered a choice, the women told us: allow the state to bus them to a women's shelter, or go back to the ranch. But authorities told them, said these women, if they chose the ranch, they might never see their children again.

Lorene: They wouldn't let us say goodbye. But I gathered him up anyway. I didn't care what they said.

The state issued a press release saying 40 women chose to be transported to a "safe location."

But these mothers returned to the ranch. They decided they'd had enough. They no longer believed the child services people. It was time to fight back.

And intensely private though they are, and with great trepidation, they invited us inside their homes for an intimate tour. You're about to get a look at a way of life they say is just different -- and grossly misunderstood.

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