Colorado Woman Makes Plea To Sisters In Polygamist Compound
 Story Of Arranged Marriages, Abuse Chronicled In New Book
 
Lane Lyon, 7NEWS Reporter
KMGH 7 News - Denver
 
DENVER -- When Texas authorities raided a polygamist compound last month, Laura Chapman took special interest.

"I thought about when I was little and thought about how I wanted to be adopted, and I wanted out of my family," Chapman said Friday.

Now living in Durango, Chapman was born into a polygamist family in Utah.

Chapman said she grew up on 6 acres in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

"My father had four wives and I have 31 brothers and sisters," Chapman said.

During an interview with 7NEWS, Chapman spoke to several sisters she believes may be living in the compound in Texas.

"Carol, Andrea, Camille, Charlotte, if you're watching, your sisters out here love you and you can make that leap," Chapman said encouraging them to leave the polygamous sect.

Since escaping the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints religion in 1991, Chapman said she's been trying to blow the whistle in Utah about abuse and forced marriage to underage girls.

Chapman said doing so has put her at risk with devout FLDS members.

"If you become someone they see as a threat to the work of God, then they can spill your blood. They can kill you," Chapman said.

Chapman's story is now part of a book by local author Stephen Singular titled, "When Men Became Gods."

The book chronicles the life of FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs, a man once on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, and still considered a prophet to followers.

"The further you went into this story, the more you saw these strange behaviors and these very serious questions about where religious freedom ends and where criminal behavior starts," Singular told 7NEWS reporter Lane Lyon.

Chapman said she hopes states like Utah and Arizona will follow Texas' lead.

"It's my favorite state in the union right now to go after abuse of children like that and do the right thing,” Chapman said.

Chapman has five children and is committed to helping others escape polygamy.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to reiterate it has no affiliation with any polygamous groups. The practice was discontinued by the Mormon church officially in 1890.
 
TheDenverChannel.com
Originally broadcast May 2, 2008
 
Back