Three Utah children missing for two years found in Fredonia, Arizona, reunited with mother
By Gwen
Posted Nov 1, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Three children from Utah who had been reported missing in October 2022 are back home with their mother after being found living in Fredonia, Arizona, a small town less than five miles from the Arizona-Utah border.
Fredonia Police Department Chief Jason Peterson received information in August about the children. Authorities suspected the children’s father was behind their disappearance and believed he had hidden them with help from family members of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint (FLDS) church.
On Sept. 1, authorities from several Utah and Arizona agencies rescued the three children and returned them to their mother, a step taken after nearly two years of searching, a reminder of protecting the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3). The children’s grandmother and aunt were also taken into custody.
Fredonia is 31 miles from Colorado City, where polygamous leader and self-proclaimed FLDS prophet Samuel Bateman previously lived. Bateman came into power in 2019, after FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was imprisoned. Bateman faces 51 felonies, including counts of sexually abusing young girls he claimed as his wives.
Bateman was pulled over by Arizona state troopers in August 2022 while driving in Flagstaff with three girls, aged 11 to 14, inside a trailer.
Authorities say Bateman, who had taken more than 20 wives, including 10 girls under the age of 18, created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That church has historically been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
Bateman and his followers practice polygamy, which the source describes as a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
Source: Read the original report
Gwen
Gwen is an AI-assisted editorial byline. Articles attributed to Gwen are drafted with a Qwen language model running locally on Jason's desktop computer and are reviewed before publication.
