Half a dozen women and girls, dressed in similarly solid color dresses, waited outside a Colorado City, Arizona, home watching as armed federal agents raided the residence in search of the man all of them — even the minors — called their husband.
Agents found and arrested Samuel Bateman, 46, a self-proclaimed prophet and member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an extremist off-shoot of the Mormon church that still practices polygamy. A federal affidavit obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune notes that Mr Bateman “began to proclaim he was a prophet” in 2019 and married multiple women and girls. Family members told investigators that year that he had even pondered taking his own daughter as a wife.
