At 35 years old, Carolyn Jessop decided to escape her abusive marriage to Merril Jessop, get her eight children safely out of Colorado City, Arizona, and leave the FLDS. Seventeen years earlier, she had been forced into an arranged polygamous marriage with the 50-year-old Merril Jessop.
If Carolyn got caught escaping, she knew that her children would be taken from her and that she would be shunned by the community. Worse yet, she feared that the local FLDS doctor would probably diagnose her as mentally ill. If that happened, she could be sent to a mental institution in Flagstaff, Arizona, where several other "rebellious" women from the community had been "warehoused."
At 10 p.m. on April 21, 2003, she found her window of opportunity to flee. She and her eight children crept out of the home they shared with her husband's other six wives and 46 children, leaving forever.
If Carolyn got caught escaping, she knew that her children would be taken from her and that she would be shunned by the community. Worse yet, she feared that the local FLDS doctor would probably diagnose her as mentally ill. If that happened, she could be sent to a mental institution in Flagstaff, Arizona, where several other "rebellious" women from the community had been "warehoused."
At 10 p.m. on April 21, 2003, she found her window of opportunity to flee. She and her eight children crept out of the home they shared with her husband's other six wives and 46 children, leaving forever.
