Woman believes sister lives on Texas compound

Gene Kennedy and Andrew Adams reporting KSL 5 TV

AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File A Riverton woman is watching the FLDS crackdown with a heavy heart. Her sister is one of the women living at the compound. Kristyn Decker hasn't seen her older sister, Lucille Barlow, in 10 years. Barlow may be one of the many mothers who voluntarily left the compound. Decker is thinking of going to Eldorado, Texas, to try to persuade her sister to leave for good. As the investigation into abuse at the FLDS compound grows, so does the pain inside Kristyn Decker's heart. She says, "It really is because I feel the emotion. I feel what they're going through." Decker isn't upset police raided the compound, but she is concerned about the well-being of her older sister. Barlow may be one of 130 women to voluntarily leave the YFZ Ranch. "I hope so. I know that she was really there in her heart and all her beliefs and everything else," Decker says. The sisters grew up in the polygamous Allred family. Their father had 13 wives. Lucille married Dan Barlow. Decker thinks he's the father of Dale Barlow, who is a suspect in the Eldorado investigation. He's a 50-year-old man accused of impregnating a 16-year-old girl. Decker says, "To me, that's the worst of all. It's perversion, total perversion." She says she fears for the children's safety. She is also concerned for her sister and wonders how she is coping with it all. Decker broke away from polygamy but not until she was 50 years old. Today, she's just finished writing a book called "50 years in Polygamy." If she makes it to Eldorado, Decker hopes to convince her sister to walk away from the same lifestyle she left. She says, "If I can only say, ‘But there's hope if you can see what's on the outside, if you can see there's life, happiness and joy, that you don't have to do this.'" Decker admits talking with her sister about leaving the FLDS faith will not be easy. She says, "At first, it's [the raid] going to be the proof to them that their leaders are right and see this as the wrong thing and that these are bad people. They are taking us away from our families." Lucille Barlow is 62 years old. Polygamy is the only life she knows. E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com E-mail: aadams@ksl.com

KSL.com Originally broadcast April 7, 2008

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