Seclusion ends for splinter sect
 
By Matt Phinney
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
ELDORADO - Several dozen confused girls stared out from within a shuttle bus borrowed from the First Baptist Church of Eldorado as a law enforcement motorcade made its way to town.

In a bus behind it, other girls held coats up to the window to block the view of reporters and photographers who were waiting at Rudd Road and U.S. Highway 277.

"We're dealing with children that are not accustomed to the outside world," said Marleigh Meisner, public information officer with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

The girls, 52 of them, were escorted Friday from a ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a notoriously reclusive group that moved to a ranch north of town about four years ago.

The girls were moved from the ranch about 2:45 p.m. Friday, and 18 were placed into the custody of the Child Protective Services.

The action came near the end of a long day for area and state law enforcement and child protection officials, who converged in Eldorado, about 45 miles south of San Angelo.

The ordeal started about 7:30 p.m. Thursday and continued through the night. Law enforcement officials and child protective services personnel entered the ranch to investigate a complaint of abuse.

By early Friday, media began assembling on the roadside, miles from the compound metal gates. In all, about 10 outlets were in Eldorado by Friday afternoon, including CNN.

Local residents drove by Rudd Road watching the group of satellite trucks and live broadcasts, and some even stopped to snap a few pictures.

Inside the gate, law enforcement officials continued to try to serve an arrest warrant on Dale Barlow, accused of illegally marrying and having sex with an underage girl.

At nightfall on Friday, he remained at large.

All morning and into the afternoon Friday, law enforcement agency vehicles had trickled in and out of the ranch. About five Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles blocked Rudd Road near the ranch's entrance early in the day.

Hours later, the roadblock had moved away from the compound, and vehicles were being stopped by law enforcement officials miles from the gate.

About 11 a.m., some 30 large green trucks bearing the Texas Game Warden insignia, lights flashing, turned off U.S. Highway 277 toward the compound.

Zach Krueger, 19, and Brandon Vasquez, 20, said they were supposed to help work on a sprinkler system on land near the ranch but couldn't get to it because of the roadblock. They watched from U.S. 277 for a bit, then got in a truck with their boss to ride back to San Angelo.

Stories about what was going on north of Eldorado circulated through the 1,700-resident town, said Denise Estep, 26, who works at a Star Stop convenience store in town.

Residents here don't talk about the group much any more, she said. An uproar happened when the compound was being built on the isolated, mesquite-covered pasture.

Estep said members who come in the store keep to themselves. Some men from the ranch come in to buy water, she said.

On this day, the sect was the talk of the town.

"You hear all different kinds of stories," she said. "It's a small town, and everyone wants to know."
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published April 5, 2008
 
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