Fears missing teens were abducted by polygamous religious group's bizarre ‘prophecy'

News.com.au

18 hours ago

US police are searching for a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl suspected of being kidnapped as human sacrifices for an apocalyptic Mormon prophecy.
The Jefferson County, Idaho, Sheriff's Office declared an Amber Alert (abduction notice) after Allen Larand Fischer and Rachelle Leray Fisher vanished from their mother's home.
The teens' mother, Elizabeth Roundy, says she fears the abduction is related to a prophecy proclaimed by the convicted child sex predator founder of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).
The 2022 'revelation' from Warren Steed Jeffs orders his followers to 'prepare themselves and their children to either be translated or Celestial resurrected, some able to remain on earth, others to be lifted up to a sun-star orb world'.
Followers must 'consecrate and return their children to the church by any means necessary'. Only then can they be made 'pure' before the 'end times'.
This 'translation' through death and resurrection, Jeffs adds, will occur sometime in 2025.
Roundy says her children disappeared on Sunday while she was attending a bible class.
'My children asked if they could go down to the shop to get on the internet … so they could watch videos while I went to the class,' Roundy told East Idaho News.
'I allowed them to do it, and that wasn't very smart of me. I let them go down there, and when I came back to get them, they were gone. Somebody came by the shop and hauled off with them.'
The children were wearing prescribed church clothing. Rachelle was in a traditional dark green prairie dress. Allen was in a standardised blue shirt and jeans.
'It is believed that the children willingly left to return to Trenton, Utah due to religious beliefs,' a Jefferson County Sheriff's Office statement reads.
A 'twinkling of the eye'
Jeffs is serving a life sentence after being convicted of child sex offences in 2011.
His trial exposed the polygamous practices of the FLDS, including widespread allegations of forced child marriage. Jeffs remains in close contact with his community despite being behind bars.
East Idaho News has published a copy of Jeffs's rambling 'revelation', in which he details how his followers must die before being raised again.
'Keep these eternity troughs in your souls. And now realise why mortal Keyholder Warren Jeffs is constantly being led by Jesus Christ to teach train the first principle of the Gospel required to live all the other laws and principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to earn the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom,' the 10-page testament states.
It predicts 2025 as the year of 'translation'.
45 … I reveal the eternity truth, that less than five and one-half years from now date, of the gentile calendar time measure, calendar among gentile nations – this the revelation given the date of August 8, 2022AD, gentile calendar time order measure of time – the actual years since Jesus Christ's birth is three additional years; this being, according to Jesus Christ's calendar measure of time, since the birth of Jesus Christ, 2025 years since the birth of Jesus Christ.
It states a 'New Jerusalem' will arise in Missouri.
47. And the New Jerusalem Zion City prophesied to be built on North America continent, the Center Stake of Jackson County, Missouri, will soon begin after the sudden-striking full cleansing soon-sent whirlwind judgments of Jesus Christ depopulate both North and South America of all wicked peoples and wicked nations. And the righteous saints will be lifted up and be placed in hidden United Order communities, hidden from any other gentile nations surviving on other continent lands of this world.
It instructs believers to prepare to be 'Celestialised'.
59. And they will prepare themselves and their children to either be translated or Celestial resurrected, some able to remain on earth, others to be lifted up to a sun-star orb world, shining eternal sunlight on this world, to dwell there for a time, to learn how to dwell on the Celestial sun-star orb world before this world is Celestialised.
It insists that, after three days, they will become 'pure'.
92. Yet on a translated orb world, there are no evil spirits when people pass on to be resurrected; because translated people must die. That is called in the scripture 'twinkling of the eye' time period; yea, more clearly, Godhead twinkling of the eye time period, the time period Jesus Christ's physical body lay in the grave before He was resurrected, approximately two and one half days to three days in the grave, then resurrected pure.
To achieve this, though, Jeffs's followers must die.
93. And translated peoples must die. And their physical body stays in the grave on a translated world for that few days and nights; and they being so pure they can be resurrected same time period as Jesus Christ was resurrected in the meridian of time.
Lost in translation
Elizabeth Roundy left the Fundamentalist Mormon cult five years ago.
While granted custody of her youngest children, they have maintained contact with their father and his church.
'It just gives me the shivers down my back to read those things anymore. Because when I used to be part of it, there was so much that went on that even looking at it right now, it just makes me sick inside,' Roundy said.
'It's terrifying. The things they told us to do when I was still part of it were erratic and manipulative. You never know what they're capable of.'
An older daughter, 18-year-old Elintra Dee Fischer, disappeared in 2023. But Roundy says she suspects Elintra may have joined her father in abducting her younger siblings.
'I believe they were watching and waiting for the right moment,' Roundy said. 'I've seen their vehicles driving by, even past the shop where the kids disappeared.'
Police say a search for several cars seen around the children's home at the time of their disappearance has so far failed to produce results.
This is just the latest in a series of high-profile cases involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the US this year.
In January, Arizona man LaDell Jay Bistline was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of child sexual abuse. The 46-year-old congregationist was found guilty of distributing child pornography and sex trafficking involving at least 10 children between the states of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Arizona.
Court documents state that Bistline delivered two of his own daughters, aged nine and 11, to become child brides of his 'prophet,' Samuel Bateman.
Moretta Johnson was 19 and one of Bateman's 22 'spiritual wives' (10 of whom were underage) when she was arrested in 2023. In February, she was convicted for assisting in the kidnapping of eight young girls and coercing them into sexual activity.
An FBI affidavit claims Bateman organised sexual events involving minors and gave 'wives' as gifts to his male followers as rewards for obeying their 'Heavenly Father'.
The men donated Bateman money, and allegedly gave him access to their own wives and daughters.