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Polygamist cult leader's daughter breaks free, says false prophet abused her: 'The world could see the shame'
It was New Year’s Eve 2014 when the daughter of polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs finally broke free.
“When I stepped out, I remembered thinking, ‘Gosh, I should have left sooner,’” Rachel Blackmore recalled to Fox News Digital. “There’s just so much life out there.”
The mother of seven is coming forward in a new A&E docuseries, “Secrets of Polygamy,” which explores extreme polygamist groups across the country.
It features new sit-downs with one of Jeffs’ former wives and former members and investigators.
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Rachel Blackmore is speaking out in A&E’s “Secrets of Polygamy.” (A&E)
Jeffs, 68, was sentenced in 2011 to life in prison after his conviction on two counts of child sexual abuse. In 2017, Blackmore wrote a memoir, “Breaking Free.”
“It’s been really important to me to give a voice to the young girls who have been sexually abused,” Blackmore shared.
Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mainstream church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it.
The headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Colorado City, Ariz. The home base of FLDS is on the Arizona-Utah border. (Getty Images)
The FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) broke away from the Mormon church and was formed so that members could continue practicing plural marriage. It was headquartered on the Utah-Arizona border. Jeffs’ father, Rulon T. Jeffs, took power in 1986 and ruled until he died in 2002 at age 92. He left behind an estimated 75 widows and 65 children.
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Following Rulon’s death, Warren Jeffs took over as the group’s prophet. In the FLDS, it is believed the prophet can speak directly to God and direct which male members can enter heaven. The prophet can also perform marriages and assign wives to their husbands. In pleasing the prophet, loyal members are rewarded with more wives, who “belong” to their spouses for eternity, NPR reported. Members believe that each man must have at least three wives.
“I think, as a child, you don’t realize when something’s bad all the time,” Blackmore recalled. “I think, for a lot of us, that’s how it was. … I felt protected from the world. I was taught that the outside world was wicked.”
The grave of FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs. He fathered more than 60 children. (Getty Images)
Jeffs has an estimated 78 wives and 53 biological children.
“We had to wear sleeves to our wrists and long dresses. Our hair had to be braided a certain way,” Blackmore said. “And there were the continual teachings of polygamy where there was a leader, one man, and you never questioned him. … We were taught that if we wanted to go to heaven, we had to live polygamy. We had to have sister wives and marry a man we were told to marry, not who we wanted to choose. All of those restrictions were accepted because that’s all we knew.”
In the series, Blackmore claimed Jeffs sexually molested her when she was eight years old. She noted that women and girls couldn’t express anger or jealousy without enduring punishment. Instead, they had to “be sweet.”
Several young women play football in the dirt yard of one of the many schools in Colorado City, Ariz., owned and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints March 3, 2004. (George Frey)
“I have always been taught that boys don’t touch girls, that our bodies must be covered,” she said. “So, when Warren started sexually abusing me, I was just shocked. I just felt so guilty. I just put the shame on myself. … I just felt the whole world could see the shame. I went from being a joyful girl to being shy and quiet. And I didn’t tell anyone for a long time because I felt shame. I was embarrassed.”
Blackmore said the abuse continued until she was 16.
“I faced Warren one day and told him that I hated him doing those things to me,” she explained. “I didn’t know words like ‘molest,’ ‘abuse’ or ‘rape.’ He listened and asked for my forgiveness. And he stopped doing it. But then he started marrying younger girls after that.”
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Rachel Blackmore claimed her father, Warren Jeffs (pictured here), started molesting her when she turned 8. (Douglas C. Pizac/AFP)
At 18, Blackmore was forced into an arranged marriage. Her husband already had two wives. They met for the first time on the day before their wedding.
“Warren performed the marriages. He decided who married who,” Blackmore said. “He chose my husband for me, and he kept control of our marriage. He had the say of what my husband and I did at all times.”
For years, Blackmore wondered what life was like in the outside world. She feared that her five children would endure the same abuse she did. And when one of her younger sisters confessed that she was also molested by Jeffs, Blackmore had enough.
Rachel Blackmore said she was stunned by her sister’s revelation. (Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group)
“It was a big moment for me,” Blackmore said. “I realized it wasn’t my fault. Warren had a problem with sexual abuse. And we both agreed that we didn’t trust him with our kids. That’s when I said, ‘I’m going to leave.’ It was the first time I said it out loud. And when I did, I knew it was the final decision for me. Even though I didn’t leave for a few months after, I knew that was it.”
Little by little, Blackmore was “disobedient” as she began taking her children out on longer walks and leaving the property. Every time she got in trouble for “spreading my wings,” she was also getting a taste of freedom. But time was ticking. Blackmore learned that, as punishment, she was going to be placed in a bishop’s house, a property with towering walls and coded gates. Blackmore knew if she ended up there, she and her children would never be able to leave.
“It was scary, but I was sneaky,” said Blackmore. “I got my kids out during the night to my sister’s house. She had already left.”
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Rachel Blackmore fled the compound in secret with her five children. (George Frey)
Blackmore and her children managed to leave the compound in secret.
“I didn’t know how I was going to support five kids on my own,” Blackmore admitted. “I’m not going to pretend that [being free] was easy. It wasn’t. It was really hard. It’s still a growing experience for me. I’m still learning how to make friends and live within a community.
“I remember experiencing Christmas and Easter for the first time,” she recalled. “We never got to celebrate those things. I also wanted my children to celebrate their birthdays. I wanted to exchange gifts. I wanted them to go to a school and meet all kinds of people. I wanted them to experience what it was like to date. I never got to experience any of those things. There were so many firsts we didn’t have in a cult.”
In this handout provided by the FBI, polygamist Warren Steed Jeffs is pictured on an FBI Ten Most Wanted poster. (FBI)
In 2006, Jeffs, who was on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, was arrested during a routine traffic stop near Las Vegas. He was booked on two out-of-state warrants issued in Utah and Arizona on charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and rape as an accomplice.
Women and children from the YFZ Ranch, the compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are moved by bus to San Angelo, Texas, April 6, 2008. (Khampha Bouaphanh/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service)
According to prosecutors, Jeffs engaged in sexual abuse with two girls, ages 12 and 14. A key piece of evidence against Jeffs was an audio recording of him instructing his “spiritual bride,” as well as several other girls, on how to please him sexually.
In 2007, Jeffs tried to hang himself in a Utah jail. He was force-fed at an Arizona jail in 2009. Then in 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison. That same year, he was put in a medically-induced coma after fasting behind bars.
Some followers of FLDS still consider Jeffs to be their prophet and that he was wrongfully convicted. But over the years, the group has lost hundreds of members who either left or were cast out.
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Warren Jeffs in a booking photo from Sept. 5, 2006, at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, after he was extradited from Nevada. (Washington County Sheriff)
Blackmore has remarried. And she’s hopeful her story will give hope to other young women like her who left.
“We need to work, more than ever, to protect our children,” she said. “To give children an opportunity to have a good life is important to me. … And as long as there are people who will do what Warren says, he will always be a threat. … But there is strength and healing after trauma. There is hope you can have a better life.”
“Secrets of Polygamy” premieres Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. on A&E. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Arizona governor vetoes Charlie Kirk memorial license plate, sparking GOP outrage: ‘This bill falls short’
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Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a move Republicans are blasting as a stunning act of partisanship after his assassination.
Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at a Sept. 10 Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University, lived in Arizona with his wife, Erika, and two children.
The proposed specialty plate, referred to as the “Charlie Kirk memorial” plate or the “Conservative grassroots network special plate,” featured a photo of the late Kirk and the TPUSA logo in front of an American flag background.
Below the license plate number were the words “FOR CHARLIE.”
A custom Arizona license plate, featuring a Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk design, shared by state Sen. Jake Hoffman. (Senator Jake Hoffman via X)
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Of the $25 fee required for the plate, $17 would be an annual donation deposited into the Conservative Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund, according to the legislation.
While the recipient of the Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund was not explicitly designated as TPUSA in the bill, it noted the director of the fund would allocate revenue annually to a nonprofit organization, founded in 2012, that focuses on restoring traditional values, maintaining a grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses in Arizona, and assisting college students with voter registration and absentee ballots.
People gather at a memorial to mourn Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA headquarters Sept. 12, 2025, in Phoenix. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
TPUSA, founded by Kirk in 2012, is well known for its grassroots activist networks on high school and college campuses. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
The $25 fee and annual $17 donation are consistent with the fees for the other 109 nonprofit license plates offered by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
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The state Senate passed the bill, 16-2, with the House of Representatives voting 31-23 in favor prior to Hobbs’ veto.
Specialty plates in Arizona are authorized by the legislature and sent to the governor to be signed into law. They have been offered since 1989.
In a letter explaining the veto, Hobbs cited concerns with the bill “bring[ing] people together,” claiming it would “insert politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.”
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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“Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic and a horrifying act of violence,” Hobbs wrote. “In America, we resolve our political differences at the ballot box. No matter who it targets, political violence puts us all in harm’s way and damages our sacred democratic institutions.
“I will continue working toward solutions that bring people together, but this bill falls short of that standard.”
Specialty license plates with political interests already approved by the state include the “Choose Life” Plate, which benefits the Arizona Life Coalition and its mission to promote anti-abortion advocacy and education; the “In God We Trust” Plate, which benefits conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom; and the Arizona Realtors’ “Homes for All” Plate, which funds affordable housing projects.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, speaks during the Turning Point Action conference in 2023 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)
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Another approved plate, “Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Plate,” which benefits Solid Rock Teen Centers, features a portrait of the legendary musician, who has made political comments about social issues including gender identity.
Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the bill, posted a fiery statement on social media after the governor’s action, claiming her “grotesque partisanship knows no bounds.”
“Even in the wake of a global civil rights leader — an Arizona resident and her own constituent — being assassinated in broad daylight for his defense of the First Amendment, Hobbs couldn’t find the human decency to put her far-Left extremism aside simply to allow those how wish to honor him to do so,” Hoffman wrote. “Katie Hobbs will forever be known as a stain on the pages of Arizona’s story.”
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On Saturday, TPUSA COO Tyler Bowyer shared an X post that said, “Deport Katie Hobbs.”
TPUSA, Bowyer and Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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Air Force veteran warns ‘cartels don’t collapse — they fracture’ after notorious drug lord killed
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Nearly two weeks after Mexican forces killed notorious cartel boss Ruben “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, questions remain about how the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) will respond and whether the blow will meaningfully disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Carlos De La Cruz, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who deployed after 9/11 and later served along the southern border, told Fox News the cartel leader’s death marked a major victory, but warned Americans should not mistake it for the end of the fight.
“When I say that this is a significant win, I mean it,” De La Cruz said. “El Mencho ran one of the most violent cartels on the planet.”
Oseguera, who rose to prominence in the post–El Chapo era, oversaw CJNG’s aggressive expansion across Mexico and into key trafficking corridors feeding U.S. drug markets. Under his leadership, the cartel became a central architect of fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking and drew a $15 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture.
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Smoke rises from burning vehicles after a military operation that a government source said killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026. (Screen grab obtained from a social media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/YouTube via Reuters)
But De La Cruz cautioned that removing a cartel kingpin does not dismantle the organization.
“Cartels don’t collapse when you just cut the head off — they fracture,” he said. “And part of that fracture is going to see a lot of short-term violence while all these factions fight over territory.”
Following Oseguera’s killing on Feb. 22, the U.S. State Department issued travel alerts in multiple Mexican states, citing road blockages and criminal activity tied to security operations, underscoring concerns about instability in the aftermath.
Drawing on his military background studying enemy command structures, De La Cruz described the cartel fight as a long-term campaign requiring sustained pressure.
A mughsot of Ruben “Nemesio” Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” beside graffiti depicting the letters of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covering the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP Images; Drug Enforcement Administration)
“You don’t win a war with just one airstrike,” he said. “The goal is dismantling the networks and going after their financing.”
De La Cruz, who is running for Congress and is the brother of Texas Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, argued that CJNG’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation gives U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies expanded tools to target cartel infrastructure and financial pipelines.
KAROLINE LEAVITT WARNS CARTELS TO ‘NOT LAY A FINGER’ ON AMERICANS OR PAY ‘SEVERE CONSEQUENCES’
A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, after the cartel leader’s death. (Armando Solis/AP Photo)
But he stressed that the fentanyl crisis should be viewed as a domestic security emergency, not a distant foreign problem.
“For decades, they were using their territories as launching pads to pump chemical weapons into America — because that’s exactly what fentanyl is,” he said.
De La Cruz, who said he worked side by side with Customs agents while deployed to the border, warned that cartel networks are highly adaptive and that any gains could be temporary without sustained follow-through.
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Smoke rises after violence hit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (Courtesy of Scott Posilkin)
“These networks, they’re going to adjust. They’re going to adapt and they’re going to adapt quickly,” he said. “We have to continue to go after the money launderers, especially on our side of the border, because that’s the full fight.”
While Oseguera’s death removes one of the most dominant figures in Mexico’s criminal underworld, De La Cruz said the mission is personal.
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“I took an oath to defend this country,” he said. “And I intend to stand by that oath.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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TUCSON, Ariz. — More than five weeks after the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — Arizona authorities say cadaver dogs used earlier in the investigation are not currently being deployed as the search continues.
The elder Guthrie is believed to have been kidnapped from her home in the Catalina Foothills in northern Tucson around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1.
While no suspects have been publicly identified, and she has not been found, cadaver dogs had been deployed earlier in the case, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. They have not been visible in weeks.
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A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“They are available if needed in the future,” he told Fox News Digital.
There are a number of reasons not to be using cadaver dogs at this stage in the investigation, according to Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant and spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
One would be if there’s credible information that Guthrie is still alive.
“Anything is possible,” Nanos told Fox News Digital last week, adding that he would not discuss specific leads or evidence in the case.
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Brantner Smith, who is not involved in the case, said departments may hold back K-9 resources for several reasons. Those could be that authorities don’t have a good idea of where to search, they think she might be concealed in a place where dogs would have a hard time detecting her, or they believe she’s been taken to Mexico, according to Brantner Smith.
Law enforcement agents walk around the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
“I do believe that the sheriff’s department has much more information that they are not releasing to the public,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I’m not sure at this point why that would be, unless they have a solid suspect and don’t want to tip them off.”
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Most departments, including the Pima County Sheriff’s, don’t have their own cadaver dogs and borrow them from state and federal authorities or neighboring jurisdictions.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
In Guthrie’s case, the sheriff’s department sought K-9 assistance from the local Border Patrol office earlier in the investigation.
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PCSD deferred further comment on the K-9s to Customs and Border Protection, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office walks around Nancy Guthrie’s home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
The biggest lead so far has been Nest camera video showing a masked intruder on Guthrie’s doorstep the morning of her abduction.
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He is described as about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall and of medium build.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Arizona home since Jan. 31, 2026. (Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Images)
He was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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There’s a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that leads to her mother’s recovery.
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