FEATURE STORY
A Life Left Behind Rachel Jeffs and her five children escape a polygamous lifestyle and her father, Warren Jeffs BY PATTY HUTCHENS PHOTO COURTESY OF RACHEL JEFFS
I
f you are a parent, you know you would do anything for your child. But imagine being told your entire life what you must eat, how you must dress—right down to which arm you put through your sleeve first—whom you will marry and what you name your children. Then, envision being separated from your children and living in isolation for months at a time. That is exactly what Rachel Jeffs endured until she and her five children were finally able to escape the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) led by Rachel’s father, Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed Prophet who received worldwide notoriety as the leader of the polygamous cult. Warren Jeffs is now serving a life sentence for the abuse he inflicted on children, marrying girls as young as 12 years old. Rachel’s life is documented in her recently released book, “Breaking Free.” Rachel is the third of Warren Jeffs’ 53 children and is said to have been his favorite. “He kept me with him the most,” said Rachel, adding that it was for all the wrong reasons. He began to sexually abuse his daughter when she was 8 years old. The abuse stopped when Rachel was 16 after she wrote her father a letter confronting him of his transgressions. She knew the man she still refers to as “Father” was not a good man. After all, who could preach about not letting boys touch you until you are married and then turn around and do such horrible things to his own daughter? But the No. 1 rule of the FLDS church was never to question the Prophet. Although Rachel knew he was not the Prophet he claimed to be, she loved her family and did not know how she would ever make a life for herself in the outside world. So, she stayed. “I just made the best of it,” said Rachel, who was taught that those on the “outside” were evil. One of the rules of the cult was that no one could seek medical help without Warren Jeffs’ permission. It is that kind of control that took the life of Rachel’s mother at the young age of 39 from breast cancer. Two years passed from the time she found her first lump to when Warren Jeffs allowed her to go to the doctor, but by then it was too late. “I blame Father for making my mother’s life so miserable at the end,” Rachel said. At that time, her mother’s younger children were taken away from her when she needed them most. It was an abandonment and isolation that Rachel would experience when she, too, was taken away from her children for perceived transgressions. Rachel married her husband Rich when she was just 18. It was a marriage arranged by her father, and Rachel first met Rich the day before her wedding. Warren Jeffs told Rachel and her sister, Becky, on a Sunday that
SandpointLivingLocal.com
they would be married “soon,” and within a week, their wedding dresses were made, and the sisters were both married women; Rachel to Rich and Becky to his brother. Rachel was Rich’s third wife in the polygamous marriage, and although she did not know him when they first married, she says she grew to love him. “I loved him as much as I could in that situation,” said Rachel, now 34 years old, who last saw Rich in February of 2013. Rachel confided in both her mother and Rich about the abuse. Her mother confronted Warren Jeffs about it, but she never mentioned the abuse to Rachel again. Rich also talked to Warren Jeffs about it, and after summoning both Rachel and Rich to meet with him, Warren said he was “educating” Rachel about men and that the topic was never to be brought up again. And that is when the isolation truly began, keeping Rachel from other members of her family for sometimes years at a time. But even after Warren Jeffs’ arrest in August of 2006, the control he had over the cult members did not stop. He continued to rule the cult from behind bars, using his brothers to issue his commands. And by all accounts, he continues to do so today. Over the years, Rachel gave birth to five children. At one time, Rachel was sent to live in isolation for seven months while still nursing her youngest child. When she was reunited with them, her youngest child did not remember her. It was heartbreaking.
64