In the Western part of the country, a disturbing pattern is unfolding: children of mothers who fled a fundamentalist polygamous Mormon sect are vanishing — and their families fear it’s part of a radical religious agenda.
In the latest case, Elizabeth Roundy of Jefferson County, Idaho, says her two youngest children, 13-year-old Allen Larand Fischer and 15-year-old Rachelle Leray Fischer, disappeared last month while she was at 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 recently told EastIdahoNews.com. “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.”
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a report was filed on June 22 after the teens went missing from their home in Monteview, Idaho. An Amber Alert was issued the next day. They haven’t been seen since.
Authorities suspect the teens may have returned to the FLDS community in Trenton, Utah, where they previously lived. They believe the disappearance was not random.
“Their mother was previously an FLDS member,” said Jennifer Fullmer, a public information officer with the sheriff’s office. “She was exiled and had to leave the children there. And then when she finally got custody of them, she brought them back to her hometown of Monteview.”
In 2021, Roundy was granted full custody of all three children, who she shares with her ex-husband and their father, Nephi Fischer.
“We believe that [her children] wanted to go back to the FLDS lifestyle,” Fullmer added.
Still, investigators don’t believe the children simply ran away. “There’s no buses. There’s no trains. It’s out in the middle of the desert,” Fullmer told PEOPLE. “Mom’s belief is that somebody from the FLDS picked up the children.”
“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 Friday night.”
Roundy also believes that the disappearance of her children was an orchestrated attempt by FLDS members to reclaim them for the church, spurred by a chilling 2022 prophecy from imprisoned cult leader Warren Jeffs.
“It’s terrifying,” Roundy said. “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.”
Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence for child sexual assault in Texas after arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. His 2022 “revelation” directed followers to “consecrate and return their children to the church by any means necessary” and prepare them to become “pure” by dying and being resurrected.
Fullmer confirmed that this disturbing prophecy was part of what prompted law enforcement to issue the Amber Alert.
“What the information we got was about this revelation — that the children are supposed to gather to assist in the building of Zion so that they can die and become pure and translated beings,” she said.
“We don’t have any concept of when or how quickly children should be gathered and brought back to the church so that they can die and become pure beings.”
This isn’t the first time Roundy has seen one of her children disappear.
In January 2023, her eldest daughter, Elintra Dee Fischer, then 17, vanished under similar circumstances.
As authorities search for the missing children, Roundy clings to hope.
“Wherever they are, they’re in hiding,” she said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still close by, waiting for things to settle before moving them again.”
Roundy described her close relationship with Allen and Rachelle, especially in recent months. Allen often slept on a couch in her room, and Rachelle, who experienced frequent nightmares, regularly shared a bed with her mother.
“I’m kicking myself for letting them go like I did,” she said. “I’ve stayed right with them for years, always watching. I let my guard down for a couple of hours.”
‘This is human trafficking in the name of God’
Tonia Tewell, founder of Holding Out Help, a nonprofit that supports women and children fleeing from polygamist groups, told The Independent that she believes the situation is part of a growing, dangerous pattern.
“This isn’t religion — it’s a human trafficking ring,” she told The Independent. “This is human trafficking in the name of God.”
According to Tewell, the FLDS has long used family separation as a method of control.
“It’s kind of the FLDS’s ammo — to separate families, to have control over all people,” she said. “Because at the end of the day, they know if you mess up, what’s going to happen is you’re going to lose everybody that you care about.”
Tewell said that Jeffs’ 2022 prophecy significantly escalated the danger.
“The revelations from Warren Jeffs are very scary,” she previously told ABC News. “Their alternative is hell. What would you pick? These kids are being taught that salvation only comes through death and resurrection — that’s brainwashing.”
But then some of the “moms started to wake up,” Tewell said.She said some mothers, including Roundy, eventually recognized the horrifying implications and escaped. “These are women who were born and bred in this system, and they logically knew something was very wrong.”
With legal support, many of these women were able to win full custody. But the FLDS does not abide by custody rulings, Tewell said.
“They believe God’s law is above the law of the land,” she explained. “So when these kids go back to visit their fathers, they’re being brainwashed all over again. And then, surprise, they vanish.”
Tewell said this latest case underscores a larger crisis that extends far beyond Idaho’s borders.
“Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, you know it’s spreading like wildfire.” she said. “And most people don’t know outside of Utah, because they’re in very isolated rural areas.”
The Road Warriors for the Missing, a volunteer group of bikers known for their bold presence, have joined the effort to track down missing children.
“I’ve logged 35,000 miles on cases since last May,” Jason Clark, the group’s president, told KLS in an interview earlier this year.
In recent months, the Road Warriors have been working with former FLDS members who’ve legally separated from the church, and then had their children disappear in mysterious circumstances.
Though the organization doesn’t recover children themselves, the group uses drones, private investigators, and on-the-ground volunteers to track leads and notify authorities.
Sarah Johnson is one of the mothers they’re assisting. She has legal custody of her children but hasn’t seen her son Salome in four years.
“I was granted primary physical custody,” Johnson said. “His father had visitation rights. I don’t believe Salome ran away. He had to have been hidden.”
Authorities with the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office have classified the boy as a runaway, but Johnson insists the truth is far more complicated.
‘We think they’re underground’
In the case of Elizabth Roundy’s missing children, there is still no trace of them.
Despite the Amber Alert, authorities have not identified a suspect or known vehicle involved in the disappearance.
Tewell worries time is running out. “These kids aren’t outside. They’re probably underground in a bunker,” she said.
“At some point, we’ve got to wake up.”
On July 3, the Uvalde Foundation for Kids, which has been actively looking for the children, announced they had called off their ground search due to new information that they received in the case.
The group said in the press release that they now believe the teens are being actively hidden by members of the FLDS church.
Officials with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced last week that they will actively continue to pursue and follow leads involving the disappearance of the children, despite ending the active ground search.
The Independent has reached out to the sheriff’s office for an update, but has not received a response.
‘I’m heartbroken they’re gone’
Back in Monteview, Idaho, Roundy is barely holding on.
“I’m very concerned about their well-being, and of course, I’m missing them very badly,” she said. “I’m heartbroken they’re gone.”
For now, she’s urging anyone with information to come forward.
“I’ll never stop looking for them,” she said.
“Not ever.”
