A nearly two-year-long search for three children who had disappeared in Utah came to a close after they were found safe near the Utah-Arizona border, authorities say.
The three kids, who were not named, went missing in October 2022. By late August 2024, police in Fredonia, Arizona received information suggesting the missing minors were in the 1,300-person town just a few miles from the Utah-Arizona border.
Police had suspected that their father “orchestrated the disappearance and subsequent hiding” of the children with the help of family members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints faith, authorities said in a Wednesday release.
Fredonia Police, in concert with other local authorities, retrieved the children and returned them to the care of their mother.
Their aunt and grandmother, who “appeared to be overseeing” the children, were arrested, authorities said. Police did not identify any of the family members.
“Due to the sensitive nature of this ongoing investigation involving minor children, certain information is, and will continue to be, withheld to protect the innocent,” police said.
The children are safe with their mother as the investigation continues, authorities added.
The entire operation “was very short, very quick,” Fredonia police officer Andrew Smith told Fox13. “So, that’s just how that works. It’s not necessarily the FLDS group, but anybody gets wind that there’s more than just the normal force in town, especially in a small town like this, things start to move.”
“It feels good to be able to actually get them and get them back to the parent that they belong to,” he continued. “That’s why we’re out here.”
