Sect mothers are bused away

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS -- Dozens of mothers from a polygamist retreat were bused away from their children Thursday, their legal efforts to stay united rejected as Texas officials sort out their huge custody case.

Two buses took the women from the San Angelo Coliseum, where they had been temporarily housed with their children. Texas officials were preparing to move the last of more than 400 children to group homes, shelters and residences, some hundreds of miles away, over the next few days.

One woman held a handwritten sign out the bus window that read: "SOS. Mothers separated. Help."

"There are no words to describe how it was," said Velvet, a mother who was forced to leave her 13-month-old. She and other sect women have refused to give their last names, fearing it will affect their custody cases.

The mothers were given a choice to return to the ranch or a "safe" location.

In Austin, the state's 3rd Court of Appeals rejected the mothers' pleas to stop authorities from busing the children to foster homes.

The YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch in Eldorado, south of San Angelo, was raided April 3. It is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Texas officials allege that the sect encourages adolescent girls to marry men and have children, and that boys are groomed to be perpetrators. Members deny the allegations.