A family seized as church property

Carolyn Jessop spent the first 35 years of her life in the Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, polygamist community and was married to Merril Jessop, one of Warren Jeff’s top lieutenants. After Warren Jeffs took over, she became increasingly concerned for the safety and well-being of her children. She escaped in the early morning hours with her eight children in April 2003. She now lives in the Salt Lake City area. (Damon Winter / LAT)

July 10, 2012 7:07 AM PT

Carolyn Jessop, left, is greeted by Bobbie Ivey, a member of Presbyterian Women, a church group in Salt Lake City, after speaking about her experiences in the polygamist society in Colorado City and Hildale. (Damon Winter / LAT)

Pam Black, a former Hildale resident, says she was run out of town after clashing with church leaders, and now lives in a mobile home on the outskirts of town. (Damon Winter / LAT)

Lenore Holm faced eviction from her home in Colorado City for failing to allow her 16-year-old daughter to marry a 38-year-old man she believed was a child molester. Holm successfully fought attempts to evict her for two years but could not prevent her daughter from marrying the man appointed for her. She now lives alone in the same home where she used to live with her husband and eight children. (Damon Winter / LAT)

Ruth Stubbs cares for her 1-year-old daughter, Kendra Holm, sick with a fever at Stubbs’ home in Hurricane, Utah. Stubbs was 15 when she asked Rulon Jeffs, the former prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for permission to marry her sweetheart, Carl Cooke. Jeffs declared that Stubbs was to marry her sister’s husband, Rodney Holm, a 32-year-old Colorado City, Ariz., police officer. Stubbs became Holm’s third wife and had four children with him. Stubbs left Colorado City with the help of her sister Pennie Peterson. (Damon Winter / LAT)

Ruth Stubbs playfully wrestles with her sister Lydia Cooke, left, as her daughter Carlie Holm, 3, carries sister Kendra at their home in Hurricane. (Damon Winter / LAT)

Pennie Petersen cooks dinner for the youngest three of her five children in their home in Mesa, Ariz. Petersen fled Colorado City when she was 14 after being told she was to marry a man who allegedly molested her. Petersen left a home of three mothers and 39 siblings, where she said she was often physically abused. (Damon WInter / LAT)