The affidavit states that the girl told people at the shelter that she was using someone else's cell phone. She was being quiet so no one would hear her, the document states.

The girl also said, according to the affidavit, that "her parents did not live on the YFZ Ranch and that she has not had any contact with them to explain that she does not want to continue to be on the ranch."

A day later, on March 30, a teenage girl called a local shelter. She reported that she had been "spiritually married" to an older man, but that man had left the ranch to the "outsiders' world."

The department of family services determined the man had been indicted in Arizona for sexual contact with a minor. During the same conversation, she said that church members told her if she tried to leave she would be found and locked up.

She also said that she had been told that outsiders would "hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and clothes and to have sex with lots of men."

The document states that the teenage girl also said her parents were preparing to send her 15-year-old sister to live at the ranch.

"At the conclusion of the conversation she began crying and then stated she is happy and fine and does not want to get into trouble and that everything she had previously said should be forgotten," the affidavit states.

Based on the information gleaned from the phone calls, Texas officials successfully petitioned a judge for a warrant to search the ranch.

While at the ranch searching for the girl, investigators observed a number of young girls who appeared to be pregnant. Investigators said there was a "widespread pattern and practice" at the ranch in which young females are "conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them."

Based on the circumstances at the ranch, according to the affidavit, the state family services department determined that immediate danger exists to the children who live there.

"Similarly minor boys residing on the YFZ Ranch, after they become adults, are spiritually married to minor female children and engage in sexual relationships with them, resulting in them becoming sexual perpetrators," the affidavit states.

During interviews with child protective services, several children were unable or unwilling to name their parents or "multiple mothers." Some also would not provide information like birth dates, the document says. "This has made it difficult to determine who are the parents of the the children located on the YFZ Ranch."

A court hearing has been scheduled for April 17 to determine what will happen to the children who have been taken from the ranch.

Some 170 of the 416 children were moved Tuesday afternoon to a separate makeshift shelter. It appears they are being kept in the "cattle arena" annex of the San Angelo Coliseum.

The other shelter at the historic Fort Concho had reached maximum capacity. The children had first been taken there.

Texas officials apparently moved the children during the afternoon press briefing while all the members of the news media were indoors.

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E-mail: bwest@desnews.com