Calls from 'Sarah' kept on coming

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Even after the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch that led to the removal of 437 children, 16-year-old "Sarah" continued calling for help.

Calls from her phone went to a battered women's shelter in Everett, Wash.; a southern Utah-based advocacy group for people leaving polygamy; a rape crisis line in Colorado Springs; an abuse counseling center in Ft. Meyers, Fla.; and an anti-polygamy activist in Arizona.

Those calls now appear to be a hoax, as an arrest warrant unsealed in a Colorado Springs court on Wednesday indicated phone numbers used to call the shelters match cell phones belonging to a woman named a "person of interest" in the Texas investigation.

The woman may also suffer from a multiple personality disorder, an arrest warrant affidavit suggested.

Colorado Springs police have been investigating Rozita Swinton, 33, for a series of hoax calls reporting child abuse, the affidavit states. Texas Rangers said a pair of cell phone numbers from the Colorado Springs area were possibly related to the calls that reported abuse at the YFZ Ranch.

But the phony calls will not undo the decision to take the children from the YFZ Ranch, said an attorney appointed to represent one of the children seized in the raid.

"That it was triggered by a call that appears to be a hoax does not affect the cases concerning the safety of the children," said Susan Hays, a Dallas attorney. "It might affect the criminal cases, but not the civil cases concerning the custody and safety of the children."

That is because what police discovered when they responded to the calls allows them to go forward. Texas Child Protective Services workers said they found other signs of abuse, including pregnant teenagers and child brides.

Sarah

The calls were first made to the Newbridge Family Shelter in San Angelo on March 29 by a girl who identified herself as Sarah Barlow. She said she had an 8-month-old baby and was pregnant with another child. She said her husband, 49-year-old Dale Barlow, abused her and she wanted off the YFZ Ranch.

"Sarah Barlow desired to leave the YFZ Ranch compound, but stated to call takers that if she were caught, she would be locked in her room and not allowed to eat," the affidavit said.

It was that call and additional calls the next day that triggered the raid on the YFZ Ranch on April 3, and ultimately led to the removal of 437 children.

Anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop also spoke to "Sarah" for more than 40 hours beginning March 30. "She sounded just like a little girl," Jessop told the Deseret News. "She was really damn good."

Meanwhile, "Sarah" had called a battered women's shelter in Everett, Wash., saying that her husband lived at an apartment complex there.

Recent comments