From Deseret News archives:

2 young FLDS boys unaccounted for

Published: Sunday, April 27, 2008 1:16 a.m. MDT
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She said the mother of the two unaccounted-for boys contacted her attorney to say she needed to know about her 11-year-old and 16-month-old sons. The attorney was unable to get any information to help calm her client. Martinez is not saying the boy took his brother and ran away but said she can't rule out any possibilities because of the confusion that exists.

"These mothers are no longer with their children. They're afraid and fearful and they want to know that their kids are OK," she said. "We're having trouble even telling these mothers where their kids are going."

The last of the 467 children were bused from makeshift shelters here Friday and sent throughout Texas to 16 different foster-care facilities in Amarillo, Midland, Abilene, Ft. Worth, Waxahachie, Houston, Waco, Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi.

"We don't have any unaccounted-for kids. All of them are in foster care now," said Van Deusen.

He couldn't provide any details about the specific two boys but said identification issues have continued to plague Texas officials. CPS workers have repeatedly complained that some children and women have provided different names than were given the day before. Together with the unusual family sizes and the number of different mothers caring for the children from the polygamous families, it's been difficult to sort out who's who.

"I don't know if this is a matter of simply not being matched up properly," he said.

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Such confusion is why a judge ordered all mothers, fathers and children who lived on the ranch to submit to DNA testing. But those results aren't expected for another month.

Martinez said her office received information from one of the foster facilities Saturday that a 2-year-old child from one of the mothers they represent was hospitalized and in the intensive care unit. Yet when the child's guardian ad litem called the hospital, she was told there was no one there with that child's name.

The judge told CPS to allow mothers to be with their children when they got sick, Martinez said. "Not only is this mother not able to confirm where her child is or what her current health situation is, but the mother is not being allowed to be with this child or her other nursing children," she said.

Martinez also spoke of another FLDS mother who was extremely anxious Saturday for news about her children. "She's just terrified because she doesn't feel her kids know how to live without her," she said.

"Any mother would be afraid and concerned. It is heightened here by the fact that this community has been living a different lifestyle for so long," Martinez said. "They don't know how their children are going to react or are now reacting to the world in general."

Van Deusen said if parents don't know which foster facility is caring for their children, they soon will. And, he said, the attorneys for the children should already know.

Recent comments

This question needs to be answered. Did anyone in the FLDS community...

Paul | May 2, 2008 at 10:38 p.m.

Does anyone wonder that since Polygamy is illegal and the police knew...

Dynah | May 1, 2008 at 6:59 a.m.

"Child welfare workers in Texas say they're not worried."

dah???...

Mother in Illinois | April 29, 2008 at 10:39 p.m.

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