The Province September 22, 2000
Polygamists scoop teens
Girls allegedly being wed to elders of church
with communes in U.S., B.C.
by Fabian Dawson
A secretive commune in southern B.C. is part of a U.S. probe into the arranged marriages of under-age American girls to priests of the polygamous community. 
Lenore Holm and her husband, Milton with nine of
their children. Daughter, Nicole, 16, was not shown.
She was married off to a 39-year-old man with 10 children.
On Friday, Utah's State Attorney appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of child abuse and teen brides in the 30,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has communes on the Utah-Arizona border and in the Kootenay town of Lister.
(Winston) Blackmore
The arranged marriages are on the rise because the church's leader had predicted that the end of the world is near and that only those in "celestial pairings" will be saved.
Prosecutor Ron Barton has been contacted by ex-members of the church and by a child advocacy group to investigate the movement of young girls between Arizona, Utah and B.C.
The Bountiful commune in Lister has between 800 and 1,000 members and is run by popular local businessman Winston Blackmore.
Blackmore, 44, estimated to have 30 wives and 80 children, is the commune's bishop, newsletter editor, chief executive officer of its businesses and trustee of its property.
He is also the superintendent of the commune's taxpayer-funded school, which indoctrinates its 184 students to keep "sacred secrets."
Blackmore, who has refused to talk to The Province, decides who marries whom and where they live. Most of his wives are younger than his eldest son, who is 24.
Ex-members told The Province that several of his wives are American teens.
Last year, he married several new wives, including a 16-year-old American girl identified as Lorraine Johnson, who was a neighbour and schoolmate of Nichole Holm, also 16, of Colorado City, Ariz.
Her mom, Lenore Holm, told The Province yesterday that the church wanted Nichole to be the second wife to a 39-year-old man with 10 children.
When the mother refused consent, she was promptly declared a "tool of the devil" and, within minutes, excommunicated.
Six months ago, Nichole was paired off with her "chosen husband" at the Utah- Arizona border and whisked to the Bountiful commune in the Creston Valley near the B.C.-Idaho border.
Holm filed a police report in Colorado City last week alleging that her daughter was married in violation of state laws and taken to B.C. She also plans to file an official complaint with Creston RCMP this week.
"I am praying . . . I want my daughter back," Holm said from her home in Colorado City.
"She called me recently and said I was wicked."
Nichole returned to Colorado City a few weeks ago, but is being kept from her mother by other church members. The church has told the local authorities that the teen has run away from her home.
Jay Beswick, who represents For Kids Sake, a California-based international non-profit group against child abuse, said: "We believe there are between 30 and 40 under-age girls who have been married off to church elders and members in B.C. and the U.S. over the past two years."
Beswick, who has contacted FBI officials on the movement of minors across national borders, says the girls are between 13 and 16.
Church elders in Utah have denied the allegations, calling the claims the work of "apostates who distort the facts."
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also called the United Effort Plan, broke away from the Mormon Church and openly practices polygamy.
In most cases, the first wife is registered and the others married by bishops in secret weddings under a strict code of silence.
In 1992, B.C. announced it would not prosecute two polygamists from Bountiful and declared the Criminal Code section outlawing polygamy unconstitutional.
In 1993, Immigration Canada confirmed it was looking at U.S. women being brought into the commune from Utah and Arizona. But because of the conflict of legal opinion between Ottawa and Victoria, no action was taken.
At that time, the teens in question had already given birth to a total of eight children and were stepmothers to 20 others.