I knew the en masse child-snatching was a massive overreach that would blow up in their faces. You don’t seize kids and look for evidence later.
The criminal investigation is another matter. Like Fox News taking that sheriff on a helicopter tour of the FLDS leadership’s hideaway under construction in his jurisdiction. Chase them from pillar-to-post. Keep the investigative heat on them no matter where they flee.
Colorado City went unmolested from the fifties to the 00’s. For decades everyone in power looked the other way. This must never be allowed again.
There’s a recent historical parallel here...
ISKON (the American branch of the Harry Krishnas) was taken over after the founder’s death in the seventies by “Swami Kirtananda who built his own empire “New Vrindaban” in the mountains of West Virginia with all the usual attendant ugliness and perversion. Finally, the mess was broken open after a breakaway member determined to expose everything was assassinated on his orders. This set in motion the investigation and chain of events that brought the whole edifice down once law enforcement finally decided to pay serious attention.
ISKON and New Vrindaban still exist, but according to what I have read recently they really ARE a straight-up hindu religious order that nowadays caters to Indian expats rather than vulnerable spiritual drifters.