Fresh details of how two young Utah sisters were rescued in the dark on a remote polygamist compound after being kidnapped by their father to be married off to the cult’s leader have emerged.
Dinah Calthorp, seven, and Hattie Calthorp, four, were rescued by police in Lund on Monday after a highly publicized amber alert search. The girls had been taken by their father weeks ago and had been handed over to his friend Samuel Shaffer when they were found.
When police found them on Monday, they also discovered Shaffer’s two young daughters, Lily, seven, and Samantha, five.
Samantha and Hattie, the two youngest, were being kept in a 50lb blue water barrel where they had been for more than 24 hours.
Dramatic images obtained by KUTV shows two of the girls being rescued. They were barefoot and wearing what looked like thin leggings.
One of the four girls who was being held on a polygamous compound in Utah is rescued late on Monday night wearing thin leggings and no shoes
Another of the young girls. Two were found in a 50lb water container and the other two were found in an empty trailer
Dinah Calthorp, seven, (left) and Hattie Calthorp, four, (right) were being hidden in an empty trailer and freezing water barrel on a compound in Lund, Utah, by their father’s polygamous cult leader friend who hoped police would not find them
Samantha Shaffer, five, and Lily Shaffer, six, were also found on the site. They are the daughters of Samuel Shaffer (above) who police fear was grooming the Calthorp sisters to marry him. Unlike the other two girls, neither of the Shaffer sisters had been reported missing
The two older girls were found in an abandoned trailer. All were dehydrated and Samantha remains in hospital.
When questioned, Shaffer said the girls were being hidden from police. His daughters were never reported missing and their mother has not been identified.
After being rescued on Monday, the girls were in ‘high spirits’ as they spoke to investigators.
‘Their spirits are getting better and they’re very talkative. They’re very cute girls….we’re happy to see this ending with them,’ Iron County Lt. Del Schlosser said.
Coltharp, 33, and Shaffer, 34, are both in custody on kidnapping charges. Shaffer is also accused of four counts of child abuse.
Police fear the men planned to marry Coltharp’s daughters off to Shaffer who was described as the ‘prophet’ of the cult.
Hattie and Dinah’s brothers William, seven, and Seth, six, were found earlier on Monday. They had also been taken by their father.
The case began in mid-September when Coltharp allegedly took his four children away from their mother despite not having full custody of them.
On Friday, he was arrested after police finally received court documents from the children’s mother.
Fathers: Samuel Shaffer, 34, (left) and John Calthorpe (right), 33, are now both in custody on kidnapping charges. Shaffer is also facing child abuse charges
NOW: Utah Highway Patrol informes me that a Department of Public Safety search helicopter is on its way down to #Lund – SUU helicopter in the sky now assisting in the search. pic.twitter.com/rUy6Q4FebH
— D.J. Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) December 4, 2017
When they found Coltharp however, he would not tell them where the children were.
Shaffer (above) is a key figure in the Knights of the Crystal Blade polygamous cult. Police say he was priming the young girls to marry them
Police then tracked his parents’ car to the compound in Lund but there were still no sign of the four Coltharp children.
The two boys were found later on Monday with their grandmother, Catherine Coltharp.
She told officers that her two young granddaughters were last seen with Shaffer who they spent the night with inside a tent along with his two daughters.
An Amber Alert was issued shortly afterwards.
Two hours later, police found Shaffer walking down a dirt rode alone after receiving a tip from the public.
Once in custody, he told police roughly where Hattie and Samantha were being hidden. They found Lily and Dinah an hour later.
The two fathers’ religious obsession has been of concern to investigators as it has to friends and relatives since the children were first reported missing.
Last week, Coltharp’s sister Cindi Ray said she feared he was grooming Dinah and Hattie for child marriage.
She said her brother was a ‘doomsday prepper’. On the cult’s website, Shaffer describes in length his ‘revelations’ about marriage and adultery.
Dinah and Hattie were reported missing along with their brothers William and Seth. The two boys were found safe on the compound on Monday with their grandmother before the girls were discovered
The Calthorp girls’ mother Micha Soble (right) first reported them missing. She said she pleaded with authorities not to allow their father John (left) to have access to them because she was worried about his intensifying religion
They include multiple men being able to have sex with one woman if permitted by her husband and women or ‘wives’ being used to ‘raise up’ men in the religion through sex.
‘A man to whom a woman is sealed need merely place his wife’s hand in the hand of another and she shall be submissive to him to whom she has been given.
‘Whether it is to be temporary permission or eternal union according to the order, she may have intercourse with him and he with she,’ is one of his remarks.
Shaffer refers to himself in the religion as Samuel The Seer and Frederick Warren Schafer.
Shaffer, 34, was found walking along a dirt rode in Utah on Monday. He had hidden the girls because he did not want police to find them
No one else from the religion has yet commented on the two fathers’ arrests.
It is not clear how many people were living on the compound when police found the girls.
Polygamy and bigamy are illegal in the United States, although Utah, a state that is home to a large Mormon community, does not prosecute polygamists who are law-abiding, giving way to the ‘Sister Wives’ phenomenon which is seen in some parts of the state.
Police say Shaffer was grooming Coltharp to take over as the cult’s ‘prophet’.
‘It was believed Samuel Shaffer was the Prophet of the Knights of the Crystal Blade. During an interview with Shaffer he stated he had turned over the position of Prophet to Johnathan Coltharp,’ Iron County Sheriff’s Officer Lt. Del Schlosser said.
Coltharp’s wife pleaded with a judge not to allow him access to the children but she was turned down.
She said she feared his strict religious beliefs were harmful to the children.
Among his previous remarks was that he would rather shoot the girls than have them taken away from him.
Shaffer has been arrested on two counts of kidnapping and four counts of child abuse. It is not clear how much his bond is but he remains behind bars.
Coltharp faces kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges. He is being held in county jail on a $50,000 bond.