Kori Christofferson wonders how she could ever have given the past 15 months of her life to a purported polygamist sect she says engages in bizarre sexual practices.
"Why I stayed? I can't give you a logical explanation," she told the Ogden Standard-Examiner."After leaving there and seeing what I saw happen to the women and children there and knowing what I know, my conscience would not let me sit back and not do anything about it," the 23-year-old Ogden woman added.
Christofferson has played a pivotal role in Weber County's investigation of suspected child sexual abuse and assisted authorities this weekend in interviewing children removed during a Friday raid on the group's northern Ogden homes.
Christofferson said she fell in with the group when she and her former husband were having marital problems. She was pregnant at the time with her second child.
Two group members who recruited her at her job painted a peaceful picture of a "Zion society" - a place of refuge free of contention, strife or financial worry.
When she left her husband and moved into the group's 10-home neighborhood, Christofferson says she went through a period of depression during which she was taught about unusual sexual practices and beliefs of a group sometimes known as "The Sister Program."
She eventually grew uneasy with the doctrines and practices of the group, and in May she left.
Christofferson said more than 30 adults joined the group in recent years, including a number of single women, several families and at least seven divorcees like herself.
She said at least three male members of the group have "sister councils" that are polygamous in structure and preach a doctrine of sexual "sister love."
Group members also try to live a form of communalism, she said, contributing their money and personal service to benefit the organization.
Christofferson said she soon learned membership meant surrendering personal control of her life, with sister councils dictating day-to-day decisions such as dress, diet, work assignments and religious study.
"You've got somebody taking complete control of your life, making all the decisions for you," she said. "It's very easy to sit back and let them take care of it for you."
Her first weeks with the group are still a blur, Christofferson said.
When she arrived, she said, group members duped her into believing her family and former husband had turned against her, attempting to kidnap her daughter.
She lost contact with her 6-year-old daughter during that period but was assured the child was being cared for by other group members.
She said she served as secretary to purported sect leader Arvin Shreeve, 61, for a time. Christofferson said she prepared letters and legal papers as well as drafting inventories of ammunition and firearms that group members kept hidden in their homes under stairs, in back of closets and other places.
Christofferson said she was taught what was termed the "Sexual Way of Life," and she learned that most females in the group, including children, were members of the "sister council."
In the sister council, "one man is over a group of women, and his job is to bring them through eternity to the celestial kingdom," she added.
She said she was a member of Shreeve's sister council and personally witnessed sexual encounters between female group members. The council also involved children, she said.
In a June deposition, Christofferson said she saw six females engage in a game called "Rape in the Dark." The game ended when the one who possessed a game card bearing the word "rapist" had reduced the group down to one person.
"The rapist could do any sexual act they wanted to the person left," she said.
Three other former group members also have told the Standard-Examiner they considered principles taught by Shreeve and other group members to be "lesbian" in nature.
The Sexual Way of Life was one of three of the group's tenets, Christofferson said. The others were the Spiritual Way of Life and the Temporal Way of Life.
She said she helped Shreeve burn pornographic materials after he became convinced police would soon raid homes occupied by the group.
Search warrants used in Friday's police raid on seven homes specifically identified pornographic materials as an object. However, Ogden Police Chief Michael Empey indicated no such materials were found.
Departure from the group was difficult, she said, because of both psychological dependency and a policy that new members of the group like herself must be accompanied by older members almost everywhere except work.
She made her break at work one day and simply did not return home to the group, although she was able to recover her children.
She testified in a recent court deposition that initially group members asked her to reconsider her decision and even offered her money and other assistance.
But Christofferson said she had to call on police to go back to the northern Ogden neighborhood to obtain her personal effects.