Missing Girls Found in Raid on Cult Compound

Two Utah girls have been found safe nearly three months after they were allegedly kidnapped by their father, who family members feared had betrothed them to a polygamist sect leader. 

John Coltharp, said to be 33 or 34, was arrested in Sanpete County Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and obstruction of justice, but his daughters, ages 4 and 8, and two sons, ages 6 and 7, remained missing until Monday, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. 

That's when police raided a compound used by the Knights of the Crystal Blade, a polygamist sect Coltharp founded with Samuel Warren Shaffer after he was excommunicated from the Mormon Church, Coltharp's ex-wife says, per the New York Daily News. She has custody of the kids. Coltharp's sons were removed from the compound while police arrested Shaffer, 34, who told authorities where they could find Coltharp's daughters, along with his own two.

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