The Shocking Case of ‘Prophet’ Sam Bateman: Inside a Polygamist Sect

A CULT EXPERT AND HER MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCER HUSBAND INFILTRATED A RELIGIOUS FRINGE GROUP IN ARIZONA AND HELPED TAKE DOWN A CHILD SEX ABUSE RING

- LIAM QUINN

Ten years ago Christine Marie, an expert in cult psychology, and her music video producer husband, Tolga Katas, drove from their home in Las Vegas to the remote community of Colorado City, Ariz., on an extraordinary mission: to live among, and eventually befriend, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) who have made the stunningly beautiful mountain landscape on the Arizona-Utah border their home for nearly a century. At the time, the cultlike group—known for its practice of illegal plural marriage, or polygamy—was in disarray. Its leader, self-described prophet Warren Jeffs, and several male followers were in prison for having sex with underage “wives.” The State of Utah was in the process of seizing FLDS-owned property and evicting families who had lived there for generations. “It was an injustice, and nobody cared, because these people were associated with Jeffs,” recalls Christine Marie, 65, who was raised in the Mormon faith and says she survived an abusive marriage with a man who considered himself a prophet. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind that I might be able to help, so I went there.”

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