East Bay man charged as part of doomsday group alleged to take child brides

June 12--SALT LAKE CITY -- She still wonders if she could have spared the four young girls the alleged sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of her ex-husband and two others, including a 34-year-old East Bay man, who believed in polygamy and took child brides as part of a Utah doomsday group.

But she could no longer endure his unceasing conspiracy theories and the existential dread they instilled in her. She ended the relationship in 2015, but out of economic necessity she was forced to continue sharing the same apartment where they lived with their two sons and two daughters. Then in May, he announced he no longer had a job, took the children and disappeared.

"I've battled with guilt," said the ex-wife, who this news organization is not naming because her children are thought to be victims of a crime.

"It's like, well, if I had just let him keep talking about that stuff maybe I would've known what he was into," she continued. "He just went downhill and his beliefs were completely derailed when he no longer had a responsible adult keeping him in check."

Authorities say the woman's ex-husband, identified as John Coltharp, and Samuel W. Shaffer, both 34, formed a doomsday group called the Knights of the Crystal Blade based on arcane Mormon ideas long abandoned by the mainstream church.

Each man secretly married two girls, between the ages of 4 and 8, prosecutors have said. Each man married a relative of the other, according to court documents.

Shaffer was sentenced last month to up to life in prison after pleading guilty to child rape and abuse charges.

Coltharp has pleaded not guilty to sodomy and child bigamy charges. He is slated to be back in court Wednesday in Manti, Utah.

The two men were charged after sheriff's deputies descended on a makeshift compound made out of shipping containers in the southern Utah desert about 275 miles south of Salt Lake City. Authorities arrived with helicopters and dogs in December, after Coltharp's ex-wife reported them missing, along with two of her sons.

"I was terrified the whole time they were gone," the ex-wife said, "but everyone convinced me, 'Oh, they're in a house somewhere. John is just mad at you. He doesn't want to share.'"

The men had taken the children to the compound months before in preparation for an apocalypse or in hopes of gaining followers, authorities said.

The boys were found at the compound, but it took police another day to find the girls hidden in barrels and a rat-infested trailer.

Shaffer said at his sentencing that he put the girls in the containers to protect them from the winter weather, and he was glad that the girl spoke out.

Before their arrests, Coltharp and Shaffer met in a Facebook discussion group relating to the 1890 decision to abandon polygamy by the mainstream Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Sanpete County Attorney Kevin Daniels.

Some fundamentalist Mormons believe that decision took the religion too far from its original beliefs.

Robert Shane Roe, 34, of Castro Valley, met Coltharp and Shaffer in the same discussion group last year and traveled to Utah where he was given a "spiritual wife" -- a 5-year-old girl related to one of the founders, Daniels said.

Investigators knew previously that Roe was involved in the group, but the girl only recently revealed what happened when she was alone with him. He was charged last week with sodomy of a child for the alleged activity in August 2017. No attorney is listed in court documents for Roe.

Daniels said Roe has acknowledged being alone with the girl, but denies abusing her.

According to her oldest daughter, the marriage ceremony included sex, because "that's what happened to her," Coltharp's ex-wife said.

"She said that Robert Roe took (the 5-year-old) to a hotel for two days and that he married her and that when she saw him around her, he was kissing her on the mouth," the ex-wife said.

Though the doomsday group espoused polygamous intentions, none of the men had multiple adult wives, said Daniels, adding that the followers also believed that Chinese and Muslim people were planning to come to take over the United States, Daniels said.

Two other followers who are cooperating with investigators could be charged at a later date with obstruction of justice, but they aren't suspected of committing any sexual crimes, he said.

Daniels called Shaffer, Coltharp and Roe "pedophiles cloaking themselves in the robes of religious freedom."

The boys, ages 6 and 7, were also physically and emotionally abused, according to Coltharp's ex-wife. They were often marched into the forest and forced to find their way back using their footprints, she said.

Coltharp's ex-wife said her children are in therapy and have "exceeded expectations so far."

"There's still a lot," she said. "They mention John and Sam every day. But they hate them. They want them to suffer like they did. ... They know what was happening was wrong."

She is also learning to let go of the guilt that still grips her.

"You can't possibly predict someone acting that way," she said. "A normal brain doesn't work like that. You can't possibly think that would be something that is possible."

The Associated Press and Southern California News Group staff writer Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.

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