I have a sneaking feeling that neither CD's nor LV's attorneys will ask for a change of venue. Where would they have a better chance of pulling in someone who's sympathetic to the cult than in Rexburg that is 97% Mormon and has recently seen population growth from the prepper-type?
There were 60 burner phones and that--to me--indicates they had quite a large following right there in Rexburg.
I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're just scraping the surface of this cult. And, I think DW knows a lot more than he's saying. JMOO
I discovered something over the weekend that I had not heard about before.
Apparently there was (is?) a splinter group who also referred to themselves as "the Church of First Born" in Manti, Utah. I remember some mention of the so-called Morrisite group referring to themselves as such, but I do not remember mention of a this group of around 350 individuals in Manti.
I remembered that Chad and Tammy were married in the Manti Temple. Manti is less than an hour and a half away from their hometown of Springville.
Manti is a little town of about 3200. The temple dates back to 1888 and the Manti group was a well known presence there since around 1990.
There is much documentation from various sources about the Manti Group, AKA The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days. The Church's prophet died in 2013. It is said that the group is now splintered.
From what I have read, their teachings included multiple probations/reincarnation, including the church's prophet claiming to be the reincarnation of the Holy Spirit and Joseph Smith.
There was a high emphasis on the last days and a failed prophesy of the end of the world in March 2000. I read that the group had a backhoe ready for the burial of all the dead that was going occur then, but did not.
They emphasized translation, exaltation, personal visions of angels, speaking to those beyond the veil (deceased), and polygamy as necessary for exaltation.
I drew a connection between Manti being so close to Springville and wondered if this is how Chad, and maybe even Tammy, first became familiar with teachings that are outside of the mainstream, possibly as far back as the 1990s in pre-internet days.
Whether there was any contact with this group or not, I am seeing that these specific ideas are perhaps a little more prevalent than what I had first realized.