DNA testing will begin of polygamous sect children

Officials in San Angelo plan to begin taking DNA samples Monday from more than 400 children taken from the polygamous sect's ranch in Eldorado.

The testing is needed, state officials said, to establish who the children's parents are and if any child abuse has taken place. Judge Barbara Walther ordered the testing.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints encourages underage marriages and births, prosecutors argued. That subjects children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse, the prosecutors said.

A man who identified himself as "Rulan" said FLDS members are reconsidering whether girls under 18 should have sex with adult men, The Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Comments

[MJTILTON]

I say get on with the tests and let these people have their lives back without the media attacks. I, like many other, have no real clue what this is all about because we are fed only the extreme parts of the story.