Texas authorities order DNA tests to untangle polygamist family lines

ELDORADO, Texas – State authorities began a second day of court-ordered DNA testing Tuesday on members of a polygamist sect, an effort they hope will begin to untangle the group’s complicated \nfamily relationships.\nOfficials in a massive custody case are trying to identify the parents of 437 children taken from a west Texas compound more than two weeks ago. The testing of ranch residents took place in the courthouse square as a handful of deputies in cowboy hats stood guard.\nDavid Williams, 32, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, came on his own from his home in Nevada, hoping to take custody of his sons. Williams said he doesn’t pay attention to the news and only heard his three sons were in state custody from a friend.\nClutching a Book of Mormon and photos of the boys – ages 5, 7 and 9 – Williams looked at his feet as he said his children were “taken hostage by the state.”\n“I have been an honorable American and father, and I have carefully sheltered my children from the sins of this generation,” Williams said. He declined to describe the mother of the boys as his wife, and declined to offer details of why or when he left the sect.\nA judge ordered last week that the DNA be taken to help determine the parentage of the children, many of whom were unable to describe their lineage. Some of the adults have been ordered by the state to submit to testing. Others are being asked to do so voluntarily.\nAuthorities believe the sect forces underage girls into marriages with older men. No one has been arrested, but a warrant has been issued for member Dale Barlowa, convicted sex offender, who has said he has not been to the Texas site in years.\nRod Parker, an attorney for the FLDS, said he is afraid authorities secretly intend to use the DNA to build criminal cases against members of the group. But state Child Protective services spokesman Greg Cunningham said: “We’re not involved in the criminal investigation. That’s not \nour objective.”\nTen lab technicians hired by the state spent Monday collecting samples at the San Angelo coliseum and fairgrounds which served as a shelter for the children who were removed from their Eldorado compound during an April 3 raid.\nSome of those technicians were to be sent to Eldorado on Tuesday to collect samples from the possible parents. Family relationships are immensely tangled within the sect, where multiple mothers live in the same household and children refer to all men in the community as “uncles.”\nAuthorities say they need to figure that out before they begin custody hearings to determine which children may have been abused and need to be permanently removed from the sect compound and which ones can be safely returned to the fold. For now, they’re all in state custody because child-welfare officials believe sexual abuse has occurred or could occur imminently because of the teachings of the sect.