Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, can’t seem to get out of the spotlight.
The sister cities are known for being the headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the home of imprisoned church leader Warren Jeffs.
In September, flash flooding in the region killed more than 20 people. And in August, a missing 5-year-old boy was found dead after a week of search and rescue.
The boy’s father is Colorado City Mayor Joseph Allred.
Salt Lake Tribune reporter Nate Carlisle wrote about why Fundamentalist church members provided both a help, but were also a hindrance in the search for young Jerold Williams.
Jerold Williams was with his mother, Allred, six other women and 27 other children camping in the Kaibab National Forest, when it appears he went the wrong way down a mountain road.
The boy disappeared around 2 p.m., but Allred and the boy's mother didn't leave the forest to get into cell phone range for three to four hours after he was last seen.
According to investigative reports obtained by Carlisle, Allred was reluctant to let investigators do even the most basic parts of their work.
"He's hesitant to let the police interview Jerold's mother, who according to federal documents is his plural wife," Carlisle said, "The documents also say that he married her when she was 15."
The documents also say Allred refused at first to let them search his house, which is standard procedure in a missing child case. In the end, he let one detective search his home. They found nothing.
The community came out in droves to search the forest where the boy disappeared though, according to Carlisle. An estimated 900 people from the twin communities arrived at the Kaibab National Forest to help search for the little boy.
Carlisle believes Allred was reluctant because of his past brushes with the law, including a trial in Phoenix in 2014 where he used the protection of the Fifth Amendment for most questions he was asked.
"It seems he just has an aversion to law enforcement at this point quite possibly because he's afraid he's going to be charged with a crime at some point," Carlisle said.
Carlisle said that in federal documents Allred is accused of misuse of public funds, taking a child bride and helping Warren Jeffs, the head of the church who is serving time for sexual assault of his child brides, direct the church and towns from prison.
Despite all of the seemingly obstructionist moves by Allred, Carlisle doubts more openness would have helped them find the boy any faster.
He notes the search area was rugged and remote. The weather was rainy and cold and the window of time in which rescuers could have found Jerold and brought him to safety was very narrow.
Nate Carlisle, reporter, Salt Lake Tribune