Roy Jeffs, a son of now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, was found dead Friday of an apparent suicide in Salt Lake City.
Roy Jeffs was among the first to say the polygamous sect prophet sexually abused his own children.
While Warren Jeffs had already been convicted in Texas of sexually assaulting two girls he married as plural wives and had years earlier been accused of sexually abusing nieces and nephews, none of his children — estimated to number in the mid-50s to mid-70s range — had yet accused him of molestation.
Roy Jeffs’ coming forward was credited with helping siblings share their experiences.
Roy Jeffs left the FLDS in February 2014.
The next year, he began giving interviews describing the physical abuse and how he and other children were shuffled around the American West either because they weren’t considered worthy or to perform labor on construction crews.