4 children found as authorities target polygamist compound

SPRING CITY, Utah – Four missing children from a Utah polygamist sect have been found after a raid on the group’s compound.

Authorities found two boys in the raid Monday then issued an Amber Alert for their two sisters and soon found them within 5 miles of the compound.

The girls, 8-year-old Dinah and 4-year-old Hattie Coltharp, are in good condition.

Their father was arrested last week on suspicion of kidnapping and had refused to disclose the children’s location. Records do not list an attorney who could comment on John Coltharp’s behalf.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 34-year-old Samuel Warren Shaffer, who sees himself as a prophet for a fundamentalist Mormon group, was in custody. The girls’ father is a group member.

Spring City Police Chief Clarke Christensen says the kids, their father and paternal grandparents disappeared in mid-September.