How Two Civilians Took Down FLDS Prophet Bateman

The FBI couldn't get inside. Police had questioned Bateman twice and left empty-handed. The FLDS community was built over a century to resist outside scrutiny, and it was working. The formal institutions designed to protect children had failed to penetrate the wall. So two people who weren't part of any institution did it instead.

Christine Marie is a cult researcher who moved to Short Creek with her filmmaker husband Tolga Katas in 2016. They came to help — Christine started a nonprofit supporting people leaving the FLDS. When Bateman declared himself a prophet and the abuse began, they shifted from humanitarian work to covert intelligence gathering. Tolga filmed hundreds of hours inside Bateman's operation. Christine built trust within his circle and recorded a critical conversation where Bateman described orchestrating sexual acts with minors. She delivered that recording to law enforcement. The FBI investigation that followed led to Bateman's arrest and a fifty-year sentence.

Their footage became the basis for Netflix's Trust Me: The False Prophet, directed by Rachel Dretzin of Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. Dretzin has called what Christine and Tolga captured "a blueprint for how to dismantle even the most entrenched systems of abuse."

But the personal cost was steep. Christine had children of her own in the community. Bateman's followers had already shown they would kidnap children and flee across state lines. If her role was discovered, the danger was not hypothetical. She reflected: "I was so trusted. I wanted to help them before they found out I was a mole. I'm not betraying them — I'm helping them, right?" The girls now living free probably have an answer to that question. Whether it's the only answer is what makes this episode worth hearing.

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