Newly released video footage shows the moment Utah police found two young girls who were left in barrels by pedophiles associated with a doomsday cult.
Body camera footage posted on social media by Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, shows roughly two minutes of an encounter between Utah law enforcement officers and two young girls.
“Shocking footage released shows Utah police finding young girls stuffed inside 50-gallon barrels at the property belonging to doomsday cult pedoph*les. Heartbreaking,” Rugg wrote. “The girls, who are blurred out, were the daughters of Samuel Shaffer and John Coltharp, two men who allegedly ‘married’ their young daughters.”
While the incident seen in the body camera footage was just recently released to the public, the incident portrayed in the video occurred in 2017. The New York Post reported that the four-year-old and seven-year-old girls seen in the video were found in December of 2017 in 50-gallon barrels on the property of the Knights of the Crystal Blade cult.
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The young girls were reportedly left outside in the barrels for more than a day in freezing temperatures, according to Rugg. A loaded firearm was also discovered next to the girls, according to The New York Post.
In the body camera footage, one of the girls can be heard repeatedly telling police officers, “I don’t have pants on,” as the officers encouraged both of the girls to come out of the barrels and enter a warm vehicle.
According to The New York Post, one of the girls was the daughter of Shaffer, who served as the cult’s prophet before his arrest. The other girl found in the barrels was the daughter of Coltharp, who was one of the disciples associated with the cult. The New York Post also noted that the two cult members allegedly “married” their daughters.
According to Rugg, Coltharp is serving a prison sentence of at least 25 years for child bigamy and sodomy, while Shaffer is serving a prison sentence of 26 years to life for child abuse and child rape.
In addition to the discovery of the two girls in the barrels, police also discovered two other girls in a trailer, according to The New York Post. In the video, the two girls can be heard telling police, “They’re in a box really far away from us,” when asked about the location of the other two girls.
