Texas 911 Calls Linked To 33-Year-Old in Colo.

by Dave Keating | April 24, 2008 at 01:41 am

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A shocking twist in the Texas polygamist sect raid, which has led to the largest child custody case in US history. It turns out the initial call from the girl authorities have been searching for may have been some sort of prank or hoax.

The phone calls that triggered a massive raid on a polygamist compound in west Texas -- in which a quavering girl's voice described being forcibly married at 15 -- have been linked to a Colorado woman with a history of making false claims of sexual abuse, according to an affidavit filed in Colorado Springs.

The affidavit says calls that allegedly came from "Sarah Barlow" -- a teenage girl at the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Tex. -- actually came from numbers connected to Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs. The affidavit also notes Swinton's possible involvement in a series of separate but similar reports in which the young caller described being abused by a pastor, an uncle or her father.