Elissa Wall, Former Child Bride, Opens Up About Cult Leader Warren Jeffs

The former child bride and member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), Elissa Wall, who helped take down the leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, has now come forward with her story as a part of A&E’s documentary “Warren Jeffs: Prophet Of Evil.”

The special explores Wall’s story along with revelations about how the now-imprisoned cult leader ruled over 15,000 followers of the FLDS.

In the documentary, Wall reveals the details of her young and troubled life right from the time she was married off to her 19-year-old first cousin Allen Steed at the age of 14 by Jeffs.

The 62-year-old priest who married her off is said to have 78 wives and more than 50 children along with being responsible for controlling millions of dollars of the church before his conviction in 2011 for sexually assaulting his child brides aged 15 and 12.

Jeff is currently serving a life sentence plus an additional 20 years for two felony counts of child sexual assault. It was during this case that Wall first came forward about Jeffs and became a lead witness in the case which ultimately led to his sentencing.

Now 31, Wall has once again come forward with her story in an effort to pull back the curtain on the secretive community. Wall was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, into the FLDS church and was raised by her mother, Sharon Steed, a “multigenerational member” whose parents were also part of the sect, Fox News reported.

Her father, Douglas Steed, was also part of the sect. However, Wall reportedly was always a curious child who felt there was something wrong with her community.

“We led a very secret lifestyle. We didn’t interact with the outside world. We didn’t go to public school. We were educated, cultivated and bred to be products of the church and the religion," she said.

Speaking further about her arranged marriage with her first cousin, Wall said she was coaxed into marrying Steed despite her protests.

Wall added that it was clear to her early on that she was considered a property of her cousin and that his job was to get her into submission.

“Then the sexual abuse came later as he started to force himself on me and force that my role as a wife was to be at his beck and call and to have his children. And when I became resistant to that, then the physical abuse started to take over,” she said.

During her time with the FLDS and her four-year marriage, Wall suffered several miscarriages and a still-birth after which she ran away in 2005, at the age of 18.

It was in the year 2006 that Wall filed a complaint against Jeffs, who was then arrested and charged with facilitating polygamous marriages involving underage girls.

Wall faced him in court in 2007 and talking about the experience she said: “I remember locking eyes with him for the first time [in court]. I felt this overwhelming power that consumed my very soul and I refused to drop eyes. That was my stand. If I can keep contact with him, I can prove to myself that he didn’t control me… I was liberating myself from his control. I was beginning to free myself from the anger I had towards him."

Jeffs was also ordered to pay Wall $16 million in damages.

As of now, Wall is a single mother of a 13-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter and lives in Utah. She also has her own children’s clothing company.