The girl pictured in this article was living with us at the time this happened. She was rescued by her family and a deprogrammer. We received (in the mail) a note written on toilet paper from her asking us not to try and contact her. I believe I wrote about that in The Thread of Gold.
We never knew a thing about this article in the paper! (You know … we were sheltered in the non-information world of the LC.) The elders knew, but never told us. I did not see this article until many, many years later. I believe someone sent it to me after they read The Thread of Gold. They had been in the LC at the time, saw it, clipped it and saved it.
Another interesting thing is that what happened to me in chapter 1 of The Thread of Gold happened about a month after this article. (Not saying that I know there was a a connection between the two. However, I can’t help but note now that the church leaders took an assortment of people to speak to the Chronicle on behalf of Joyce and the church, and they did not include us–the people with whom she was living! I can’t help but wonder if they purposely left us out because they already had a plan of marginalizing us in the works.)