ST. GEORGE – Members of the “exiled brothers” community, or those who have been exiled from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, were denied access to seeing their mother’s body after she passed away Tuesday evening. FLDS members had the body transported in the middle of the night for burial to allegedly keep the banished children from seeing her.
On Tuesday, Loana Silvester Harker Barlow Broadbent, 81, passed away at Dixie Regional Medical Center from complications resulting from a heart attack.
Dixie Regional Medical Center reportedly called Spilsbury Mortuary to claim the body that evening. However, two of Broadbent’s daughters still in good standing with the FLDS Church requested the body be taken to Heideman Hughes Mortuary, which ultimately claimed the body that same evening.
Jeremiah Barlow and his five siblings learned of the death of their mother the following morning.
Barlow, a son of Louis Barlow, reportedly the second in the hierarchy of the FLDS priesthood before Warren Jeffs assumed leadership, was ejected from the FLDS community in 2008, along with his father and five siblings, due to the threat his father posed to Jeffs’ control.
Jeremiah Barlow and his siblings went to Heideman Hughes Mortuary Wednesday wanting to see their mother.
“We spoke to Brian Heideman, who was respectful and tried to understand the situation,” Barlow said. “However, my sister, who is still very faithful to the FLDS community, felt they had full claim and produced a will that we disputed.”
Barlow said he spent the day seeking to communicate and work with his FLDS sisters and brother-in-law, but each time they refused to give him any access to his mother at all.
“We just wanted to see our mother,” Barlow said.
“We always try to accommodate all family members,” Brian Heideman, of Heideman Hughes Mortuary, said. “I met with them eight to 10 times trying to work it out between the executor of the estate and Jeremiah and his siblings.”
Heideman said they will normally look for a spouse; however, in this case their was none, so they then look to children of the deceased who are over 18. However, with a will being presented the mortuary legally had no choice, he said.
“We would have loved to meet their request,” Heideman said. “They were not asking much. All they wanted to do was see their mom, and I would have loved to have let them. We did everything we could to convince the executor to allow it; they said no. Legally, that is who I have to defer to.”
Members of the FLDS community began arriving on Thursday night to dress the body prior to the viewing and burial, as is the custom in that faith, Barlow said. While they did this, one of the female members stood outside the room as a guard, he said.
“When one of my brothers tried to step into the room, the female member shoved him and began yelling at him,” Barlow said.
Barlow said the FLDS members demanded that he and his brothers leave the mortuary, even calling the St. George Police Department.
“We responded to a report of a family dispute,” St. George Police Sgt. Sam Despain said. “They had a loved one who was at the mortuary. It was very peacefully, quickly resolved and they were allowed to leave and head out towards the Colorado City area. There were no law violations. The St. George City Police Department did not take very much action at all.”
FLDS members then demanded that Heideman Hughes Mortuary deliver the body to Hildale.
“Again, I had no choice,” Heideman said. “We left with the body and proceeded to Hildale around midnight. The FLDS family members had called in the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to provide a keep-the-peace escort as we transported the body.”
Heideman said the mortuary delivered the body to the family in Hildale and then left the area.
“We, the sons, had a claim to see our mother,” Barlow said. “The Sheriff’s Department had five vehicles follow the morticians to the home of Boyd Knudson in Hildale. After the body was left and the mortuary cleared, the Sheriff’s Department also left, saying this was a civil issue that they could not get involved with.”
Barlow said he remained on the sidewalk of the property all night. Around 2 a.m., he said he observed cars beginning to show up at the residence with mostly women and children. Cars continued to come and go until 4:30 a.m.
“We were respectful of the law and stayed off the property,” he said.
Around 5 a.m., a lot of people came out at of the home at once, Barlow said. The members of the community slipped the casket out the back door and into a minivan and headed to the cemetery.
“I followed the procession to the cemetery,” Barlow said. “I watched as they unloaded my mother from the van and put her into the vault and lowered it into the grave as fast as they could. Boyd Knudson then addressed the crowd and told them to all come back once the grave had been filled.”
Barlow then said the undertakers had the vault sealed and buried before the sun came up.
Barlow said his brother, his mother’s sister from Salt Lake, and friends and family from all over the world had traveled to attend the funeral and weren’t able to attend it or even see his mother.
“My mother was a school teacher for 40 years at the grade school and touched a lot of lives,” he said. “We would have liked to have closure, a time to say goodbye.”
ED. Note: Calls were made to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office for requests for comment; however, at the time of publication our calls had not been returned.
Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.
Family feud at Heideman Hughes Mortuary over the burial of an FDLS woman, St. George, Utah, June 19, 2014 | Photo by Shane Brinkerhoff, St. George News
Family feud at Heideman Hughes Mortuary over the burial of an FDLS woman, St. George, Utah, June 19, 2014 | Photo by Shane Brinkerhoff, St. George News
Family feud at Heideman Hughes Mortuary over the burial of an FDLS woman, St. George, Utah, June 19, 2014 | Photo by Shane Brinkerhoff, St. George News
Family feud at Heideman Hughes Mortuary over the burial of an FDLS woman, St. George, Utah, June 19, 2014 | Photo by Shane Brinkerhoff, St. George News
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Sorry fellas, but you might be better off. Your mother wasn’t very much of a mother if you were foresaken to become a lost boy. Looks like all you freaks out there in molesterville are on the hot seat finally.
Why are you using the term “Lost Boys”?
Do any of the people involved in this have anything to do with the “lost boys”?
Pathetic religion founded by ole Joe.
How sad….It is very UN Christ like to not let children see their mother.
Those FLDS are sooo evil!
If the sheriff’s department used five vehicles, I want someone to repay the taxpayers for this outlandish expense! The sheriff has some explaining to do. Oh that’s right he answers to no one and is reelected constantly from a wink and a nod!
You are missing the part where the deputies are peace officers. They did exactly what the tax payers pay them to do and kept the peace.
And once again, the FLDS bunch will have something else to account for at the appropriate time.
These people are freaks of nature. And the way mormons (LDS) condone their practices and behaviors is also an aberration from normal behavior. You people only prove just how pathetic your religious beliefs can be as well as your intolerance toward others while condoning these freaks’ behaviors.
Utah is a “expletive” embarrassment. This Polygamy based religion was founded by a child molester and has continued to grow despite obvious contradictions in their doctrine.
When businesses in St George support the Lyle Jeffs FLDS program are they funding the destruction of families?
So sad of a story, Is this what Jesus would of wanted? Shame on the sisters for being so ignorant towards the family. When a family member passes it should be for all to say their Goodbyes no matter what standing they where in…You never get that chance again…all I can say to the sisters are……’KARMA IS A …*” watch yourself.
Ed. ellipsis …*
“Karma” means, what you radiate out will come back to you. As you do unto others, some time, some where, you will attract similar or worse, yet unrelated, events to come upon you.
YES, KARMA is difficult pay-master for wicked people. I’m sorry they asked for it knowingly.
Well, sounds like that FLDS bunch have acquired some real Christ like attributes by the way they treat other human beings. Hmmmm
If Joseph Smith was a polygamist and seven of his wives were under the age of 18, why is there so much hatred for Warren Steed? I am not condoning either of them. I am equally disgusted. Also, polygamy is not synonymous with child brides. I dont understand why people think that. No one gives a hoot about people who practice Polyamory,but I dont see how it is that different from Polygamy.
I wonder if Brien Heideman thinks that they’re “Badcusotmers” and will add them to the list? I can’t believe this guy didn’t go to jail for fraud.
Not everyone who lives in that community are still part of the FLDS church. Families have been torn apart because Warren keeps exiling people. I participate in a ministry helping take food to that area for many women and children who have lost husbands and fathers because of him. But not all of these men are child molesters. And these people are born into being brainwashed. It’s all they know. I have gotten to know some of these women personally and they are some of the loveliest people I know. Don’t just everyone until you know their stories.
difficult as it is to elicit any sympathy for a Barlow who was part of the FLDS leadership, this situation did pull on my heartstrings … yes, a smart spurt of pity toward a son not allowed to see his dying mother due to family rivalry.
Almost every comment on here is incredibly ignorant and essentially a biased outside view, and incredibly stereotypical. You people obviously know nothing of what you’re talking about and should not open your uneducated mouths on things you haven’t the faintest clue about.
Not much of a grey area when it comes to forced child sex. Or is there Nate?
This is not Nate’s mother. And Nate has only done part of his homework. When he truly listens to the “Still Small Voice” inside, he will arrive at the personal knowledge that anyone supporting Lyle Jeffs is supporting crime.
We counted over 100 grandchildren and great grandchildren that were purposefully discriminated against. 6 children, and her own 3 siblings.
There are other legal crimes involved which the county attorney will prosecute. The Lyle S. Jeffs followers are doing crimes under his Holy Authority.
It’s not about Christianity, or Joe Smith, or FLDS, nor honorable consenting-adult plural marriage. The issue here is communism under the hand of Lyle Jeffs .
How do you deal with communism when the followers are fearful of having their own families blasted.
Much of the tyranny mentioned in the Deceleration of Independence is practiced by king Lyle S Jeffs, and he uses Warren’s name to keep the people following. Warren Jeffs though a bad egg himself, has no clue to what is happening.
Regular mormons are just as bad. They don’t allow family and friends to be present for cult-like rituals in the mormon temple unless, of course, you are a mormon in good standing, meaning you have to be current in your tithing payments. Not a mormon? You aren’t welcome in the mormon temple. Forget the fact your own family or close friend invited you. For some reason, mormons think walking down the temple aisle in their secret underwear is some sacred event that requires the exclusion of anyone who isn’t worthy of wearing those secret underwear and who didn’t pay their dues to the temple of pedophile joe.
If I were a sheriff’s deputy I would have refused to have anything to do with this. No body could pay me enough to do this to some one. I say the same thing to Mr. Heidman. My answer would have been-This won’t happen at my place of business. Go somewhere else. It’s that easy.
From all that darkness , light Will come out, like many people they are awsome people in the way that they have knoledge of evil. Just give them some time and you Will see that crist is with them like with all of us.
Christ is with some, yes. This action was criminal and will be prosecuted by the state. Crimes are against humanity and this was against thousands, on purpose, well calculated, well informed. I am sorry for the innocent who were involved. Lyle Jeffs consistent behavior is to pit one part of a family against another. He prophesies of violence and then intentionally creates justifiable cause for it. Well, we are not playing the game by his rules! We must keep in honor ourselves regardless of what comes at us.
I am so very thankful for our court system. Though it has room to improve, it does keep tyrannical scoundrels in check so humanity can live civil.
I wonder what Romney thinks of all this, if anything.