A Utah mother has been arrested after she was accused of kidnapping her daughter from Utah to live at a ‘cult-like’ religious compound in Missouri for a year.
Kimberly Dell Davidson-Drolet, 53, of Murray, allegedly abducted her non-custodial child, 5-year-old Gracyn Drolet, and took her to Springfield, Missouri back in January 2023.
According to the OzarksFirst.com, Kimberly had kept the young child in a religious compound modelled after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints until June 2024.
The head of the ‘cult-like’ religion, Paul Dean is believed to be related to the victim’s mother.
An arrest warrant for Kimberly was issued in December 2023 and she was recently arrested.
She was in the middle of her divorce with Laurence Drolet when she took the toddler, according to the report
The accused accomplices included her son Jaxson Davidson, 30, Dallas Davidson, 23, and Kristine Merrill, 53 – all of whom have been arrested.
As of now, officials believe Kimberly and Jaxson left the state of Utah with Gracyn and drove to Missouri as Kristine assisted in their departure.
According to the indictment, the accused had planned the kidnapping for 14 months with her accomplices before she allegedly committed the crime.
Kimberly had remained at large for over a year as all four managed to hide her and the child’s location from law enforcement and the child’s father.
Investigators also discovered that the mother had used various burner flip phone as well as the USPS to evade capture.
All of four have been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, with Kimberly’s initial appearance scheduled for August 13.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a religious sect of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy.