Utah Freeman Elwin Ward Booked By Marshals Man Among First To Leave Compound With Common-Law Wife And Her Children

A Utah man who holed up with the Montana freemen for nearly two and a half months has been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail by federal marshals.

Elwin Ward, who left the Jordan, Mont., compound with his common-law wife, Gloria Ward and her two daughters on June 6, was arrested Friday night and booked early Saturday, a jail worker confirmed Sunday.

The jail officer, who declined to identify herself, said the booking sheet indicated only that Ward was being held for the U.S. marshal’s office.

Lynn Nielsen, Gloria Ward’s sister, confirmed the arrest. Nielsen visited the compound three times at the behest of the FBI before convincing her sister and Elwin Ward to get the two girls, ages 8 and 10, out of harm’s way.

“He was arrested at my mother’s house Friday,” Nielsen said Sunday. “I didn’t see the warrant. I’m told it has something to do with aiding and abetting” the fugitive freemen who hid from the law in the Justus Township for 81 days before surrendering to the FBI. Fourteen of the remaining 16 freemen who surrendered June 13 face federal felony charges.

Telephone messages left Sunday with the FBI in Salt Lake City and the U.S. marshal’s office were not immediately returned.

Elwin Ward is a disciple of John Perry Chaney, an alleged cult leader who is jailed in Provo, Utah, on charges that he ordered his 13-year-old daughter to wed a 48-year-old “apostle.” Chaney, 39, is married to another of Gloria Ward’s daughters, a 16-year-old who bore his child and is in foster care in Michigan.

One of the motivations for Ward to leave the freemen was a letter from Chaney, delivered by Nielsen, which contained a revelation that Ward and his family should leave the compound.

Felony custodial interference charges filed in Utah against Gloria Ward were dismissed as part of the deal that led to the release. The girls have been placed in temporary custody of Courtnie’s father.