A cult expert and her music producer husband went undercover to document child sex abuse in a polygamist sect
A couple spent years going undercover within a secluded religious community in Arizona as part of an effort to better understand and expose alleged wrongdoing. Their work eventually contributed to uncovering a wider network tied to serious abuse allegations.
At the time, the cult-like group—known for its practice of illegal plural marriage, or polygamy — was in disarray. Its leader, self-described prophet Warren Jeffs, and several male followers were in prison for having sex with underage “wives.”
The State of Utah was in the process of seizing FLDS-owned property and evicting families who had lived there for generations.
“It was an injustice, and nobody cared, because these people were associated with Jeffs,” recalls Christine Marie, 65, who was raised in the Mormon faith and says she survived an abusive marriage with a man who considered himself a prophet. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind that I might be able to help, so I went there.”
The couple from Nevada had no trouble meeting women from the beleaguered group, offering humanitarian aid and helping them to start and grow businesses to earn money and feed their families.
Eventually several members of the reclusive community allowed Christine Marie and Katas to begin filming their daily routines and social gatherings for a documentary about life in the town that locals call the Crick. But the nature of the couple’s work changed dramatically when they met a low-level FLDS member named Sam Bateman, 50, who soon declared himself a prophet and revived the practice of plural marriage, taking several “spiritual wives” and arranging multiple marriages for followers.
While Christine Marie was secretly recording him on her phone, Bateman also confessed to instructing a follower to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Horrified by the secrets revealed by Bateman, Christine Marie and Katas were emboldened to go undercover as amateur sleuths. Using their film project as an excuse, they documented the rise of the power-hungry new prophet — who told the couple he hoped to one day “govern North and South America and probably England” — and his sexual abuse of underage girls.
Now their story is told on Trust Me: The False Prophet, a four-part Netflix docuseries premiering April 8, featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the couple working with police and the FBI as informants and helping to orchestrate a raid on Bateman’s child sex abuse ring leading to his arrest, along with that of several followers, in 2022.
Says Christine Marie: “I knew I had to do whatever it took to get him behind bars.”
It didn’t take long for Christine Marie, a former beauty pageant queen, actress and professional ventriloquist, to show respect and kindness and win the trust of women in the FLDS community. And Bateman, a born showman who wore a flashy white leather jacket and drove a Bentley, was eager to promote the family musical performances he organized as a means of attracting a potential future wife—then-Queen of England Elizabeth II.
“I think Sam honestly is sort of absurd. That stuff was not fake,” says Trust Me director Rachel Dretzin. “That’s really who this guy is.”
Bateman regularly invited Christine Marie and Katas for dinner at his house, where up to 22 women occupied a single bedroom. According to a 2023 indictment, Bateman organized group sex sessions involving girls and adult men and transmitted a live video of child sex abuse to followers.
In 2024, Bateman, who exercised strict control over his family, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and transport a minor for sexual activity and was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.
“When he was arrested, it was terrifying. We didn’t know what to think or where to turn,” says one of his former wives, Naomi “Nomz” Bistline, 27, who also spent more than a year behind bars for her role in the kidnapping of Bateman’s child brides.
Today, while some of Bateman’s wives still regard him as a prophet, Bistline has left the FLDS and is pursuing her dream of becoming a recording artist.
People born into the FLDS community are often shut off from the customs of the outside world.
“You don’t join,” says Dretzin. “You don’t know anything else from birth, and it makes it extremely difficult to get out of the mindset, to see outside of the closed box that the FLDS creates.”
In the aftermath of Bateman’s arrest and incarceration, Bistline has finally been able to break free.
“Growing up in that environment, you’re not allowed to ask questions,” says Bistline, who now calls Christine Marie and Katas her godparents. “I think so differently now.”
