Mexico massacre unites Mormon sects, even their exiles

'INDIGNANT MEN'

La Mora had previously been spared violence that has killed more than 250,000 Mexicans since 2007 and touched Colonia LeBaron. But on Monday La Mora's Miller, Langford and Johnson families suffered the same agony relatives in Colonia LeBaron felt 10 years ago when Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar were murdered after they stood up to cartel violence.

Long united by marriages, the communities were pushed closer together as they faced the choice of protecting families, or fleeing homes and farms built over three generations.

Rosa LeBaron Abbate, another woman who left the fundamentalist faith, said difficult times were coming for Colonia LeBaron and La Mora.

“There are a lot of indignant men in both communities, young, they’re going to make a plan, possibly that includes the help of both countries,” said LeBaron Abbate, 65. She returned to her birthplace Colonia LeBaron 13 years ago after living in the United States for more than three decades.

LeBaron Abbate, who manages a Christian church in Colonia LeBaron with her American pastor husband, said she only fully processed the “trauma of childhood” in a "fully fundamentalist Mormon town" when she converted to Christianity at age 42.

She said Mexico had to bury its pride and accept help from the United States or a group of nations.

"They have to wipe these bad men out of Mexico, just like the coalition that goes in to Syria and these places," said LeBaron Abbate, adding that she now has strong relationships with all her family’s different "sects."

Back in Seattle, Bostwick said her social media posts on the massacre had connected her with distant relatives in Mexico. She had previously built resentments among some of them by speaking up against “the atrocities” of her parents’ religion, such as polygamy and underage marriage.

“This is, and is going to, bring the different groups closer together,” Bostwick said of the massacre.