Featured Image Credit: George Frey/Getty Images
Topics: True Crime, US News
James Moorhouse
Warning: This article contains discussion of murder, suicide and child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
The daughter of a polygamist cult leader has shared how she discovered the disturbing truth about her father.
Rebecca Lafferty has written a memoir where she opens up about her story, as her dad, Dan Lafferty, continues to rot in prison for the horrific murder of his sister-in-law Brenda and her 15-month-old baby Erica.
Cults certainly don't have a good history when it comes to killings, with Lori Vallow Daybell found guilty of murdering her own two children after leading a 'doomsday cult', and it was unfortunately a similar case with Dan Lafferty.
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In 1984, Dan and his brother Ron were found guilty of the shocking murders of Brenda and Erica, with the case gaining huge publicity due to the brothers' extremist interpretation of Mormon fundamentalist beliefs.
Ron and Dan were fanatical about their small, splinter 'religious' group, called the School of the Prophets - which has been referred to as a 'polygamist cult' - and they claimed to be carrying out 'God's orders' with the brutal double murder.
Both brothers were handed two life sentences, although Ron died of natural causes in November 2019, aged 78, having attempted to take his own life shortly after first arriving in jail.
As a child, Rebecca was suspicious of her father's crimes, having allegedly suffered physical and emotional abuse at his hands, but it wasn't until the age of 12 that her mother finally told her what had happened.
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In an interview with Fox News Digital, she said: "It just broke my heart that my dad would do something so evil.
"What does this mean about me? I was fundamentally flawed... My friends' parents didn't like me... They said, 'I don't want you hanging out with that Lafferty girl.' So I always felt ostracised and pushed out."
Rebecca bravely visited her father behind bars for the first time in 2006 and says it 'broke her heart', as she admits that it brought back trauma from her childhood.
She added: "It wasn't just about forgiving my father. It was more like I needed to release this stored trauma in me that I didn't know I was still holding onto.
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"It was terrifying... Seeing him behind this glass and all these chains, it really broke my heart.
"He was still my dad. I just chose to sit there and tap into that feeling of love for him... It was through numerous visits and letters that he was finally able to get to a place where he started asking me how I was and taking accountability."
She said she had to forgive him and herself in order to grow as a person, and now she is 'the most peaceful she's ever been'.
Rebecca continued: "Forgiveness didn't mean condoning evil. It was about creating a new path for me and my family.
"I carried this self-loathing with me throughout my life... I wasn't capable of loving another person or finding a healthy partnership until I first learned to love and forgive myself and those who had hurt me."
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The mother-of-three's memoir, The Lafferty Girl: Surviving Trauma, Abuse, and My Father's Crime, is out now.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.