While the Mormon church officially banned polygamy in 1890, it persisted in some communities, especially those in Mexico. Soon enough, hundreds, then thousands, traveled south. The church's then-president, Brigham Young, first sent members to Mexico in 1875 to look for places to settle, according to the Mormon Encyclopedia available on Brigham Young University's website. Mexico seemed like a haven at the time, a place where the group could continue practicing plural marriage. Groups first began migrating to the country because of a crackdown on polygamy in the United States. The burned out car where nine family members of the La Mora Mormon Community died in Mexico.Īmerican Mormons first started settling in northern Mexico in the late 1800s.

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Some relatives said it might be a case of mistaken identity.

Family members are unsure of the motive behind Monday's attack.

Upon their release, gunmen killed two adults in the community.

A wave of drug cartel violence hit the communities in the 2000s.

The group murdered at least 25 people, one expert told the LA Times.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ervil LeBaron, brother of the leader of the LeBaron community, launched his own Mormon offshoot sect in which he and his followers believed they had a right to kill those who had sinned.

Mormons first moved to northern Mexico in the late 1800s, when there was a crackdown on polygamy in the United States.

They were driving to LeBaron, an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that has a dark past in Mexico.

The victims, all women and children, were members of the La Mora community.

Nine Americans who are members of a Mormon settlement in the Mexican state of Sonora were violently killed while driving to a wedding in another Mormon community in Mexico on Monday.

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The lamb of god cult