Satanic panic (Utah)

In the summer 1985 a resident of Lehi, Utah, Sheila Bowers took her children to see Barbara Snow (therapist), who divulged that they had been sexually abused by their babysitter, the teenage daughter of the local LDS Church bishop. Other parents who had their children babysat by the same sitter took their children to see Snow for therapy.[3] These children also began to disclose sexual abuse by others, with eventually around forty adults were accused of being satanic ritual abusers of children.[4][5] The Utah County Sheriff's Office and Utah Attorney General's Office began an extensive two-and-a-half-year investigation. The bishop's children were taken away by family services, but returned in several weeks after no evidence of harm was discovered. After the investigation, a Lehi resident named Alan Hadfield was the only one to be charged with abuse.[3]

At the trial a Utah County chief deputy attorney testified that he observed Snow coaching children through a two way mirror. "I was appalled", said the deputy attorney, "[Snow] had so conditioned those children that I had serious concern about using them as witnesses in cases."[3] Snow countered that as a therapist, not a law enforcement investigator, she needed to create an environment where hesitant children who might have been threatened to be silent could feel comfortable disclosing abuse. Judy Pugh, a colleague of Snows at the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center, told the court that she was concerned about how children's stories would homogeneously emerge after interviews with Snow. One ten-year-old girl testified that Snow asked her as many as fifty times in one session if Hadfield had touched her, and that she finally relented when she became afraid that Snow would yell at her otherwise.[3]

Stephen Golding, director of clinical psychology at the University of Utah testified that Snow's techniques were "subtly coercive and highly questionable. There were several inconsistencies in the testimonies of the children. On April 6th the children accused Hadfield of fondling them as they watched a television program, however telephone records showed that Hadfield was on the phone with Snow at the time the abuse was to have occurred. The children said their father had promised to buy them a toy four wheeler for not revealing abuse, but receipts showed that the toy was purchased before the abuse was to have occurred. Hadfield was convicted by an eight member jury on December 19, 1987, and the judge sentenced Hadfield to 6 months in the Utah County Jail.[3] The court placed an order that barred Gay Hadfield, the mother, from hiring Snow as their therapist.[6]

In 1991, the Utah State Legislature appropriated $250,000 for the Attorney General's office to investigate the RSA allegations in the state of Utah.[7] Over a 2+1⁄2-year span, the investigators interviewed hundreds of alleged victims, but none of the incidents reported were corroborated with any evidence beyond their testimony,[8][9] and the 1995 report stated that there was no evidence from any of the alleged victims that would warrant an investigation of homicide.[8] Mike King, the coauthor of the report, told news media that the specific accusations against church leaders were "absurd", and Jerry Lazar, the head of psychiatry at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, said he "has never been able to independently verify memories of satanic ritual abuse".[10]

Martha Beck's 2005 book Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith was controversial for accusations that she was sexually abused by her father, scholar and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apologist Hugh Nibley, as well as stating she recovered memories of the abuse.[18][19][20] She writes that she had forgotten the abuse until later in her life when, in 1990, she recovered them. The veracity of recovered memories is disputed, and the American Psychological Association says "there is a consensus among memory researchers and clinicians that most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them," though there is also agreement among most leaders in the field, "that although it is a rare occurrence, a memory of early childhood abuse that has been forgotten can be remembered later."[18] The allegations have been denied by Beck's mother and seven siblings.[18][19][20] The book prompted widespread reaction, much of it within the Mormon community, and an email campaign against the book's inclusion on Oprah Winfrey's website as well as in her magazine.[18][19]

During the early 2000s, Teal Swan claimed to have uncovered suppressed memories during therapy sessions with her therapist Barbara Snow.[21] Snow had Swan file a police report with the local police department, calling the police on Swan's behalf. Police interviewed Swan with Snow in the room during which Swan disclosed recovered memories of abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, portal to another universe.[21] The police began a preliminary criminal investigation. They performed a medical exam, but found no evidence of ritual abuse. After looking into Snow's background, the police did not feel it should not be prosecuted because of Snow's involvement.[21] According to journalist Jennings Brown, Snow's therapeutic methods played a significant influence in Swan's "Completion Process" methods.[21]

In the Utah County attorney race between Jeff Gray and David Leavitt, allegations of ritual abuse became the forefront issue of the race.[22][23] A woman had filed charges against Leavitt in 2012 that were dropped in 2014. The woman alleged that Leavitt was a participant in ritualistic sex abuse, killing and cannibalism. In June 2022, the Utah county sheriff's office reopened the investigation. Leavitt called for Mike Smith the Sheriff to resign, accusing Smith, who had endorsed Gray, of opening the investigation for political reasons.[24] Smith has denied being politically motivated.[25]

• Anne Johnson Davis
• Barbara Snow (therapist)
• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• Jay's Journal
• Martha Beck

• Reproduction of the Pace memorandum
• "Utah State Government's Inquiry into Ritual Crime" (PDF). (13.0 MB)