An expert has revealed what’s hidden inside secret caves in Arizona created by the self-proclaimed prophet of a polygamous cult.

Anticipating the world’s end, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, started excavating caves beneath their compound, which accommodated his extensive ‘family’.

Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence for aggravated sexual assault and a further 20 years for another count of sexual assault.  

‘They were not only preparing for the world’s end from a religious perspective but also for a temporary situation,’ veteran investigator Mike King shared with NewsNation.

‘They began creating caves that I had heard about throughout my years of investigation, but I could never validate their existence or locate them when speaking to FLDS members,’ he added.

The church, a radical Mormon denomination of around 13,000, had mostly previously denied the existence of the caves.

Members told King ‘we’ve heard about it, but [the caves] don’t exist’.

‘I would talk to leaders in the church who fell away and said, “No, it doesn’t exist,”‘ King added. 

The caves went undiscovered, until King was presented with the key and coordinates by one church member as he was allowed to stay in the compound where Jeffs and his 85 wives were set to live out their days.

‘At six o’clock the next morning I hear a tap on my door… I open up the door and there’s one of his wives standing in her prairie dress, the typical FLDS hairstyle,’ King said.

‘She hands me a key and a set of coordinates and said “Willy said you could go inside,” and I went inside the secret caves.’

King documented his exploration of the caves, believed to have been designed to protect the leaders of the church. He discovered them stuffed full of survival materials including food, clothes, and church records. 

The caves were believed, by King, to also potentially have been created to protect cult leaders from another potential raid after the church was raided by law enforcement in 1953.

‘They were not gonna risk their lifestyle to be shackled, and they weren’t gonna risk having their children taken from them again,’ King said in his documentation video on YouTube. 

‘I suspect that the construction of the caves started immediately following that raid on Short Creek in 1953 and it would have taken many years, if not decades, to complete this work project.’

As a result of the raid, 122 adults were served warrants. The men were arrested and jailed, most of the women were forcibly moved to Phoenix, and their children were placed in state custody, TIME reported.

The raid was seen as a warning to similar organizations across the country, and has been said to have directly contributed to many secretive polygamous sects that ‘went way underground’, according to the outlet. 

King said that many modern day members weren’t even aware of the cave system and added that ‘those that did… only knew the cave was there but he never had been inside of it and had no idea what was held inside those caves.’

According to the former criminal investigator, fewer than two percent of church members, then around 15,000 people, knew of the cave system and of those that did, ‘only a handful had ever been inside’.

‘This was a well kept secret, and they were not gonna share it. In their terms it was holy ground and it was something nobody else needed to know about,’ King said on YouTube. 

‘The cave also provided a level of preparation against future conflicts that might come against the FLDS community, because the cult had this “Us vs. Them” mindset they harbored resentment and distrust toward the government and frankly any other group or organization that didn’t believe in the same ideologies that they had,’ he added. 

The caves were found to be full of weapons and explosives, potentially for protection from law enforcement or for the end of the world.  

‘There is evidence that they actually dug this cave by hand… you’ll even see places where they drilled as they prepared to put explosives into the rock to continue digging,’ King said. 

As he entered, video showed the length of the caves fitted with doors leading into other spaces. It remains unclear what the sectioned off rooms were intended for. 

An air-flow hole had been drilled into the ceiling, reaching 400 feet up to the top of the mountain above the cave system and spanning around 18-inches in diameter, according to King. 

‘The idea was that the leaders of the FLDS would go here if the apocalypse or if there was a raid,’ King explained as the video showed areas sealed by steel doorways.  

‘They did [have electricity] at one point,’ he added, displaying lights strung across the cave system. 

‘There’s both a men’s and women’s bathroom in there,’ he continued, both featured a porcelain toilet and sink.

‘Looking through the gates as a young boy I had no idea how much there was, how far back it went,’ a former member of the church, Sam Zitting Wyson, told the investigator as he looked onto the system for the first time. 

‘The caves truly exist, that they’re deep and cavernous, that they were well thought out and planned,’ King explained.

‘It validated the fact that it was a place where they stored all kinds of survival gear.’

‘It was a place that should have been concerning to us,’ he added, pointing at that rumors of the caves existence were troubling to investigators. 

The church officially formed in 1929 after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned polygamy in 1890 and excommunicated members who refused to give up the practice of plural marriage.

In the 19th century, many members began practicing plural marriage – entailing one man’s marriage to multiple women. It was officially introduced into their manifesto in 1890 by President Wilford Woodruff. 

However, the members who disagreed broke off and created the fundamentalist movement. The mainstream church has made many attempts to clarify they do not engage in polygamy, and said those that do are not affiliated with their religion.

FLDS’s first formal leader was John Y. Barlow until his death in 1949. It was Rulon Jeffs, Warren’s father, who embraced the position of the ‘one-man rule’ and was the first to declare himself the prophet of God in the 1980s. 

Rulon Jeffs, had around 75 wives and 65 children before he passed away in 2002 and his position was handed over to Jeffs. 

The FLDS holds polygamy as a fundamental belief, and its men take multiple wives in what are termed ‘celestial marriages’, each performed in a ceremony called a ‘sealing’. 

Jeffs is estimated at having 85 wives. A number of the ‘celestial marriages’ involved underage girls. 

In graphic video, the court during Jeffs trial heard the self-proclaimed prophet tell his victims that if they refused to have sex with him, in what he dubbed ‘heavenly sessions,’ they would be ‘rejected by God’. 

He was sentenced in 2011 after being convicted of sexual assaulting two children, ages 12 and 15.

Jeffs was also accused of sexually abusing his own children, as well as his niece and nephew. 

Throughout the years that he ran FLDS – which has bases in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, collectively known as Short Creek, as well as one in Eldorado, Texas, which is called the Yearning for Zion Ranch – Jeffs brainwashed, imprisoned, and abused multiple women and children, earning him a spot on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List.  

In 2005, he was charged with sexual assault of a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor after he allegedly forced a then-14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

During the trial, the young girl claimed that her husband raped and impregnated her numerous times, however, the charges were eventually dismissed.

According to CNN, the case was dropped in 2010 by the prosecutor, after Jeffs was arrested for ‘much more serious charges’.

In 2006, he was also charged with felony accomplice to the rape of a teenage girl. He was found guilty, however, the conviction was later overturned by the Utah Supreme Court, who claimed there was a mistake in jury instructions.

Police stormed the Zion Ranch in 2008 and arrested Jeffs for a third time, after they found over 400 children at the ranch and evidence of ‘sexual, physical, and psychological abuse,’ Rolling Stone reported.

He is currently serving a life sentence plus 20 years for the charges, however, it’s been reported that Jeffs has continued to preach to FLDS’ remaining members from his prison cell.

Jeffs is eligible for parole in July 22, 2038.