Rebecca Musser

Rebecca Wall was born to Lloyd Wall and Sharon Steed, both of whom were members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and had a polygamous family.[1] When she turned 19, she became the 19th bride of Rulon Jeffs after he received 'divine inspiration' that she was to be his new wife. Wall endured years of sexual abuse by the elder Jeffs until his death in 2002, aged 92. Following his passing, she was able to escape the compound by scaling a wall which surrounded the house and slipping past Jeffs' armed guards. At the time of his death, Rulon Jeffs was married to 64 women.

After Jeffs' death, Musser was told by Jeffs' son and new church leader Warren Jeffs that she needed to remarry. Shortly after this encounter, Musser fled the compound and relocated to Oregon to live with her brother.[2]

Musser testified against Warren Jeffs a total of 20 times and helped prosecutors to win 11 convictions against him. During one of the days testifying for the trial she showed up in a sleeveless red dress. This was significant because the color red had previously been banned by Jeffs for all church members.[3] The red dress also became significant again when Musser was writing her memoir.[1]

After testifying, Musser made headlines in the New York Daily News,[4] AOL,[5] and Marie Claire,[6] among others.

Musser is a member of Sheroes United, a non-profit organization that embraces female role models in communities. Musser is featured as a Shero on their website with a biography focusing on life after leaving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.[7] She has also founded the non-profit organization ClaimRED, an organization dedicated to those who have become victims of human trafficking.[7]

In 2013 Musser wrote the memoir The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice along with author M. Bridget Cook.[1] The book received a positive welcome from The Today Show and was featured in their 'Today Books' section.[8] The book was also featured on NPR,[9] Secular News Daily,[10] and Publishers Weekly,[11] among other media outlets as well.

Musser is the sister of Elissa Wall, author of the memoir Stolen Innocence, an account of her own escape from the church. Musser is mentioned in the book, including her reaction to the fact that Wall had to marry her own cousin at age 14.[12] She is the widow of deceased prophet Rulon Jeffs, making over 63 other women her "sister-wives", a designation given to the polygamous wives of one man in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.[13] Being the wife of Rulon Jeffs, Musser was also a stepmother to Warren Jeffs. Their relationship was abusive because Warren threatened her life and tried to force her to remarry after the death of his father.[14] She is one of 14 children that were born to her mother and one of 25 children born to her father. After leaving the church, Musser married Rulon Jeffs' grandson and had two children, son Kyle and daughter Natalia, before divorcing.[2][7]