Susan Schmidt tells her story

BOISE -- An Idaho woman is scheduled to return to Boise today after sharing her story of escaping from a polygamist compound with those close to the raid in Texas.

Stories of polygamy, abuse and the raid of a religious compound in Texas top headlines across the country.

More than 400 children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch are now in government custody - pending one of the largest custody hearings in U.S. history.

Susan Ray Schmidt describes herself as a survivor of polygamy. 

When she heard news of the raided compound, she traveled from her home in Twin Falls, Idaho, to San Angelo, Texas.

There she's telling her story in the hopes of exposing the pain of polygamy.

Nearly every day there are new developments at the Fundamentalist LDS Ranch in San Angelo, Texas. 

First, came the raid of hundreds of women and children.  Next, the search for evidence at the compound and now custody hearings for more than 400 children.

“These situations are absolutely abusive and there's many girls that are in that compound that were abused," said Schmidt.

Schmidt knows what life is like in a compound like this one.  For more than a decade, she lived at the Colonia LeBaron - a polygamist ranch in Mexico.

A life of extreme poverty and abuse ultimately caused her to break away.  She escaped from the compound with five children in tow.

"All of these women are living it for the same reason I was living polygamy, because we believed it was commanded by God.  These women need to know that that's not the case," said Schmidt.  "I came down here because I was raised in polygamy, I became a polygamist wife when I was 15 years old.  I was married as the sixth wife to a 38-year-old man I was taught, just as the women in San Angelo have been that we had to live polygamy in order to go to heaven."

Schmidt hopes by sharing her story with those close to the Texas raid, it will show them there is life outside the compound.

"I am personally ecstatic that something has finally happened to bring polygamy out into the eyes of the world what's going on in these places," said Schmidt.

Schmidt is scheduled to return to Twin Falls today.

Because there were no decisions made in the custody cases of more than 400 children removed from the San Angelo compound, Schmidt says she is considering taking another trip back to Texas in the future.