Blood Atonement or Cold Case? The LeBaron Mystery in North Dakota

By Nathanial A. Barrera and Frank Parlato

The Name Nobody Mentioned

Twelve years have passed since the disappearance of a teenage boy in North Dakota.

He was a LeBaron. That’s the thing that nobody has mentioned yet, not in print.

Departure to Dakota

In June 2013, the boy Edward LeBaron, whose name is reported as Ashton Stubbs, the name he assumed, departed El Paso by Greyhound to Fargo, North Dakota.

He was fifteen, almost sixteen.

According to reports, the teen was having difficulties at home. He was moody and rebellious. He was to live with his mother’s sister, Jaylene Stubbs, and her husband, Alonso Lebaron. He was to work in Alonso’s drywall business, High Flow Drywall, during the peak of North Dakota’s last oil boom.

Although he initially traveled to Fargo, the worksite was on Lyons Avenue in Dickinson—300 miles west.

While in Dakota, he seems to have used Ashton Stubbs, a name less known than LeBaron.

The LeBaron Family & The Mormon Manson

Ervil LeBaron

Ashton’s grandfather, Alma Dayer LeBaron Jr., was the brother of Ervil LeBaron (known as “the Mormon Manson”). He was a figure best known for implementing blood atonement, a doctrine of capital punishment touted by fundamentalist Mormon sects for disloyalty or defection.

First conceived by Joseph Smith, the practice gained approval under Brigham Young’s leadership.

Like others in the family, Ashton’s father, Dayer Melchor LeBaron, practiced plural marriage.

Among his wives were Jolene Stubbs, Ashton’s mother, and Terah Ann Wakeham, who was the daughter of Joel LeBaron—leader of the family clan—until his atonement by his brother, Ervil.

Joel LeBaron died in 1972. Joel had eleven wives and seventy-two children at the time of his death.

June 17, 2013 – Disappearance

Fast forward 40 years.

On June 17, 2013, five days before his sixteenth birthday, Edward Ashton Stubbs LeBaron had been laying drywall at a construction site in Dickinson. That afternoon, he left the job site unexpectedly, leaving his wallet, identification, and cash behind.

He left behind all the things a runaway wouldn’t—his ID, wallet, money.

Authorities with the Dickinson Police Department and the Stark County Sheriff’s Office initiated an investigation.

Reportedly, he attempted to board a bus to Fargo, but there was no ticket, and no driver remembered him.

Conflicting Accounts

Family members offered conflicting accounts—some suggesting he ran away, others claiming he returned home. The uncle, Alonso LeBaron, said he ran off.

There may be only one truth in this: people usually don’t vanish unless someone wants them to. Maybe he caught a bus. Maybe he caught a punch. Maybe he was mad. But one doesn’t abandon one’s wallet and leave voluntarily.

His mother said a disagreement at the site may have prompted his departure. She offered a $5000 reward. No one ever collected.

Missing Persons flyers issued by law enforcement erroneously listed the child as “Edward Stubbs aka Ashton LeBaron,” adding an extra layer of obstacles to the already confounding case.

December 11, 2018 – Skull Discovered

The water tank at Radar Base where Ashton's skull was found.

The water tank at Radar Base where Ashton’s skull was found.

Five years passed. A resident surveying property near Radar Base Hill, an abandoned air force base, about one and a half miles from the construction site Ashton left, discovered a human skull in an old water tank.

The skull was sent to the State Forensics Office in Bismarck for analysis. Investigators determined it belonged to a white male in his late teens or early twenties.

The location with the red circle is where Ashton disappeared. The other circle was where his skull was found.

September 2019 – Identification

Seven months later, forensics confirmed the skull belonged to Edward Ashton Stubbs LeBaron.

On September 5, the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Dickinson Police Department, and the Stark County Sheriff’s Office searched the field near the base of Radar Base Hill to find any other remains.

None were recovered.

The LeBaron Legacy

The five brothers with dozens of wives and hundreds of children and grandchildren and Ashton was one of them.

The five brothers with dozens of wives and hundreds of children and grandchildren. Alma LeBaron Jr, (far left) was Ashton’s grandfather. Ervil LeBaron (far right) was the master of blood atonement. In fact he is standing next to his brother Joel, whom Ervil atoned in 1972.

More than 100 years ago, in 1924, Ashton’s great grandfather – Alma LeBaron Sr., excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for practicing polygamy, relocated his family from Utah to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he established Colonia LeBarón, a community for Mormons who rejected the church’s renunciation of plural marriage.

Alma’s son, Ervil LeBaron, founder of the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God, advocated for the salvation of dissenters through blood atonement.

In 1972, Ervil atoned his brother Joel LeBaron in Mexico. Though convicted, Ervil’s sentence was overturned.

In 1977, he ordered the atonement of rival leader Rulon Allred, carried out by his wife Rena Chynoweth. Arrested in Mexico and extradited, Ervil died in Utah State Prison in 1981, leaving behind a 400-page “Book of the New Covenants” which named dozens in need of “blood atonement.”

June 27, 1988 – The 4 O’Clock Murders

In a coordinated attack, four individuals were atoned across Texas at precisely 4:00 PM. The victims, all former members of the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God, were atoned by followers of the late Ervil LeBaron.

The message was clear: leave, and you die.

Mark Chynoweth – Shot in Houston, Texas.

Duane Chynoweth – Also in Texas.

Jennifer Chynoweth – Duane’s 8-year-old daughter. Atoned to eliminate a witness.

Ed Marston – Shot in Irving, Texas.

Heber and Aaron LeBaron—and other loyalists—carried out the atonements. Several LeBaron members were arrested, tried, and convicted. Heber LeBaron was sentenced to life in prison. The FBI described the LeBarons as one of the most dangerous domestic cults in American history.

Among the Atoned

Joel LeBaron (1972)

Rulon C. Allred (1977)

Dean Grover Vest (1975)

Noemi Zarate Chynoweth (1975)

Rebecca LeBaron (1977)

Arturo LeBaron (1983)

Daniel Ben Jordan (1987)

Mark Chynoweth (1988)

Duane and Jennifer Chynoweth (1988)

Eddie Marston (1988)

Disappearances Linked to the LeBaron Sect

Not everyone who is atoned is found. The body of Lorna Chynoweth, one of Ervil’s wives, was never recovered. She is presumed to have been atoned. Gamaliel and Raul Rios’ sisters are believed to be atoned after the atonement of their brothers. These two women had been married to Ervil.

All told the LeBaron clan “atoned” about 30 people including possibly Ashton.

Jacqueline Tarsa Lebaron

In 2006, Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron, one of Ervil’s 54 children, was named on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. She was captured in 2010.

In 2024, Ashton’s parents Dayer Melchor LeBaron, and Jolene Stubbs, were arrested on kidnapping and human trafficking charges in Utah.

They allegedly coerced a family into working on their pine nut harvesting operation, threatening to withhold their children if they attempted to leave.

The Cold Case 

The death of Edward Ashton Stubbs Lebaron is a cold case. He was a LeBaron. Nobody just walks away from a name like that. Natural causes don’t usually account for a decapitated skull found in a tank in the middle of nowhere.

If your name is LeBaron, the reason may be accompanied by an unhinged sense of holiness and scripture.