GILBERT, AZ — From an Alaskan jail cell, a Gilbert mom is coming to grips with the fact her belief the world was ending last weekend was wrong, according to recorded court proceedings.
Spring Thibaudeau's alleged doomsday prophesy came to an end with her arrest Friday. Authorities located her, her brother, Brook Hale, her adult daughter, and her 16-year-old son who was listed as a missing person near the Alaska-Canada border. Spring and Brook had felony warrants for their arrest for custodial interference out of Arizona.
ABC15 obtained audio recordings from the fugitives' first court appearance Saturday from a Fairbanks, Alaska, jail facility.
Spring had little to say.
But her husband, Ben Thibaudeau, was allowed to speak to the judge by phone. Ben had filed for divorce earlier this month and requested emergency full custody of their son Blaze last week after he disappeared. Ben had flown to Fairbanks to reunite with the teen.
Ben asked for leniency on Spring's bond.
"She's a very spiritual person; she just took it a little bit too far," Ben said.
Ben told the judge he met with his wife at the jail prior to the court appearance, and he shed more light on the alleged doomsday beliefs of his wife and brother-in-law.
"She assumes the end of the world was going to happen this weekend, and obviously it's not," Ben said. "So they're all realizing that they've got to go back and reassess things that they've been reading."
Spring and Brook were taking Blaze to the wilderness to fulfill a role in the second coming of Christ, according to court records.
The Alaskan judge held firm on a $500,000 bond for both defendants saying the circumstances of the case presented a big concern.
The judge reasoned Spring had "delusional beliefs" about the end of the world, and "whether they be spiritually based or organically based, she took extreme action to remove the child illegally from Arizona."
The process now begins to extradite Brook Hale and Spring Thibaudeau to Arizona to face the criminal charges.
