Where Is ‘Children of the Underground’s Faye Yager Today?

With Children of the Underground, FX is diving into a true crime saga with no clear answers. In the 1980s, Faye Yager made headlines for creating an underground network designed to hide and protect children who were being sexually abused by one of their parents, typically their fathers. But between allegations of Satanic involvement and multiple lawsuits, an organization that started with good intentions eventually became a lot more complicated.

If you’re the type of person who prefers a guide before you press play on a heavy docuseries, we have you covered. Here are the bare-bones facts you need to know about Faye Yager and where she is today.

Who Is Faye Yager?

In the early 1970s, Faye Yager’s life changed forever. After finding evidence of abuse, Yager accused her husband Roger Lee Jones of molesting their daughter. Though her four-year-old daughter tested positive for an STD, custody was awarded to Jones in the divorce. Yager made a number of appeals to regain custody of her daughter but was denied. Her daughter eventually was committed to a mental hospital. After this devastating loss, Yager dedicated her life to saving as many sexually abused children as possible.

That’s what led to Yager creating Children of the Underground, an underground network that hid children that had been abused. She would house parents, primarily mothers, who had defied court custody orders in her Atlanta mansion. Once on the run, these parents and their children were given new names, lives, and identification papers. At the time, Yager told many media outlets that she had helped over 1,000 children over the years.

But this underground network was not without controversy. In fact, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has long been critical of her work. The parents who used it were criticized for making false claims about child abuse in order to disparage their spouses. Then there was the press attention. Once Yager and the organization that would become Mothers Alliance for the Rights of Children gained more attention, Yager started making the talk show rounds. That was when the numbers she reported started to become questionable. Many said that Yager exaggerated the amount of children who were at risk. She also claimed that a Satanic brotherhood manipulated the court system.

The network also brought legal trouble for Yager. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Yager was actually arrested in connection to this network. While working with two children who were running from their father, the children said Yager encouraged them to make up stories of abuse. The case was later dropped in 1992 since there was no proof that Yager did anything out of “malicious intent.”

The most high-profile case was one that involved millionaire Bipin Shah, who offered a $2 million reward to anyone who found his two young daughters. He also filed a $100 million lawsuit against Yager. Shah’s daughters were eventually found in their mother’s home in Switzerland, and the lawsuit against Yager was dropped.

Where Is Faye Yager Today?

In 1999, shortly after the Shah lawsuit, Yager stepped away from the movement she built. She currently runs an inn in Brevard, N.C., and stays out of the spotlight. Though she does give an interview in FX’s Children of the Underground, she does not appear on camera.