People use cell phones with area codes from all over the place. She claimed to be using a cell phone that was shared by men in the community who leave the compound to work. Since there’s also a compound under construction in Colorado, it wouldn’t be particularly odd for some of those phones to have Colorado (or Arizona, or Utah, or British Columbia) area codes. I think I read that most of the lines at the domestic abuse shelter she called don’t have caller ID.
I don't know about the Colorado compound, interesting in itself but still leaves grounds for caution in a society that turns to litigation as quickly as ours does.
Area code means little.
In the intervening 5 days, between the time the call was received at the shelter and the sheriff swept into the YFZ compound, the authorities had more than enough time to go to the phone companies and determine where the cell call originated. Your cell phone calls are tracked by which tower you are using. Thus, the sheriff could have easily found out that the call originated in Colorado, and not in the cult compound.