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From the article: ...predictably, the entire massacre was blamed on the Paiutes. Indians in this region are a very superstitious people and don’t mess around with dead people, dead bodies or their possessions. The killers stripped the bodies of their valuables like rings or necklaces and collected the money boxes, gold, silver and jewelry of the wealthy Baker–Fancher party. All property of the massacred party, including cattle, mules, horses and chickens, was taken to the tithing office in my town and auctioned off to local Mormons.

One of the ways we know that the Mormon church was implicated – either as part of the plot or criminal cover-up – is how the wagon train's plunder was dealt with:

“The plunder proceed with a strange quiet. Women from Cedar City and nearby settlements arrived to remove the calico dresses and lace pinafores of the women and children, pulling off their expensive shoes, and ripping earrings, brooches, and rings off the corpses, most to be turned over to the church. 'Their fine stock, their pleasure vehicles, their musical instruments, and abundant and elegant outfit, excited the cupidity of the sacerdotal robbers,' the Salt Lake Daily Tribune later reported...” (Sally Denton's 2003 book entitled: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 Vintage Books, division from Random House P. 149)

“'There was no clothing left on man, woman or child, except that a torn stocking leg clung to the angle of one.” Haight, Higbee, and Dame would argue asa well over the distribution of goods. The bloody clothing and bedding that had been gathered by the women and others were taken to the cellar of the church tithing office in Cedar City...As for the reported $100,000 worth of gold said to be on the train, most of what was retrieved—the actual amount would never be revealed—was turned over to the church treasury in Salt Lake City. The forty wagons were given to local Mormons for use in hauling lead ore from Nevada. The carriages emblazoned with stags' heads were transported to Salt Lake City, where at least one of them was used by Brigham Young. Approximately nine hundred head of cattle were corralled near Cedar City, branded with the church's 'cross,' and driven north to the capital.” (Denton, p. 150)

Klingensmith was a Lutheran to Mormon convert who became a witness in the Lee trial: "He told how he traveled to Salt Lake City in October 1857 and in the presence of Lee and another witness discussed with Young the details of the murders and the distribution of the plunder. Klingensmith testified that Young ordered him to turn over all the loot from the massacre to Lee. The cattle had been branded with a cross--the church designation...” (Denton, p. 224)