Missing girls found shivering and alone in their dad's doomsday compound

An American father-of-four has been charged with kidnapping his children after they were found "shaken" and freezing at a remote doomsday compound on Monday, three months after allegedly disappearing with their father.

John Coltharp’s estranged wife had asked for a restraining order against her 33-year-old husband in September, also requesting full custody of their two sons and two daughters, The CutThe Cut

She reportedly claimed her ex-husband was a doomsday prepper, who carried a pistol and had threatened to kill any child services worker or police officer who tried to take their kids away.

However, District Judge Derek Pullman deemed Coltharp’s religious beliefs "not extreme enough" to pose an "immediate threat", the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Coltharp disappeared with the couple’s four children later that month.

His family believed he and 34-year-old Samuel Shafer had formed a religious cult called Knights of the Crystal Blade on the website 'The Kingdom of God or Nothing!!!', outlining a religious doctrine which supported polygamy and marrying children.

Following a child abduction investigation, authorities found the two boys alone on Monday on the remote compound. Coltharp and Shaffer, who has two daughters, had allegedly been living with their kids. It was made from three trailers pushed together in the Utah desert.

Authorities then continued their search as Coltharp had allegedly fled with the two girls further into the desert. He left them without food or water and was found alone on a road Monday afternoon. The girls were found later that evening, two in a trailer and two in plastic water barrels. All four were taken to a local hospital.

Lieutenant Del Schlosser of the Iron County Sheriff’s Office told the Salt Lake Tribune the girls were "shaken" when they were first located by authorities. But as they got warmer, they became “much more calm and talkative”, he said.

Coltharp was charged with first-degree felony kidnapping and obstruction of justice, The Chicago Tribune reports. Shaffer is being held on suspicion of kidnapping and child abuse, but as of Tuesday, he hadn’t yet been charged.