Search produces no Jeffs
 FBI and Cedar City police check home after getting a tip
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
Police descended on a home in Cedar City on Friday, acting on a tip that fugitive Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs may have been there.

They didn't find him.

"He's not here," Cedar City Police Lt. Dave Holm said. "As far as I know he was not here."

Officers clad in SWAT gear descended upon a tan home on the corner of Pachea Trail and Beacon Drive, in the newly developed Black Rock subdivision. Holm said they brought the SWAT gear because Jeffs is listed on his FBI wanted poster as armed and dangerous.

After knocking on the door, officers obtained permission to search the home and a truck parked at the residence. Photographs taken by neighbors show a couple being escorted from the home in handcuffs. The couple is wearing pioneer-style clothing that is common in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where the FLDS Church is based.

"I've seen a polygamist family living in this house for several years," said Randy Weekes, who lives nearby. "I don't know their names."

After being questioned by police and FBI agents, the couple was released. The FBI said the home is connected to the FLDS Church but would not elaborate.

Police sources told the Deseret Morning News it was doubtful that Warren Jeffs was ever there, but the tipster may have spotted someone who looked similar to Jeffs. FBI Special Agent Patrick Kiernan said they will respond quickly to any sightings of the fugitive polygamist leader.

"Any time we get any kind of tip or a lead, we will dispatch agents immediately," he said Friday.

Recently, Arizona's attorney general said he had information that Jeffs may have been in the area performing more child-bride marriages. The FBI said it continues to pursue a number of leads and tips that continue to come into the agency's Salt Lake City office every day.

Jeffs is a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He is wanted on sex crimes charges in Utah and Arizona and is accused of forcing teenage girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Federal prosecutors have filed charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution against him. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Jeffs' arrest.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Saturday, July 1, 2006
 
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