From Deseret News archives:

Is leader of FLDS closer to arrest?

Published: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005 9:02 a.m. MDT
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PROVO — Two vehicles linked to reported weekend sightings of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs have been found in Colorado City, Ariz.

Colorado City and its twin, Hildale, Utah, have served over the years as headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which Jeffs heads.

According to KSL-TV, the vehicles were located Monday afternoon by investigators from Mojave County in Arizona who went to the town on a hunch.

FBI spokesman Brent Robbins said the FBI is now concentrating efforts in the area to determine whether Jeffs could be hiding there.

The vehicles' owners were being interviewed, and they or other possible users of the vehicles, such as family members, admitted being at Cabela's, Robbins said Monday night.

Robbins said they had not confirmed that Jeffs had been with them.

Robbins said it is impossible to say definitively that it was Jeffs who was seen at two locations in Utah over the weekend, but he said the preponderance of evidence makes it appear likely. He would not speculate as to whether Jeffs remains in the Colorado City area at this time.

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The FBI became involved in the search for Jeffs after he allegedly fled Arizona following a grand jury indictment in June charging him with one count of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor for his alleged role in arranging a 2002 marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a 28-year-old man.

The church headed by Jeffs has about 10,000 members and practices polygamy. The sect has also been building a large compound in Texas in recent months.

Jeffs was reportedly spotted in Florida in August, but the trail had run cold until an employee at Cabela's in Lehi reported seeing Jeffs enter the store Friday afternoon in a wheelchair. Witnesses said he was accompanied by a group of women and two large men who appeared to be acting as bodyguards. FBI agents interviewed witnesses and reviewed security tapes at Cabela's but were unable to determine if the man was in fact Jeffs.

Robbins said the tapes at Cabela's showed "an image that depicts a reasonable likeness to Warren Jeffs."

"You look at someone on a videotape, and even a family member may say, 'Well, it kind of looks like them, but I'm not sure,' " Robbins said.

The employee gave authorities the license plate numbers for the two vehicles, allowing agents to identify them on Monday.

The latest sighting of Jeffs was on Sunday at Strawberry Reservoir, about 55 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, with a group that matched the description of the one at Cabela's.

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