"Letters are still being written to Warren," he said, recalling a recent conversation with one of his children who is still in the church. "I asked him about it. He said letters are still being written to Warren, and Lyle Jeffs picks them up."

Lyle Jeffs is one of Warren Jeffs' brothers and is believed to be an authority figure in the church.

Engels said he believes someone else beside Warren Jeffs is now conducting the church's day-to-day business.

Several people may now be running the FLDS Church. Ex-members say photographs of Wendell Nielsen and William Timpson Jessop, leaders within the church, have appeared in FLDS members' homes next to pictures of Warren Jeffs.

"There was kind of a power structure in place that was there while he (Jeffs) was on the run," Holm said. "It doesn't seem to be a lot different."

Bruce Wisan, the court-appointed special fiduciary of the FLDS Church's United Effort Plan Trust, said Thursday that he has been told Jeffs' taped sermons, which members listen to, are being replaced by tapes of Nielsen.

Wisan told the Deseret Morning News that he has also started to see cooperation from FLDS members in privatizing and subdividing land controlled by the UEP Trust, the church's financial arm. The cooperation is a distinctive difference from Jeffs' edict of "say nothing, do nothing, sign nothing."

Under Jeffs' reign, men have been kicked out of the FLDS Church and told to "repent from a distance." Their wives and children have been given to others.

Roger Hoole, a lawyer for some of the so-called 'Lost Boys,' teenagers who have been booted from the communities for some unnamed "sin," hopes that any change in church leadership doesn't create more problems.

"If these stories about Jeffs admitting he's never been a prophet are accurate," he said, "we would say, 'Don't just hitch your wagon to the next person who stands up and says he's ordained of God to lead these people."'

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com; nperkins@desnews.com