Do FLDS have U.S. network of safe houses?

A compound of the Fundamentalist LDS Church recently discovered in South Dakota may be part of a network of safe houses scattered across the country that help keep fugitive polygamous leader Warren Jeffs from being apprehended.

That's according to a private investigator who helped find the polygamous enclave near Pringle, which is nestled in the Black Hills southwest of Rapid City. Sam Brower has been probing the FLDS group for years on behalf of former members who are suing Jeffs.

"I think they're scattered all over," Brower said Thursday. "Some may be as small as just one or two houses and others larger compounds like this. I think he has a network of safehouses that he can cruise around to."

In fact, Jeffs may have been spotted last year on the property.

"One of the people that lives in that area thinks they saw Warren Jeffs out there last summer," Brower said. "They believe it is. It could be Warren or one of his brothers."

The FBI said Thursday it was aware of the property in South Dakota.

"We do not have any definitive information that Jeffs is hiding on that property," said special agent Deborah McCarley of the FBI's Phoenix office. "Any information which comes in to suggest he is hiding anywhere, we are going to look into that quickly."

Brower said the property includes a dormitory, a cafeteria, a couple of large houses and a granary under construction. About 60 people are believed to be living there. License plates on vehicles doing construction at the Black Hills site were traced to Colorado City, Ariz., companies, he said.

The South Dakota property purchase is similar to how the FLDS Church went about buying its compound in Eldorado, Texas. At first, local authorities were told it would be a "hunting retreat." Now, Eldorado is the site of what is believed to be the FLDS Church's first temple. Brower said he does not believe the South Dakota property could become another temple site.

"I think it's going to be more like Mancos," Brower said, referring to another FLDS-owned property in Colorado. "They don't have enough room to spread out like Eldorado. This is more like a hideout."

The sheriff of Custer County, S.D. — where the new FLDS compound is located — is unconcerned about his new neighbors.

"We've got people from all over the world that owns property here," Sheriff Philip Hespen said Thursday. "I don't show up and ask everybody nosy questions that the news media would like to know."