From Deseret News archives:
Jeffs on FBI's Top Ten
Most Wanted listing fuels search
"The list includes terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, serial murderers and child predators," FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Tim Fuhrman said at a news conference in Salt Lake City Saturday night. A simultaneous news conference was held by FBI agents in Phoenix.
By adding Jeffs to the Top Ten list, Fuhrman said "the various methods of publicizing Jeffs' status as a fugitive will expand considerably."
Wanted posters of Jeffs will be placed in public buildings nationwide and distributed to police agencies worldwide. The FBI will also have more resources available to pursue leads regarding Jeffs' whereabouts.
Jeffs had previously been on one of the agency's most-wanted lists, but the move to the Top Ten Most Wanted gives the case higher visibility.
"I feel like we're very close," Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said of the hunt for Jeffs. "Since the expulsions took place, we've been getting more and more intelligence and we feel like it's going to pay rich dividends."
Still, FBI agents admitted they do not know where Jeffs is.
The FLDS Church has compounds in Hildale, Washington County; Colorado City, Ariz.; Eldorado, Texas; Mancos, Colo.; Pioche, Nev.; and Bountiful, British Columbia. FBI agents confirmed to the Deseret Morning News Saturday night they were investigating rumors of a ranch owned by the FLDS Church in Quintana Roo, Mexico, near Cancun.
"We have no particular reason to believe Mr. Jeffs is in the state of Utah," said Ken Wallentine, the Utah attorney general's chief of law enforcement.
Utah authorities have said they believe Jeffs has recently been at the FLDS Church's compound in Eldorado, Texas, where the group has completed a temple. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret Morning News he has seen no sign of Jeffs.
"We haven't had anything out of the ordinary," the sheriff said Saturday. "There has been no sign of Warren Jeffs, nothing like that. Have you seen him?"
Fuhrman said they cannot just barge into the Eldorado compound.
"We have to observe the Constitution," he said.
Jeffs has been known to travel with armed bodyguards who are fiercely loyal to him. That led the FBI to consider him "armed and dangerous."
Some former FLDS members fear that putting Jeffs on the FBI's Top Ten list might fuel a confrontation with the fugitive leader.
"I don't think it's going to make any difference to his loyal followers," Richard Holm said. He was ousted by Jeffs, and his wives and children were given to another man. "I suspect it will make him more of a hero in their mind."
