Polygamous leader died of heart and kidney failure, coroner says
 
The Associated Press
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
 
SALT LAKE CITY - Fred Jessop, a longtime bishop for a polygamous community on the Arizona border, died of heart and kidney failure, a coroner's report says.

Jessop, 94, was buried Sunday at Colorado City, Ariz., which along with the twin border city of Hildale, Utah, is controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"This was a natural death," deputy Douglas County, Colo., coroner Robert M. Montgomery said in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

A certified copy of the report said Jessop died March 15 of aortic stenosis, a narrowing of a crucial heart valve, congestive heart failure and a deterioration of the kidneys known as renal failure. He was admitted six days earlier to Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree, Colo., complaining of shortness of breath.

"The subject had a documented history of congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, degenerative joint disease and chronic renal insufficiency," Montgomery wrote in his March 17 report. "An autopsy was not performed."

The circumstances of Jessop's final years are a matter of dispute. Some relatives who said they had not seen him for 15 months filed a missing-persons report, but sheriff's deputies in Utah and Texas were unable to determine his whereabouts until his death.

Jessop had been a beloved bishop for the Colorado City/Hildale community who was stripped of that position - and some believed sent into exile - when Warren Jeffs took over as church president after the 2002 death of his father, Rulon Jeffs.

Warren Jeffs' group, known as FLDS, is building a community outside the small West Texas town of Eldorado, about 160 miles northwest of San Antonio.
 
dfw.com
Originally published March 22, 2005
 
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