Polygamist sect might be living in Black Hills
 Leader of group is wanted by FBI
 
By Nestor Ramos
Argus Leader - Sioux Falls, South Dakota
 
A 100-acre property in Pringle appears to be home to followers of Warren Jeffs, a fugitive and the leader of a polygamist sect, the FBI said Thursday.

Considered a prophet by his thousands of followers, Jeffs, 51, is wanted in Arizona on charges of sexual assault against a minor. He also is wanted on a federal unlawful flight charge for fleeing prosecution.

Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, according to the FBI. The church teaches that a man must marry at least three women to enter heaven and has been labeled a hate group because of racist teachings. It has been linked to land purchases in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and British Columbia.

"There hasn't been any report of criminal activity," said Robert Perry, FBI supervisor for the western part of the state, adding that he had not received reports that Jeffs was in South Dakota. "Right now, we're just aware that this organization owns property."

Is the property under FBI surveillance?

"I wouldn't tell you if it was," Perry said.

Deeds to the land in the Black Hills north of Hot Springs show the property was bought by David Allred, president of Utah-based Details Unlimited. Allred also bought the fundamentalist sect's 2,000-acre YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas.

Utah private investigator Sam Brower has been tracking Jeffs' activities for several lawyers pursuing cases against him. He saw the property near Pringle firsthand, he said, and it was immediately obvious to him that it was home to Jeffs' followers.

"Some of the neighbors around there had noticed their activity - they have a tendency to work around the clock, under lights," Brower said about construction projects.

There are several new buildings at the site.

The location of the property near Pringle was first reported Wednesday on the Web edition of The Eldorado Success, a weekly newspaper.

Before Brower came to South Dakota, he checked license plate numbers given to him by sources in the Pringle area.

"They came back to one of Warren Jeffs' guys, active in the FLDS," Brower said. "When I got there, I could see the people, see the style of buildings, heard their voices - a distinctive southern Utah twang."

A spokesman for South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said the office did not have enough information to comment.

Polygamy is illegal in South Dakota.

Custer County Sheriff Phil Hespen said he had not been to the site since hearing of the possible connection to Jeffs on Wednesday.

"It's private property. I have no reason to be there," Hespen said.

Media accounts of the South Dakota site have been exaggerated, he said. "Nobody knows anything when it comes down to it."

Brower, though, thinks Jeffs was in South Dakota fairly recently.

"The source that alerted me to it believed that they saw him there last summer. They were pretty positive," Brower said.

Jeffs has been known to travel with "a number of loyal and armed bodyguards," according to his FBI wanted poster. Jeffs "should be considered armed and dangerous."

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Brower said Jeffs and his bodyguards are dangerous, but the compound in Pringle probably is not.

"The biggest danger is that they'll put all the contractors in South Dakota out of business," he said.

"Some polygamist roofer that has 20 kids who are all roofers can easily outbid anybody," Brower said.

"They've all made a fortune, and it all goes to Warren Jeffs."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Nestor Ramos at 331-2328.
nramos@argusleader.com
 
argusleader.com
Originally published March 10, 2006
 
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