Seen On

by Ginger Allen
(CBS 11 News) One of America's most wanted fugitives could be hiding out in west Texas. Many believe Warren Jeffs is holed up inside the walls of one of the nation's most secretive communities - a polygamist camp near San Angelo.

The 1,691-acre polygamous community has been stirring up the curiosity and scorn of the small ranching town of El Dorado, ever since it moved to the area two years ago.

Speculation that the founder, Warren Jeffs, may be holed up inside the compound has caught the attention of the FBI, which recently put the religious leader on its top ten fugitives list.

CBS 11 Investigators spent three days just north of the Yearn for Zion Ranch, which belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The complex of buildings includes a massive 62,000-square-foot temple, a garden the size of a football field, peach orchard, cement factory and several houses.

The only way to get a view of the entire compound is from above. El Dorado pilot J.D. Doyle has been doing just that – piecing together the puzzle by taking the only known aerial photographs of the mysterious community.

"When I look down at that it just amazes me that they can construct so much so fast," he said. "They built this whole town in 24-months."

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran is one of the only outsiders ever allowed onto the members-only ranch where television isn't allowed, and ties to the outside world don't exist – even gasoline is delivered to the gate.

In fact, it was Doran who broke the news to the YFZ community that their leader, Jeffs, had been named to the FBI's top ten fugitive list. He is accused of sexually assaulting minors and arranging marriages for girls as young as 10 years old to men old enough to be their grandfathers.

Those who have escaped the community say it's a religion in which happiness is a façade. Pam Black says she was a teenager-turned-mother of 14 children.
"There's a lot of fear," she recalled. "There's a facade people wear, just being happy."

Carmen Thompson tells a similar tale and says the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a cult. "It is the most painful thing on the planet is to lay in your bed at night hear on the other side of the wall him making love to another woman."

Both women escaped from polygamous communities outside Texas that are part of the same church.

In a rare CBS interview, four women, whose names we won't reveal, try to explain their experiences with the religious group. They come from a slightly more progressive section of the polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah border.

All four are married to men who have multiple wives.

"You have a way of working in your needs...your wants," admits one of the women.

"We feel like our Father in Heaven has many wives...we'd like to model our families after that," explains another.

Back in El Dorado, families can't help but wonder if their neighbors on the edge of town will slowly move into the community like they have in the other states.
Occasionally a man from the ranch is spotted at the local library...or in town seeking a building permit.

As for their leader, one of America's most wanted? "Obviously they've been in communications with him, obviously they're getting instructions the temple is here. It is an important place" said Doran.

Members deny knowing Warren Jeffs' whereabouts. Haunted by the 1993 Branch Davidian Siege near Waco, federal and local authorities appear to be waiting and watching from the outskirts and say they will not storm compound without a confirmed sighting of Jeffs.

When asked why the group is harboring a criminal, Attorney Rod Parker, who used to represent for the group, said they believe Jeffs is their Prophet. Parker said they believe Jeffs is being unfairly targeted and they fear for his safety.

Despite CBS 11's efforts to talk to someone at the YFZ Ranch, no one would come out to the gate and talk to us.

(CBS 11 News)