Phoenix, USA -- Fred Jessop, a longtime member of the inner circle of the nation's largest polygamous sect, has died in Colorado, 15 months after he mysteriously disappeared from his home in a remote community along the Arizona-Utah state line.
Gary Engels, an investigator with the Mohave County Attorney's Office who has been closely monitoring the sect, confirmed Wednesday that Jessop died Tuesday afternoon in the Denver suburb of Lone Tree.
Jessop, 94, was "second councilor" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a reclusive sect of some 7,000 to 10,000 believers based in the twin, isolated communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
The FLDS broke away from the mainstream Mormon religion in 1890 when the church renounced polygamy. FLDS leaders moved their main base to Colorado City-Hildale in the mid 1930s.
Jessop died in the Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree, but officials there refused to disclose the cause of death. He would have turned 95 on April 20.
The body was being transported to a funeral home in Hurricane, Utah, a small community 25 miles northwest of Colorado City where members of the sect often shop and where those who have been excommunicated from the FLDS often seek refuge. A funeral was planned Sunday in Colorado City.
In the past year, Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the sect, has excommunicated scores of followers, including several top aides. Jeffs himself hasn't been seen at his block-square Hildale compound since late last year and is believed to be living on a 1,691-acre ranch in West Texas where he is building a temple and several massive dormitory-style buildings.
Just before the purge of sect members began in December 2003, Jessop, who was known as "Uncle Fred," disappeared.
Family members said they originally were told he was called away to do "God's work." However, they filed a missing person report in August after they said they received several letters purporting to come from "Uncle Fred" that weren't in his handwriting.
An investigator thought it was interesting that Jessop died in Colorado because a close aide of Jeffs had quietly purchased a 60-acre parcel of land in the southwest corner of that state in November 2003, about the time he also bought the ranch in Texas. The property in Mancos, Colo., is 350 miles from Denver.
Jessop had been one of only four active church members still serving on the board of the United Effort Plan, a religious trust set up by the FLDS. The trust controls virtually all land and most of the assets in Colorado City and Hildale.
Jeffs excommunicated two other members of the trust board. One other trustee, James K. Zitting, was ostracized from the inner circle and making a living changing oil in Texas, but still is listed on the board.
The only other two trustees are Jeffs and his brother, Leroy S. Jeffs.
Warren Jeffs has been accused in two lawsuits filed last year of sexually abusing his underage nephew, covering up widespread molestations by fellow sect leaders and ruining the lives of scores of young men and boys who say they were thrown out of Colorado City-Hildale because they posed threats to older men who wanted to take plural wives.
An attorney for Jeffs' nephew followed the civil suit with a legal request to have Jeffs removed from the trust and his powers turned over to the courts. That request is pending, but has been supported by the attorneys general of Arizona and Utah.