Salt Lake City, USA - Has Warren Steed Jeffs fled the sunbaked desert for the balmy climes of Florida?
A new wanted flier circulated by the FBI lists Leesburg, Fla., as one of a handful of places where the elusive polygamist prophet may be in hiding - along with as many as 30 followers and "a number of loyal and armed bodyguards."
"Different tips and information coming to our office have him sighted or a look-alike sighted in Florida," said Deborah McCarley, FBI special agent in Phoenix, Ariz. "We don't have any definitive information, it's just one of the many places that has come up."
Leesburg, population 15,956, is a retirement haven in the middle of Florida. It is known as "Lakefront City" because of its 1,400 lakes. The flier says members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints may be trying to acquire property in the area.
The sect, which has about 10,000 members, practices a 19th-century version of Mormonism that includes plural marriage, a practice publicly disavowed in 1890 by the mainstream Mormon church.
Wherever they are, FLDS faithful are likely to stand out; women tend to wear modest dresses and keep their hair long and braided, while the men wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
The Jeffs flier appears on the FBI's "most wanted" August listings, alongside descriptions of men and women wanted for securities fraud, aggravated robbery, murder and drug offenses - such as Mark Anthony Miclette, charged with identity theft, and Elizabeth Anna Duke, a member of the May 19th Communist Organization who has been a fugitive since 1985.
There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to Duke's arrest - five times the amount the states of Utah and Arizona have offered for help capturing Jeffs.
The 49-year-old FLDS leader is wanted on three charges of sexual conduct with a minor in connection with his role performing marriages between underage girls and older men. He also is charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
The flier notes that Jeffs has not been seen by any outsiders since 2004, when government scrutiny of the FLDS community based at the Utah-Arizona border intensified. Jeffs and the FLDS church also have outposts in Texas, Colorado and British Columbia.
But other spots also are purported to be among Jeffs' possible hiding places, such as Jackson County, Mo.; California; Nevada; Mexico; and even Europe.
Ezra Draper, a former FLDS member who now lives in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, told The Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday he suspects Jeffs may have traveled to Bountiful, British Columbia, in early July, given the sudden appearance of dozens of FLDS faithful in the area.
"I saw people I hadn't seen in a dozen years," Draper said. "I know he's been up here half a dozen times before this $10,000 reward was put out."
Then again, Draper admits he is clueless to Jeffs' whereabouts. "Him and Osama bin Laden could be in the same cave for all I know."