Creston, Canada - A U.S. polygamist on the FBI's most-wanted list is probably in Canada, his Canadian rival says.
Winston Blackmore, who leads a breakaway Mormon polygamous sect based in Bountiful, B.C., said Warren Jeffs would be the "dumbest person if he weren't in Canada."
But at a news conference on his lawn yesterday, Mr. Blackmore didn't say whether he knew where Mr. Jeffs was, adding that locating the fugitive is not his problem.
Mr. Jeffs heads the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect that broke away from the Mormon Church when it abandoned polygamy more than a century ago.
Mr. Jeffs's church believes that polygamy is necessary for the glorification of its members in heaven.
He is wanted on criminal charges of sexual conduct with a minor and for arranging plural marriages of underaged girls. He is also wanted for fraud.
Mr. Jeffs excommunicated Mr. Blackmore several years ago, and the Bountiful community is now divided almost down the middle between Blackmore followers and Jeffs followers.
Mr. Blackmore characterized their split as something akin to a family feud.
"If he was in a vehicle, I'd look the other way. We are extended family," he said, adding: "The fact that he's a federal fugitive, my apologies to the FBI, is not our problem."
Mr. Blackmore said the $100,000 reward announced this month will likely produce results, especially if the Federal Bureau of Investigation keeps increasing it.
"There's a Judas in every crowd," he said.
Mr. Jeffs, considered by his followers to be a prophet, hasn't been seen in public in nearly two years.
Mr. Blackmore, who reportedly has 28 wives and as many as 100 children, told a newspaper columnist last week that he expected to face charges himself within days.
That hasn't happened yet, but he said scrutiny on his community has increased, likely because of the hunt for Mr. Jeffs.
Leah Barlow, one of Mr. Blackmore's many wives who runs a midwifery clinic in the community, said the RCMP have paid particular attention to the records at her clinic.
"At the end of the interviews, I came to the conclusion that it was all about gathering evidence to lay charges on the person we love the most," she said, referring to Mr. Blackmore.
She said investigators came to the clinic with a search warrant and had gone through all the records to look at the ages of wives and the ages of the women delivering babies at the clinic.
Bountiful's teen pregnancy rate is several times higher than the provincial average.
Officers asked some intensely personal questions, Ms. Barlow said.
Among Mr. Blackmore's other legal difficulties, some of his wives face deportation to the United States after their visitor visas expired and requests to stay in Canada on compassionate grounds were rejected.
Marsha Chatwin said three of the wives have had 16 Canadian children.
"We bring variety to Canadian culture," said Ms. Chatwin, who choked up as she added that she lost her mother at the age of 8.
"I'll never willingly have my children go through that."
Zelpha Chatwin pleaded with Canadian authorities to let them stay.
"I pray you will soften the hearts of those that don't understand us. My children need their family. My children need their father. Please show compassion to my children."