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John Hollenhorst Reporting"Most of the evidence is that he's in route, he's moving, and it's going to take federal surveillance, I think, to put the collar on him."
The hunt is on. Law enforcement agencies from two states met near Colorado City today to look at strategies for capturing one of the ten most wanted men in the nation -- Warren Jeffs. No immediate action was planned at today's meeting, but the mere presence of law enforcement seems to have touched off a brief panic among Jeffs' followers.
We didn't see this with our own eyes, but witnesses tell us that during the law enforcement meeting, dozens of vehicles loaded with people suddenly started streaming out of town. They apparently feared some sort of crackdown.
One resident told us, townspeople feel like they're under siege. Thousands there consider Warren Jeffs a prophet. They're seeing a new onslaught of attention from law enforcement and the media, now that their leader has become a nationally infamous Top Ten Fugitive.
A closed door gathering of Utah and Arizona cops and attorneys focused on Jeffs and his followers.
Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General: "To see what's happening in a variety of cases we have right now, not just chasing Warren Jeffs, but trying to see how some of the prosecutions that are getting ready for trial are shaping up."
As a convoy of officialdom moved through the streets of Colorado City, the atmosphere of tension seemed understandable. Several Jeffs followers who live there are scheduled for trial in Arizona soon. As for the prophet himself, there seems to be little expectation of a quick arrest.
Those who have probed most deeply into the Jeffs group say the prophet feels compelled to maintain a mystique, showing his followers he can move around and perform marriages with impunity.
Gary Engels, Mohave County Investigator: "Well, we're certainly hearing those types of rumors, that he's moving around and showing up at different places. But I don't have any concrete proof that that's happening."
There were a couple of very surprising developments overnight suggesting that Jeffs' supporters may be starting to crumble under all the legal pressure.
Ordinarily the return of some farm equipment and the payment of property taxes wouldn't stir up much notice. But at the primary colony of the FLDS church on the Utah-Arizona border, it's a very big deal because of a looming confrontation between the law and Jeffs followers.
For months, investigators have been looking for valuable machinery. Today they found it, the inner workings of a grain elevator worth $100,000. Funny thing! They found it right where it disappeared from on New Year's Eve.
Isaac Wyler, Former Jeffs Follower: "It came back, like it left, in the middle of the night." (q: "Do you have any idea where it's been?") "No I don't."
It was allegedly stolen by Jeffs followers after most of the land, homes and equipment in town were placed under court control. Court-appointed official Bruce Wisan was preparing for a legal battle over the grain elevator.
Bruce Wisan, Court Appointed Fiduciary: "They may have felt it was just wasn't worth the fight."
The same with property taxes, apparently. Jeffs supposedly ordered his followers not to pay. So Wisan sent out demand notices to 12 households, threatening eviction. Suddenly, five of them unexpectedly paid $63,000.
Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General: "People are at least saying, we'd better cooperate. Before there'd been a steel curtain, that 'we're not going to do anything you want us to do'."
But key investigator Gary Engels says he doesn't expect any cooperation from Jeffs' inner circle.
Gary Engels, Mohave County Investigator: "No I don't. I think these people will do whatever they can to prevent him from being captured."
But the evolving story of property taxes may reflect intense pressures within the Jeffs organization.
Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General: "People want to keep their homes, I think they want to keep their kids in school, they want to keep some semblance of normalcy. And more and more what the prophet's asking them to do is to break those ties. And I don't think that's going to be tenable indefinitely."
Gary Engels, Mohave County Investigator: "I think it's going to dwindle, because I think he has in mind taking only two or three thousand people to where he is, and the rest of them he's going to cast out."
Most of Jeffs followers still haven't paid property taxes, and they owe nearly a million dollars. But the ones who did pay are all prominent members of the community in big homes. Officials hope they'll set an example.
