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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- FBI agents were in a Cedar City subdivision Friday investigating a report that fugitive polygamist church leader Warren Jeffs had entered a residence there.
Jeffs, 50, was named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in May. He is wanted on felony charges in both Arizona and Utah, accused of arranging marriage between underage girls and older men.
"Any time we get any sort of tip like this we're going to take it seriously and respond immediately," said Salt Lake City-based FBI spokesman Patrick Kiernan. "We have agents on the scene and we are investigating."
Kiernan said Jeffs was not in the home.
Cedar City police received a 1:26 p.m. telephone tip from a neighbor who claimed to have seen Jeffs get out of a car and enter a home in the Black Rock subdivision, said an Iron County public safety dispatcher who had permission to release some information but did not want her name published.
Officers from Cedar City contacted the FBI, whose nearest office is 60 miles south in Cedar City, and then went to the residence with officers from the Utah Highway Patrol, Iron County sheriff's office and Enoch, including a SWAT team, Kiernan said.
At the door, officers talked with a man and a woman, who provided conflicting information about their identities and why they were at the home, he said.
Initially, the pair refused to let officers search the home, although they later allowed a search by officers and police dogs, he said. During the search an undisclosed number of men, women and children, also exited the home, Kiernan said.
Several neighboring homes were temporarily evacuated.
One man and one woman taken into custody for questioning by the FBI, but were later released, Kiernan said.
This the second time in several weeks that a Jeffs sighting has been reported at the residence, the dispatcher said.
Kiernan did not have any information about an earlier Jeffs sighting.
Since 2002, Jeffs has been the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that believes plural marriage will guarantee its members eternal salvation. The church has an estimated membership of 10,000, based mostly in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., A small enclave of members also settled in Bountiful, British Columbia. There is also a 2,000 acre ranch and temple in Eldorado, Texas, where some say Jeffs has been in hiding.
A fugitive for more than two years, Jeffs is almost never seen publicly and authorities believe he has drained millions of dollars from the church's charitable trust to stay on the run.
Cedar City is about 220 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and about 60 miles northwest of Hildale.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
