Authorities in Mesquite are denying an Internet rumor they missed an opportunity to catch one of America’s most wanted fugitives.
Federal agents have linked Utah polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs to the town in Northern Clark County, on the Utah state line.
Jeffs is on the FBI’s ten-most-wanted list. He’s wanted for child rape and for running a cult that forced young girls to marry older men.
Jeff’s has been featured on the television show America’s Most Wanted on Sunday.
An investigation by NBC news affiliate KSL TV in Salt Lake City found Jeffs has ownership interest or connections to construction companies in Mesquite. But police say there’s no proof Jeffs — or was — in town.
Chief Douglas Law, Mesquite Police Department, “But no one here ever saw him here. It just came from other sources that suspected that.”
Police do say there are several dozen followers of Jeffs’ cult living and working in Mesquite.