Heber Jeffs has been arrested and faces charges of kidnapping his 10-year-old niece.
Mr Jeffs is the nephew of the jailed Utah polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heber Jeffs will be sent back to Utah following a court hearing on Monday during which he waived extradition after he was arrested in North Dakota, according to the Associated Press.
He was detained on Saturday by federal agents who tracked him to Minot, a town in the northern part of the state.
Sheriff Marty Gleave of Piute County, Utah, said authorities don’t know why he was there and that he was arrested following a search warrant being executed at a residence. The sheriff said the child was unharmed.
“Homeland Security is trying to arrange to get her back here and reunite with her mother,” he said, according to the AP.
Mr Jeffs was taken to Ward County Jail, Sheriff Bob Roed said. It remains unclear if he has retained an attorney.
In December, charges of kidnapping were filed in Utah against Mr Jeffs. At the time, authorities said he had disappeared along with his niece, seemingly in an effort to keep the child away from her mother following instructions from Warren Jeffs in his Texas prison.
Legal documents state that Heber Jeffs had the child at his Kingston, Utah, home after his uncle had said months previously that he had got a revelation from God telling his followers to “gather” the women in the community “and prepare to move to a location or locations as directed by Warren Jeffs” or Helaman Jeffs, his son.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was created after the group left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church.
While the larger church left polygamy behind more than a hundred years ago, the smaller version still espouses the practice.
The church has historically been based in a small town located on the border between Utah and Arizona.
Warren Jeffs is jailed for life at a federal prison in Texas after he was convicted of child sexual abuse charges connected to underage marriages but he still serves as the prophet for the small religious group.
Heber Jeffs and his wife Sara have taken care of their niece following the split of her parents when she was an infant, according to prosecutors.
The child’s mother, Rose Jeffs, is no longer a member of the group. She was allowed to visit her child regularly but her full access was revoked in August when Heber Jeffs said she was no longer allowed to see her daughter.
The legal filings note the revelation as being a major reason for the change. Court filings also state that Ms Jeffs then demanded the return of her child, to which Mr Jeffs said he would cease communicating with her.
An arrest warrant was issued when law enforcement started looking for Mr Jeffs, and he wasn’t found at his home or where he had worked.
In a statement shared with The Independent on Friday, the Ward County Sheriff’s Department said that on 11 February, Mr Jeffs “was booked into the Ward County Detention Center on a Piute County, State of Utah arrest warrant for the crime of Child Kidnapping,” which the office noted is a first-degree felony.
The office added that on 13 February, Mr Jeffs “appeared before Ward County District Court Judge Todd Cresap regarding extradition back to the State of Utah. Mr Jeffs waived extradition back to Piute County. Piute County has been advised Mr Jeffs is in custody and awaiting transfer”.
They said that “the Ward County Sheriff’s Department does not have any further information to release concerning his arrest, the victim, or any other details pertaining to the investigation” and that the department “was not involved in his arrest and transport to the Ward County Detention Center”.
The Independent has reached out to the Sheriff’s Office in Piute County, Utah for comment.
