GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—A Delta County sheriff’s official says he did not see anything suspicious when he visited a ranch owned by a member of a polygamist sect.
“What we saw was just a single-family residence,” Undersheriff Mark Taylor said of the Crawford-area ranch of Neph Barlow. “There was no suspicious activity at all. There was nothing for us to be concerned with.”
Barlow confirmed he is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon splinter group led by Warren Jeffs, County Commissioner Olen Lund said after Monday’s visit.
Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of being an accomplice to rape in an arranged marriage involving a 14-year-old girl.
Barlow’s neighbors alerted the FBI and Sheriff Fred McKee to the ranch after an FLDS compound in Texas was raided this month when a teen reported being abused by her 50-year-old husband.
Lund, Sheriff Fred McKee and Taylor visited Barlow’s 35-acre property at Barlow’s invitation.
“Basically, there’s a lot going on and wild speculation going on, and he asked us to come look at (the ranch) rather than having it continue or become to be built up bigger as a speculative thing,” Lund said.
Neither sheriff’s officials nor the FBI is investigating Barlow, FBI agent Jane Quimby said.
According to county assessor records, Barlow bought the property in mid-2007. McKee said Barlow told the county he plans to build two more single-family homes on the property sometime in the future.
Lund said Barlow told county officials he had grown up on a church compound in Colorado City, Ariz. “He introduced us to the kids and his wife,” Lund said.
