FBI agents are seeking to add murderous polygamous family patriarch Ervil LeBaron's fugitive daughter to the agency's notorious Ten Most Wanted list, reinvigorating a decades-old manhunt.
Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron's name has been submitted to FBI headquarters for consideration the next time there's an opening on the list, said Shauna Dunlap, a special agent with the FBI's office in Houston.
"We know there are individuals that know where she is," she said Friday.
LeBaron, now 43, is wanted in connection with four murders in 1988 that were carried out simultaneously in the name of her father, polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron. She is the last of the LeBaron children wanted in the slayings.
In 2007, a man met her in Honduras where she was doing "missionary work," agents said, revealing to the Deseret News on Friday that she was not alone.
"She had a son," Dunlap said. "That's something we hadn't known before."
LeBaron's child would be about 12 now. That information came from the same man who provided a recent photograph of LeBaron to the FBI. Tips that continue to trickle in have not panned out, Dunlap said, but the FBI believes LeBaron is still in Latin America. She is fluent in both English and Spanish and has worked in the past as a teacher.
"The information we had recently does point to Mexico, Honduras and other Spanish-speaking countries," Dunlap said.
On June 27, 1988, at approximately 4 p.m., four killings took place simultaneously in Houston and Irving, Texas. All of the victims were shot in the head, including an 8-year-old girl who witnessed her father's murder.
The deaths are believed to be connected to Ervil LeBaron's scriptures that preached "blood atonement" to those who broke the commandments of his Church of the Lamb of God. Some have called it a "hit list." Ervil LeBaron ordered the assassination of rival polygamous leader Rulon C. Allred in 1977, seeking to unite all of Utah's polygamous sects under one umbrella. LeBaron and members of his family were eventually captured and convicted. He died in the Utah State Prison of a heart attack in 1981.
In the years following his death, there were a series of slayings, suspicious deaths and disappearances involving as many as 30 former church members. In 1992, six members of the LeBaron family were indicted by a Houston grand jury on charges of murder, conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs and racketeering. Five were convicted.
"She's the only remaining fugitive in this investigation," said Dunlap.
Ex-members say some still live in fear of Ervil LeBaron's infamous "hit list."
"There are a few people who feel that way because Ervil left strict orders for certain people to be killed if they didn't adhere to his plans," said Irene Spencer, who was the second wife of Verlan LeBaron. He died in a car crash in Mexico the same day that his brother Ervil died in prison.
Some say it was no coincidence. Spencer said she and her former husband were on the list and she hid in Nicaragua for a time. Some are still in hiding.
"I just had a niece of mine that called. I haven't talked to her in 15 years," Spencer said Friday. "My daughter said, 'Where are you living now?' She said, 'I can't tell anyone where I live, I'm afraid of Ervil and his group.' "
Spencer, a born-again Christian whose memoir "Shattered Dreams" became a best-seller, is set to publish a book about Ervil LeBaron and the murders later this year. She's titled it "Cult of Insanity: Polygamy, Prophets and Blood Atonement."
Spencer no longer believes she's a target and said she hasn't seen or heard from Jacqueline LeBaron since Ervil was alive.
"My heart aches for all these people," she said of LeBaron's children. "But at the same time they deserve to be punished because they chose to follow him. But Ervil is really the culprit. He took these children, brainwashed them and made them soldiers with guns."
The FBI said it has no information that the rumored hit list is active — but the agency also has no information it isn't.
"We are actively pursuing this investigation and trying to locate her so we can put everyone's fears to rest about Jacqueline LeBaron and her history," Dunlap said.
A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to LeBaron's capture. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact their local FBI office or U.S. consulate.
E-MAIL: bwinslow@desnews.com