More people removed from Texas polygamist ranch

By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas officials removed more people on Sunday from a ranch belonging to a breakaway Mormon sect linked to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs but have yet to find a young woman whose complaints sparked the raids.

"No arrests have been made and we are still trying to find this young woman," Allison Palmer, a local prosecutor from a nearby county handling the case, told Reuters by telephone.

"The young lady made more than one call seeking assistance. She is a young, underage mother with an older husband," she said.

Authorities said that she may be among the scores of people who have already been taken from the compound.

Local media reported that more people had been removed on Sunday from the ranch in a semi-arid area 120 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Palmer could not say how many had now been removed. Texas Child Protective Services had said that as of late Saturday 183 people had been removed, consisting of 137 children and 46 women, but would not say if they were taken from the ranch or whether they had left voluntarily.

Texas authorities descended on the ranch this week in response to allegations that a middle-aged man there had married and fathered a child with an underage girl.

An official at the sheriff's department in the nearby town of Eldorado told Reuters that police were working at the compound around the clock in shifts. There have been no reports of violence or resistance from residents.