Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Flora Jessop of the Child Protection Project in Phoenix contacted a member of his staff about a young girl who needed help.

The call, made on April 4, was turned over to Arizona Child Protective Services but they received "very imprecise" information about where the girl lived and what her situation was, Goddard said.

CPS employees, accompanied by deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office and the Colorado City Town Marshal's Office knocked on doors in the town, trying to find the girl, he said.

But they were unable to locate her or substantiate the abuse claim. "It was so nebulous they were checking lots of possibilities," Goddard said.

Jessop, who is a former member of the FLDS sect, declined to talk to a reporter Saturday night.

Texas officials still have not found the 16-year-old girl whom they say called a San Angelo family violence shelter at the end of March and described being physically and sexually abused at the sect's ranch by her much older husband. The girl also mentioned she feared a younger sister living elsewhere was about to be sent to Texas.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Friday they are looking for the girl among the 416 children taken from the sect's YFZ Ranch and now in state custody.

"I think she's amongst the women there," said Sandy resident Joni Holm, a member of Utah's Safety Net Committee, which works with social service providers and polygamous groups. "They just have to keep weeding through them."

The girl is likely not stepping forward "because she has threats against her extended family and part of it is her baby is actually being cared for by one of the other mothers [in Texas]. It's very difficult to run when you don't have your child to take with you."

The Arizona Republic reported Saturday that Michael Piccarreta, an attorney representing sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, believes the phone tip was "part of a ruse."

But Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff believes the girl is "real and needs to be found."

The girl's calls led to an unprecedented seven-day investigation at the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The children in custody, along with 139 mothers, are at two state facilities, awaiting a hearing Thursday.

Officials are lining up foster homes throughout Texas in case a judge orders that the children remain in state custody.

Goddard said that Arizona law, which is similar to Utah's law, would not allow such sweeping child-welfare action. First, an abuse allegation would have to be substantiated before any child was removed.

"We would have to find [a victim] before they started putting people in custody," he said.

If authorities found a child in an abusive situation, they could remove a child and his or her siblings. But Goddard said he couldn't think of "any circumstances where [a removal] would extend beyond the household."

Texas may allow exceptions in situations like that at the secluded YFZ Ranch, where children and women were routinely kept out of visitors' views.

"I could see why they would take a more stringent action there," Goddard said. Colorado City, Ariz., which adjoins Hildale, Utah, are home to the FLDS but are not isolated, controlled locales.

Arizona, like Utah, requires that a mandatory hearing be held within 72 hours of removing children from their homes. Texas allows an emergency hearing that is supposed to be held within 24 hours to be waived; Child Protective Services then has 14 days to finish its investigation and present it to a judge. In the FLDS case, that hearing is set for Thursday.

Shurtleff said that Texas appears to be preparing to make a case that polygamy is inherently an abusive situation for children. "We've just never concluded that in Arizona and Utah," he said.

While some child advocates have criticized Utah and Arizona officials for not doing enough to eliminate polygamy, Goddard said his state's efforts have brought a lot of change and more openness. "I know advocates are going to always be frustrated," he said. "They want all the leaders in jail and the community closed down."

But even polygamists have constitutional rights, he said.

brooke@sltrib.com

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* NATE CARLISLE contributed to this article.