SALT LAKE CITY – Polygamist leader Lyle Jeffs may not have escaped from home confinement, but was instead kidnapped or “experienced the miracle of rapture,” his lawyer raises as a possibility in a new court filing. 
 
 In a filing about whether to continue the food stamp fraud trial for 11 members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, Jeffs’ defense attorney said she can’t reach him to ask his input, and then slyly offered some alternative ideas to explain his fugitive status. 
 
 “As this Court is well aware, Mr. Jeffs is currently not available to inform his counsel whether or not he agrees to the Continuance. Whether his absence is based on absconding, as oft alleged by the Government in their filings, or whether he was taken and secreted against his will, or whether he experienced the miracle of rapture is unknown to counsel,” Kathryn Nester wrote. “However, his absence prevents counsel from obtaining his approval and thus further prevents counsel from filing a joinder with the Motion to Continue Current Trial Date in compliance with the local rules.” 
 
 Nester, who appeared to be kidding in the filing, told the judge she did not have an objection to delaying the trial. 
 
 Jeffs vanished from home confinement in June. FOX 13 first reported that FBI agents believe he used a substance like olive oil to slip out of a GPS monitoring device. In court on Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah conceded that Jeffs cannot be found. 
 
 The FLDS members are accused of ordering church members receiving Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to hand them over to the Bishop’s Storehouse. Federal prosecutors claim the proceeds were diverted and accuse Lyle Jeffs of using some of it to purchase a luxury car. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has alleged in court filings the scheme exceeded $12 million. 
 
 Read the filing by Lyle Jeffs’ attorney here: ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY -- The FBI is revealing how Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Lyle Jeffs managed to escape from custody. 
 
 "He used a substance which may have been olive oil to lubricate the GPS tracking band and slip it off his ankle," Eric Barnhart, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Salt Lake City field office of the FBI, said in an interview with FOX 13. "The damage to the bracelet was not such to trigger the full array of alarms that law enforcement or the U.S. Marshal's Service would have responded to." 
 
 Jeffs, a bishop in the FLDS Church, was released from jail last month by a federal judge after his trial on food stamp fraud and money laundering charges was delayed. He's among 11 people charged in a massive food stamp fraud scheme where prosecutors allege FLDS members were ordered to hand over food stamp benefits to leaders to do with as they wished. Prosecutors claim the scheme exceeds $12 million in taxpayer dollars. 
 
 Federal prosecutors tried to keep Jeffs in jail, arguing he was a flight risk. After U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart ordered Jeffs released, he was told to wear a GPS monitoring device and serve home confinement. Barnhart said FBI agents believe that at some point on June 18, Jeffs oiled himself up and slid out of the ankle bracelet. 
 
 "Checks were done with Mr. Jeffs and at some point, on the 18th, to a satisfactory level the bracelet was still intact where it was supposed to be," he told FOX 13. "The evening hours, though, that changed. Attempts were made to contact him to no avail. The next day he was found to be missing." 
 
 Jeffs was staying at a home in the northwest part of Salt Lake City. When FOX 13 visited the property, people who appeared to be members of the church -- girls wearing the distinctive prairie dresses and boys in long-sleeved shirts -- were outside. They ran inside. Neighbors said they have been living at the home for nearly a year now. 
 
 "A lot of polygamists coming and going," said Anthony Thomasson. 
 
 Barnhart said the night Jeffs vanished from the home, a newer-model Mustang pulled into the garage. 
 
 "The garage door went shut. At some point, that vehicle left. We don't know who was driving it, we weren't able to get a plate, we don't know who else was in that vehicle," he said. "If that happens to jog any memories, we just urge the public don't self-select, don't filter stuff out, contact us." 
 
 Thomasson told FOX 13 he saw a green-colored Mustang. 
 
 "You could see two people in the car. I waved at them, got a wave back like your neighbor, 'See you tomorrow,'" he said. "Then on the news it came out he fled." 
 
 The FBI said it has been in contact with people in the FLDS strongholds of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., about Jeffs and his whereabouts. Barnhart said he did not believe Jeffs would travel down there, given the scrutiny on the communities. Law enforcement in other states have said they have been on alert since Jeffs vanished; the FLDS Church has compounds in Pringle, South Dakota; Mancos, Colo.; and Bountiful, British Columbia in Canada. 
 
 Barnhart refused to say if FBI agents had questioned Lyle Jeffs' brother, imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving life in a Texas prison for child sex assault related to underage "marriages." 
 
 "We will take every investigative avenue that we think will bring Lyle Jeffs into custody," he said. "We'll just leave it at that." 
 
 The FBI said anyone with information on Lyle Jeffs' whereabouts is urged to call 801-579-1400.
– Lyle Jeffs' lawyer really wishes she could consult with him regarding a food stamp fraud trial involving 11 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Fox 13 reports. But the polygamist leader of the FLDS, who the New York Daily News notes had been under house arrest for allegedly stealing and laundering $12 million in government benefits, has been missing from home confinement since June, and said attorney is now offering some interesting possible explanations for his vanishing. In a Utah court filing Monday, Kathryn Nester concedes Jeffs may indeed be guilty of "absconding"—the FBI believes he may have used something slippery like olive oil to weasel his way out from under a GPS monitoring device—but she also threw out some other ideas. Nester said in the filing she's unsure if he fled of his own accord, whether he was kidnapped, or "whether he experienced the miracle of rapture." Both Fox 13 and the Daily News note her theories appear to be a joke and that she informed the judge she'd be OK with delaying the fraud trial, apparently even if her client has ascended into the clouds to meet the Lord.