 SALT LAKE CITY — Lyle Jeffs, the acting leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church and a defendant in a far-reaching fraud case, likely used olive oil as a lubricant to slip out of his ankle monitor and flee federal authorities' reach last month, the FBI said Monday. Neighbors also said the garage door closed, and sometime later the Mustang left the residence, she said. Witnesses saw the vehicle leave the residence later that night, though they "could not identify who was in the car," she said. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart released him June 9 in advance of his criminal trial, which was slated to begin in October, on the condition that he live in Salt Lake County, wear a GPS monitor and refrain from all contact with any witnesses, victims or co-defendants in the case. Jeffs, who is believed to be running the FLDS Church on behalf of his imprisoned brother Warren Jeffs, was released after defense attorney Kathryn Nester argued it would violate his rights to hold him in custody until his trial. Leroy Jeffs, an estranged son of Warren Jeffs, said at the time of Lyle Jeffs' arrest that it was "a given" his uncle would flee authorities if granted bail. Yi Barker urged anyone with information on Lyle Jeffs' whereabouts to call the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office at 801-579­-1400 or a local FBI office.
– The brother of jailed polygamous Mormon sect leader Warren Jeffs is on the run from the FBI after using "some sort of lubrication, possibly olive oil," to wriggle out of his ankle monitor, say police. Lyle Jeffs, one of 11 leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints facing fraud and money-laundering charges, had been ordered to remain at his Salt Lake City home except for work, medical appointments, and court hearings, says the FBI. However, a warrant was issued for his arrest last month when the 56-year-old leader vanished from his home. Investigators say a Ford Mustang pulled into Jeffs' garage around 10:30pm on June 18, then left later that night, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. The next day, agents found the GPS monitor but couldn't locate Jeffs. "He used a substance which may have been olive oil to lubricate the GPS tracking band and slip it off his ankle," an agent tells Fox 13. "The damage to the bracelet was not such to trigger the full array of alarms that law enforcement or the US Marshal's Service would have responded to." A judge ordered Jeffs be released from jail on June 9 when his trial for a $12 million food stamp fraud and money-laundering scheme was delayed. Prosecutors—who say food stamps were cashed at sect-owned stores and the money diverted to the church—had argued Jeffs was a flight risk. "Blame the judge for this," one of Jeffs' half-brothers tells the Tribune. "Everybody knew that he was going to do this." Jeffs, who surrendered his passport, could be hiding in FLDS havens in the US, Canada, or South America, reports the Deseret News.