Tuesday, July 12, 2016 08:29AM
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KTRK) — Olive oil, the FBI says, helped the polygamist leader of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints escape authorities.
FBI special agent-in-charge Eric Barnhart told station KSTU that Lyle Jeffs used the substance to slip the device off his ankle and escape home confinement.
Jeffs was released from jail last month after his trial on food stamp fraud and money laundering charges was delayed.
The judge ordered him to serve home confinement at a Salt Lake City home and wear a GPS monitoring device. The FBI believes on June 18, he oiled himself up and slid out of it.
Jeffs’ alleged move didn’t trigger alarms.
Neighbors say members of the FLDS church have been living in the home for almost a year. The FBI says the night Jeffs vanished, a Mustang pulled up the home.
Barnhart said, “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 the vehicle.”
The FBI is asking for information about Jeffs or the vehicle.
The FBI says Jeffs has bodyguards and is considered armed and dangerous. The agency refuses to say whether it has questioned his brother, imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.