Lawyer suggests fugitive polygamist Mormon sect leader was kidnapped, or maybe scooped up to heaven

Lyle Jeffs, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fugitive

(Image credit: Davis County Jail via AP)

last updated 31 August 2016

In June, a federal judge ordered Lyle Jeffs, a reputed leader of a polygamist Mormon sect in Colorado and Utah, released from jail under supervised house arrest, over objections from federal prosecutors. Two weeks later, Jeffs was gone, leaving behind a greased-up ankle monitoring bracelet. His court-appointed lawyer, Kathryn Nester, told the court last week that she doesn't know where Jeffs is, but she did have some creative suggestions, as found in court documents by The Washington Post:

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. [via The Washington Post]

"Rapture, for the uninitiated," explains Cleve Woodson Jr. at The Washington Post, "is the Christian belief that during the second coming of Christ, the holy will be whisked away to heaven." The FBI doesn't find either alternative explanation for Jeffs' disappearance plausible, and on Monday it issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Jeffs — a brother of Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) — and 10 other FLDS members were arrested in February on charges that they fraudulently diverted $12 million in food stamps an other federal benefits. The FLDS, a rogue offshoot of the Mormon church, practices polygamy, and Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence after being convicted of child rape.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.