The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward as federal law enforcement officials step up efforts to recapture Lyle Steed Jeffs, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Lyle Jeffs, 56, fled confinement in Salt Lake City sometime over the weekend of June 18 – 19 and an arrest warrant was issued by a federal judge that Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Jeffs has been on the lam since June after slipping out of his Global Positioning System ankle monitor and escaping home confinement in Salt Lake City. Jeffs has been on the lam for 10 weeks after slipping out of his Global Positioning System ankle monitor and escaping home confinement in Salt Lake City while awaiting trial on food stamp fraud charges.
Jeffs apparently used olive oil to slip off his Global Positioning System ankle monitor just days after a federal judge released him from custody June 9 over prosecutors’ objections.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart said Jeffs was seen in July in the Short Creek area where the polygamous twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, are located.
Investigators also believe Jeffs had a rift with his brother Warren Jeffs, who is considered the FLDS prophet and is serving a life prison sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting two underage brides.
“It could possibly be a fracturing of the leadership”, Barnhart said, noting that Lyle Jeffs still has followers willing to keep him concealed. Jeffs is the de facto leader of the (FLDS), an unacknowledged offshoot of the Mormon Church. The FBI office in Salt Lake City takes calls at its Major Case Contact Center at 1-800-225-5324.
He and 10 other sect members were arrested in February on accusations of diverting at least $12 million worth of federal benefits. All the defendants have pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges.
“When somebody has folks willing to hide them, you can stay hidden for a while”, Barnhart said.
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Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the nearest Federal Bureau of Investigation field office or American Embassy or Consulate.
