Polygamist Fugitive May Have Been 'Raptured': Attorney

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. (More FLDS stories.)