Local and federal law enforcement agencies are hunting a fugitive with "close ties with domestic extremists," the FBI said Tuesday.
Jennifer Ann McTigue — formerly Jennifer Lowe — might still be in the islands, possibly driving a silver Honda Pilot, according to the FBI, which is searching for McTigue along with the U.S. Marshals Service and Honolulu police. McTigue spent most of her life in Hawaii Kai and Aina Haina and has "deep social and family ties to the local community," the FBI said.
McTigue, 48, also has "close ties" with the often violent Sovereign Citizens Movement, which FBI spokesman Tom Simon described as "a loosely knit network of people who believe the laws of the U.S. do not apply to them. It has nothing to do with Hawaiian sovereignty."
In 2014, McTigue was indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and fraud charges relating to an alleged $3 million scheme to defraud new homeowners, title companies and banks in a complex real estate scheme.
She had been out on bond awaiting a federal trial scheduled for July 20. But McTigue failed to report to her pretrial services officer and has not been seen since she was spotted near Kahala Mall on June 30.
There is no record that McTigue left Oahu on a commercial flight. Her 2004 silver Honda Pilot with license plate NGP-809 also is missing.
Her last known address was an apartment at 500 University Ave.
She is described as Caucasian, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 155 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She is also a fitness enthusiast and outrigger canoe paddler.
The FBI said "it is possible that fellow extremists may be assisting in her evasion of justice."
Anyone with information about McTigue’s location is asked to call the Honolulu FBI office at 566-4300 or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
Tipsters can also contact CrimeStoppers by calling *CRIME on their cellphone. Anonymous texts can be sent to CrimeStoppers by texting "CS808" — plus a message — to 274637 or CRIMES.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the roots of the Sovereign Citizens Movement began with racist, anti-Semitic sentiments and has been growing at a rapid pace since the late 2000s.
Followers "hold truly bizarre, complex anti-government beliefs," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Sovereigns believe that they — not judges, juries, law enforcement or elected officials — get to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore, and they don’t think they should have to pay taxes."
The movement has no central leadership or organization to join. But followers have become violent when confronted by law enforcement.
Among several fatal encounters between law enforcement and Sovereign Citizens Movement followers, Carl Drega shot and killed two officers and two civilians and wounded three more officers in 1997 in New Hampshire before he was killed.
In 1997 brothers Doug and Craig Broderick were pulled over in Idaho for a traffic violation, then killed one officer and wounded another before the brothers were killed in a shootout.
Several more killings followed.
And in May 2010 father and son sovereign movement followers Jerry and Joseph Kane shot and killed two West Memphis, Ark., police officers who had pulled them over during a traffic stop, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The father and son were later killed in a shootout that also wounded two more officers.
