Feds: We Caught Man Who Faked His Own Death in 2016

Jacob Greer arrested six years after allegedly writing a suicide note
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2022 12:53 PM CDT
Iowa Man Left a Suicide Note. But He Wasn't Dead
A wanted poster showing Jacob Greer.   (US Marshals Service via KXLH)

An Iowa man who "faked his own death" to avoid standing trial on child pornography charges has been arrested some six years after the fact, authorities say. "The arrest of Jacob Greer after six years is a testament to the tenacity of Deputy US Marshals and our investigative partners," Ted Kamatchus, US marshal for the Southern District of Iowa, says in a release, per the Washington Post. "Even though the case went cold, they would not quit." The 28-year-old Greer had been out on bond for a month, living with his grandmother in Des Moines, when authorities say he removed his ankle monitor on May 31, 2016.

Authorities eventually came upon his car, with what looked to be a suicide note inside. But they weren't convinced Greer was dead. A federal arrest warrant was issued and within a week, investigators discovered Greer had fled the state "with money, a bow, arrows and a backpack full of survival gear," according to the release. Investigators also "learned Greer was a survivalist and had plans to live off the land in remote areas of the upper western states or southern Canada, hiding out in abandoned cabins."

They traced another of his vehicles to a secluded campground in northern Montana, not far from the US-Canada border and a Walmart where Greer had been spotted on June 3, 2016, per the AP. But it was nearly six years before the man himself was ultimately found. He was arrested Monday in Spanaway, Wash., just south of Tacoma, according to the US Marshals Service. He's now being held at a federal detention center in Seattle ahead of his extradition to Iowa, where he is to stand trial on charges that he knowingly received child pornography between June 2013 and November 2014. (More faked death stories.)

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