After six years, a man who faked his death to avoid child porn charges has been arrested. Authorities announced they had caught the Iowa man who faked his suicide in 2016.
The US Marshals Service said that Jacob Greer, 28, was captured in Spanaway, Washington on Monday, six years after he removed an ankle bracelet and fled from Des Moines.
The arrest was called “a testament to the tenacity” of the department and other investigative agencies by US Marshal for the Southern District of Iowa, Ted Kamatchus.
“Even though the case went cold, they would not quit,” Kamatchus said.
At the time of his arrest, the statement said that Greer had been out on bail from an April 2016 arrest on charges of receipt and possession of child porn by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the statement, Greer was a “survivalist” who made plans to reside in abandoned cabins in remote areas of the Northwest US and Canada.
When he removed his GPS monitoring device and left a phony suicide note in his vehicle, the fugitive was staying with his grandmother. After taking a survival pack that included bows and arrows, authorities claim he borrowed $1,000 from a friend to purchase a car and escape.
A few days later, Greer’s new car was found ditched at a campground in Montana. Greer was spotted at a Walmart in Kalispell, Montana, wearing a camouflage hat on June 3, 2016.
During his years on the run, his actions or what led authorities to catch up with him are unclear.
The service said he was in federal custody in Seattle awaiting extradition to Des Moines to stand trial on Tuesday.