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Federal marshals have arrested an Iowa man in Washington state who has been on the run for six years after he allegedly faked his own death to avoid a trial for child pornography.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal marshals have arrested an Iowa, Washington man who has been on the run for six years after he allegedly faked his own death to avoid a trial for child pornography.
Jacob Greer, 28, was arrested Monday in Spanaway, Wash., U.S. Marshals for the Southern District of Iowa said in a news release.
Greer was living in Des Moines in April 2016 when he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for possession of child pornography, federal officials said. He was released on bail after this arrest and ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor while under pre-trial surveillance.
About a month later, officials learned that Greer’s ankle monitor had been removed, and a search revealed Greer’s vehicle with a suicide note inside. When no body was found, a federal arrest warrant was issued.
In June 2016, the U.S. Forestry Service found another vehicle at a Montana campground that investigators said Greer had purchased and used to escape Iowa, along with cash, a bow and arrow, and a backpack full of survival gear.
Investigators said Greer was a survivalist and believed he intended to live off the land in remote areas of the northwestern United States or southern Canada, hiding in abandoned cabins.
Greer was being held at the federal detention center in Seattle on Thursday and is expected to be brought to Des Moines for trial, the statement said.
