Iowa survivalist wanted on child porn charges faked death, arrested in Spanaway 6 years later

SPANAWAY, Wash. — A survivalist from Des Moines, Iowa, who faked his own death nearly six years ago before fleeing the state to avoid a trial on child pornography charges, was arrested in the South Sound on Monday.

U.S. marshals in the Southern District of Iowa, working with the U.S. Marshals Montana Violent Offender Task Force, and U.S. marshals in the Western District of Washington, found and arrested 28-year-old Jacob Greer in Spanaway.

Greer is currently at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac and will be brought back to Des Moines, Iowa, to stand trial.

Immigration and customs officers arrested Greer in April 2016 on charges of receipt and possession of child pornography. He was released on bond the next day and was under pretrial supervision with an ankle monitor while living with his grandmother in Des Moines.

On May 31, 2016, Greer’s probation officer received an alert showing that Greer’s ankle monitor had been released. During a search, Greer’s vehicle was found with a suicide note inside, but his body was not found.

A federal arrest warrant for Greer was issued that day.

On June 8, 2016, the U.S. Forest Service discovered another vehicle associated with Greer in Tuchuck Campground in Flathead, Montana, but there was no sign of the fugitive.

Investigators found that Greer bought the car with $1,000 he borrowed from a friend and that he had fled Iowa with money, a bow, arrows, and a backpack full of survival gear, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of Iowa.

Greer was last seen wearing a camouflage hat at a Wal-mart in Kalispell, Montana on June 3, 2016.

During additional interviews, investigators learned that Greer was a survivalist and planned to live off the land in remote areas of the upper western states or southern Canada, hiding out in abandoned cabins.

“The arrest of Jacob Greer after six years is a testament to the tenacity of Deputy U.S. Marshals and our investigative partners,” said Ted Kamatchus, U.S. marshal for the Southern District of Iowa. “Even though the case went cold, they would not quit.”

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