Des Moines man who faked own death to avoid prison sentenced to 20 years on child exploitation charges

The 27-year-old was originally arrested in 2016, but evaded punishment for years by faking his own death.

According to the Department of Justice, in addition to time behind bars, Greer was required to register as a sex offender, and ordered to pay $12,000 to victims of the illicit material he collected. He will also be subject to five years of supervised release after his sentence has been served.

The DOJ explained that upon being arrested in 2016 following an inquiry by Homeland Security Investigations, Greer was released pending trial. Instead of showing up as planned, he concocted an elaborate scheme with the goal of convincing authorities he was dead. Greer left a suicide note near his car, which he abandoned near a lake, and fled the state.

Police caught up to Greer in April 2022 and arrested him in Spanaway, Washington.

According to the DOJ, Greer "received, possessed, and distributed child pornography on the internet over several years," and attempted to avoid detection by storing the material on the cloud. Nonetheless, authorities were still able to locate illicit material on devices they seized from him during the execution of a search warrant in February 2015.

"Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our law enforcement partners, including the United States Marshals' Fugitive Task Force," said US Attorney Richard D. Westphal, "sex offender Jacob Greer failed in his attempt to avoid accountability for these serious charges involving the exploitation of children."

Greer's arrest was just one of many carried out by those involved in Project Hydra, a "joint task force investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the York, Ottawa Regional Police in Ontario, Canada targeting persons who produce and distribute child pornography on the internet case."