Mississippi man who reportedly faked his own suicide to avoid rape charges indicted in federal court
Published 11:48 am Friday, February 4, 2022
A man who allegedly faked his own death in 2018 to avoid rape charges in Jackson County is now facing new federal charges.
Jacob Blair Scott, 43, is wanted for allegedly faking his own death to avoid prosecution for raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter.
Scott faces three federal charges after being indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Those charges are false communications of a distress, illegal shipment and transportation of a firearm by a person under indictment, and false information and hoaxes.
Authorities say he tried to make it look like he committed suicide so that he could evade more than a dozen charges against him, including 14 counts of sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl. Just days before he was set to plead guilty to those charges, Scott vanished.
On July 30, 2018, investigators found his abandoned dinghy floating off the coast of Orange Beach, Ala. They searched it and found a gun and suicide note with contact information for Scott’s family, according to U.S. Marshals.
Authorities later learned that Scott had withdrawn $45,000 from a bank account before he disappeared.
Soon after U.S. Marshals added Scott to their 15 Most Wanted fugitives list, a tipster called the Pushamataha Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma and said a man fitting the description of Scott was staying in a nearby mobile home park.
U.S. Marshals with the Eastern District of Oklahoma and Pushamataha Sheriff’s deputies later descended upon the mobile home park and located the camper Scott was allegedly living in. After several calls to come out, Scott exited the camper, but refused to acknowledge he was the fugitive. He finally admitted to his identity after authorities verified his tattoos. He was then taken into custody.