Man urged to turn himself in after allegedly faking his death to avoid jail for child rape
A Mississippi woman is urging her ex-husband to turn himself in after he allegedly faked his own death last summer to avoid being imprisoned for sexually assaulting and impregnating his 14-year-old stepdaughter. Jacob Blair Scott, 42, was expected to plead guilty before police in Alabama found his abandoned dinghy offshore in July.
"Please, just do the right thing for once and turn yourself in," the woman told the Biloxi Sun Herald in an interview published Monday. "(My daughter) deserves justice, Jacob. You've done enough. Please, please turn yourself in and do the right thing."
The newspaper wasn't identifying the mother to protect the teenager's identity. The woman told the paper she was married to Scott for 10 years and filed for divorce the day after he was arrested.
The U.S. Marshals Service has been looking for Scott and recently received a tip that he was seen in the Denver area, where his mother, brother and sister live, according to KMGH-TV. Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Katrina Crouse said Tuesday the agency has been receiving additional tips through the area's Crime Stoppers organization.
"We have and are still actively investigating these tips but nothing substantial has been received yet," Crouse said in an email. "We believe he could be anywhere at this time."
Scott was described as a white man who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 185 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes. People who see him are urged to contact law enforcement immediately.
Scott's boat was found floating about a mile off the Alabama coast in July. Police found a small-caliber handgun tied to the boat and a note that read "I'm sorry" with his Social Security number and his mother's name and phone number, the Sun Herald reported.
His ex-wife told the newspaper that she knew he was on the run when his body wasn't found after a weeklong search in the Gulf of Mexico. "He wasn't the type of person to own up when he did something wrong," she told the paper. "He said he'd never go to prison."
