A wanted fugitive from Mississippi accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and previously believed to be dead may be in the Aurora, Colorado or Beaumont, Texas area, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Senior Inspector Katrina Crouse said 42-year-old Jacob Scott may be in the Denver metro area almost eight months after local authorities in the area believed he ended his life off the coast of Alabama. According to Crouse, Scott was due in court in Jackson County, Mississippi to plead guilty to 14 counts of sexual assault on a child and spend at least 20 years in prison when he died.
Scott’s suicide was suspicious, Crouse said. Scott allegedly shot himself with a gun in a small dinghy off the coast of Orange Beach, Alabama in July of last year. Local investigators found minimal blood – expected more – as well as no skin, bone or brain matter commonly associated with a suicide of that kind. Also, Crouse said, the gun was tied to the boat via string and Scott’s body was never found.
Per Crouse, the fact that the body was never found is especially strange. Local agencies, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, searched for Scott's body and never found it. Local authorities told Crouse that even bodies that’d been weighed down in that area of the Gulf eventually surface.
In addition, Crouse said Scott had pulled $45,000 from a retirement account.
“We have not gotten any reports of that money being distributed,” Crouse explained. Money like that would usually be given to family and friends – but it’s gone nowhere.
According to an August 2018 report from the Biloxi Sun-Herald, a warrant was issued for Scott - a military veteran - who'd been given time to have surgery before he was scheduled to plead guilty to charges related to sex crimes against a 14-year-old girl.
Investigators from Orange Beach, Alabama, told the paper they got a call at about 7 a.m. on July 30, 2018, about a boat drifting at sea.
“Marine units found the boat, found the note on it, and based on what we saw, we thought there might be a suicide,” Orange Beach Investigator Trent Johnson told the Sun-Herald.
Officers searched for him for a full week with air and water units before suspending their search for Scott. The day the search for Scott's body was ended - Aug. 7, 2018, a Jackson County judge issued an arrest warrant for him for failing to show up for a status hearing in his criminal case, the Sun-Herald reported.
According to another report from the paper, Scott was charged by a grand jury on 14 felony charges for having sex with a 14-year-old and also filming her "simulating sex." The crimes happened between Nov. 1, 2016, and Feb. 28, 2017, the paper says, citing court documents.
The Colorado District of the U.S. Marshals Service got a request to investigate a “collateral lead” from their opposites in Mississippi after a tip came in on Dec. 26, 2018 to Coastal Mississippi Crime Stoppers that Scott had been seen at the Golden Spike Apartments at West Yale Avenue and South Federal Boulevard several times. The tipster said he saw Scott go up to the eighth floor and on the first floor of the building.
Marshals in Colorado were asked to check out the Crime Stoppers lead and speak to Scott’s family in the Aurora area, Crouse said. She said her office tried to speak to the family but found them to be uncooperative.
On Feb. 20, the U.S. Marshals Service announced that Scott might be in the Beaumont, Texas, area, where his father lives.
Before going public with this information, Crouse said she spoke to local investigators in Mississippi and Alabama who thought the suicide was staged.
When marshals went out to the Golden Spike Apartments, construction workers in the area said they’d seen Scott hanging around the building.
Scott is not in custody. He is described as a white man, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 185 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair.
If you think you saw Scott or many know his whereabouts, please contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. You may be eligible for a cash reward up to $2,000.
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