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Faking your own Death......

Posted: 2002-10-12 04:59am
by MKSheppard
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,65441,00.html

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Fort Bragg soldier trying to stage his own disappearance searched the Internet for a man who looked like him and cut the man's throat, but the victim survived, police said.

The victim pulled the 8-inch knife from his throat, cut ropes around his hands and feet and fled, sheriff's Det. Barbara Davenport said.

Jonathan Meadows, a specialist assigned to the 37th Engineering Battalion, was charged with attempted murder and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Meadows spent weeks searching the Internet for someone who would be mistaken for himself, Davenport said. He was seeking men who were 5- foot-6, about 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Meadows found Stephen "Jeremy" Bowen about two weeks ago, lured him to his home, tied him up and cut his throat Sunday night, Davenport said. Bowen, 26, who suffered severe cuts to his larynx, ran to a neighbor's house. Meadows surrendered shortly after the attack, authorities said.

Meadows, whose age was not immediately available, said his plot was a way to get out of the Army, according to investigators. He was frustrated with the Army and depressed, Davenport said.

"He didn't want the Army looking for him," she said. "He didn't want his wife looking for him. He said he was going to assume a new identity. I think he thought it was set up so well that nobody would think it (the body) wasn't him."

Meadows and Bowen first met last week at a book store in Fayetteville for coffee. They met a second time Sunday at Meadows' home, Davenport said.

Cynthia Black, a public defender assigned to represent Meadows, wouldn't comment. Meadows' next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 24.

Meadows and his wife, Thea, separated last month, and she moved to Tennessee with their two girls, ages 3 and 7, authorities said.

Meadows joined the Army in 1999.

Posted: 2002-10-12 05:26am
by Darth Valdemar
What a fucktard. Couldn't he just have claimed he was gay?

Posted: 2002-10-12 05:49am
by EmperorMing
Depending on who your CO is, being gay will not automatically get you out...

Of course, I have seen it happen.

Posted: 2002-10-12 09:25am
by Stormbringer
But it's still a better plan than cutting a guys thoat to fake your won death. That thing sounds like a plot out of a really bad movie.

Posted: 2002-10-12 10:25am
by Mr Bean
umm you supposed to set the house on fire and leave the body there not cut the guys throat and let them fingerpring him :roll:

Posted: 2002-10-12 10:48am
by HemlockGrey
Wow. What a stupid ass. *I* could have pulled off a better stunt than that, and I'm half his age.

Posted: 2002-10-12 03:27pm
by Darth Eris
<snorts> Honestly. If you're going to fake your death by offing someone else, at least make sure your double is dead. Moron.

Posted: 2002-10-12 03:35pm
by Kelly Antilles
Great. I live way to close an idiot... and the rest of the crazies at Ft. Brag.

Posted: 2002-10-12 04:05pm
by IRG CommandoJoe
What a sicko. And a stupid one at that. It's amazing that guy survived a slit throat!

Posted: 2002-10-12 05:21pm
by Kuja
What a freaking psycho/idiot. Idiot cause he thought of the plan, and psycho cause he actually carried it out!

Posted: 2002-10-12 05:33pm
by Stormbringer
IRG CommandoJoe wrote:What a sicko. And a stupid one at that. It's amazing that guy survived a slit throat!
If he didn't cut the arteries then it survivable. Most likely the moron just cut the guys adam's apple and not all the way through.

Posted: 2002-10-12 09:07pm
by Ender
Jesus man, just keep going UA. Far easier way to get thrown out.

Posted: 2002-10-13 12:04am
by weemadando
Ha! What a laughable attempt.

I myself could have done better than that. No, really.

To start with I have a "supplier" of coroners certificates and doctors certificates of death.

But before you get to that stage, you'll need an alternate personality. First, choose a new name, it should be similar to your own so you can adapt to it quickly. Now onto an alternate identity. Start with a getting yourself a private mail-box somewhere. Then sign up for all the junk mail lists you can (Readers Digest and Time Magazine are great for this). To really get going you'll need a decent forgery of a birth certificate. And with the exception of a water mark the Australian birth certificate is remarkably easy. Then using this birth certificate and some of those lovely addressed junk mails open a bank account. With the new bank statements, your birth certificate and maybe some other bits and pieces of ID get yourself a drivers license. With a birth certificate and drivers license then go to the Tax Office and get a tax-file number (this will be the most risky part, as if you are about abotu 25 or so they might question why you don't already have one). Once you have that, it should be easy to start a new life, but now to stage your own death...

As I mentioned before, what you will need are some doctors and coroners certificates, preferably from somewhere you've never been and are not likely to ever return. With a carefully planned "accident" in a remote area and these "forged" papers supplied to the correct departments it should be fairly easy. But then again, faking your own death may result in a coroners enquiry which would lead to all sorts of embarrassing questions, like, just where is that body.

Your best bet? Get "abducted" on some lonely stretch of highway in central Australia, or simply go missing one day. Have that incarnation of yourself eventually disapper from memory, while you, with all your lovely new bits of ID etc move to some other part of the nation and establish yourself there, hoping against hope that noone from your home-town ever comes through.