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Fake Will Case Leads to Exhumation, Inquiry Into Death

2 min read

A Ouachita County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday granted a request to exhume the body of Matthew Seth Jacobs, who died in a one-vehicle wreck in January 2015 and whose fortune was stolen after a Camden real estate agent faked his will.

Judge Edwin Keaton found “reasonable cause exists to believe” that Jacobs’ death “occurred under circumstances contrary” to that of the auto accident and bodily trauma. His order authorized the Arkansas State Police to exhume Jacobs’ remains and the state medical examiner to perform an autopsy.

Jacobs had survived the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010 and received a settlement in that case. His estate was valued at $1.7 million.

Prosecuting Attorney John Thomas Shepherd requested the exhumation in a document filed earlier on Tuesday. He noted that no autopsy had been performed on Jacobs and that since then, “law enforcement has developed information providing reasonable cause” that Jacobs’ death might not have been because of the wreck.

“In addition to the information developed by law enforcement, decedent’s family also desires and has consented to the exhumation and autopsy of decedent’s remains,” Shepherd wrote.

The move comes weeks after a former Camden real estate agent and her 22-year-old daughter pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to Jacobs’ fake will. Donna Herring pleaded guilty Jan. 26 in U.S. District Court in El Dorado to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and her daughter, Jordan Alexandra “Alex” Peterson, pleaded guilty Thursday to making a false statement to the FBI.

Herring admitted to creating a will after Jacobs’ death. The fake will left nearly all of Jacobs’ assets to Peterson, with whom Jacobs had had a romantic relationship, instead of to his only child.

When FBI investigators first questioned Herring in July 2016, she first “denied knowing that the will was fraudulent,” her plea agreement said. “However, Herring later admitted that she knew the will was fraudulent.”

Last year, Ouachita County Circuit Judge Spencer Singleton threw out the fake will in a probate case, which paved the way for the son, Jordan Jacobs, to receive his father’s estate.

Herring faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She also agreed to forfeit a 2012 Lexus she received from the proceeds of Jacobs’ estate. Peterson faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date hasn’t been set in either case.

On the night of Jan. 19, 2015, Jacobs was believed to be on his way to visit a girlfriend, according to a lawsuit filed in August 2016 in Ouachita County Circuit Court on behalf of Jacobs’ estate by attorney Bruce Tidwell of Little Rock.

At 9 p.m., driving a two-door, 2005 Chrysler Crossfire on Highway 79, Jacobs lost control, crossed the oncoming lanes of traffic and, without braking, slammed into a tree, according to a traffic report from the Arkansas State Police that was included in a probate filing. Jacobs, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene.

Jacobs’ remains are interred at Bethesda Cemetery in Ouachita County.

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