An Indiana man is not only accused of lying twice to authorities, but it’s also alleged, he faked his own death to avoid paying child support. That man, Jeffrey Bell Jr., from Salem, IN, was arrested in January this year and is currently held on related charges.
According to the Indiana State Police, it began in April last year, when an Indiana Washington County child support administrator contacted law enforcement and said she received several emails claiming Bell Jr. was dead, and as a result, Bell Jr.’s significant child support payments would go unpaid. Bell Jr. also reportedly mentioned he died in a Facebook post.
That child support administrator contacted the police because she suspected Bell Jr., 51, was alive and well, and after an investigation, police tracked Bell to his girlfriend’s house, only miles away from where he once lived.
Bell Jr. denied it was him
When police arrived at Bell Jr.’s girlfriend’s home, however, he didn’t take the chance to come clean. Instead, he said he was someone else. Still, authorities identified Bell Jr. and initially charged him with falsely informing the child support administrator he was dead. Bell Jr. was ordered to appear in court on Jan. 23 this year, but he told the judge he would be out of state and would need to attend the hearing virtually, which he did.
This would be the third lie Bell Jr. told, all in an apparent effort to leave his parental duties unfulfilled: During the hearing, authorities figured out he was not only in the state, but he was attending the hearing virtually from his girlfriend’s home. The judge ordered Bell Jr. arrested and brought to the courtroom immediately. In addition to false informing, Bell Jr. is also now charged with three counts of failure to appear in court and he is currently held at the Washington County Jail in Indiana on a $100,000 bond. He’s expected in court on Feb. 6 with a trial expected to begin in May.
An other Deadbeat skips out on child support, takes a cruise

In other deadbeat dad news, about a month before Bell Jr.’s arrest, Dominic Weaver, from Kentucky, who authorities say owes more than $100,000 in back child support, was arrested exiting a cruise ship in Miami in December after spending 10 years on the run, according to Louisville’s WDRB. No word yet on where Weaver’s cruise went, but if he had the money to pay for the trip, he had the money to support his children.
“I don’t know when he left, but he fled the jurisdiction,” Kentucky Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell said of the case after Weaver’s arrest, “and from the date of his sentence until today, and even today, he’s not paid one cent of child support … This is one of the most egregious events that brings something to light that I think I’ve ever seen,” McConnell said.
Published: Jan 30, 2025 11:53 pm