Wanted: Former Mormon missionary allegedly robs armored truck, kills guard
Solve This Crime 11/17/2015 4:11 pm PST
He looks like a California surfer, but Jason Derek Brown is one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives. Brown disappeared 12 years ago after allegedly killing an armored-truck guard in a a Phoenix robbery.
Crime Watch Daily traveled to Arizona to get the latest on the search for the Mormon missionary accused of the deadly ambush of a security guard in an execution-style murder.
On November 29, 2004, truck guard Robert Keith Palomares was cut down in front of a movie theater in Phoenix, shot six times: five bullets to the head.
The killer wanted money.
Palomares was the bag man in an armored car team. His job was to physically pick up money from businesses along his route. He usually had between 30 and 60 stops per day. He was a pro.
That morning everything went as usual. The driver dropped Palomares off, then kept watch for anything out of place. Palomares made his pickup at the box office of a movie theater. Everything seemed normal -- until he was shot. Palomares went down, never knowing what hit him.
The cowardly killer fled on a bicycle he had stashed in an alley next to the theater. Palomares lay where he fell, dead.
The killer disappeared. An urgent citywide search was launched in the air and on the ground. Back at the scene, cops noted the particular brutality of an attack that netted about $56,000.
Cops found the bicycle quickly, dumped in a bush not far from the crime scene.
In a huge break in the case, a fingerprint on the getaway bike led cops to their main suspect: Jason Derek Brown.
Brown grew up in a Mormon family in Southern California and did his Mormon mission in France. And then it seems he left the church and started living life in a much faster lane.
Brown chose partying over piety. And he made sure he had all the toys to live large: a BMW, an Escalade, ATVs. But there was one problem: Investigators say this high-roller was living a lie, that he committed bank fraud.
Cops tracked Brown to a hotel in Phoenix. They believed they had him cornered. Brown snuck out just as police moved in.
Brown slipped off the grid for a while, until the FBI got word that he might be back in California where he had family, hiding out. Warrant in hand, they planned to raid Brown's sister's house, but he slipped away. His vehicle was ultimately found in the Portland, Oregon international airport parking lot.
Twelve years later, authorities keep the files hot in Phoenix and have added Brown to the rogues gallery that is the FBI's Most Wanted List.
The FBI estimates there are something on the order of 800 to 1,000 tips related to Brown each and every year, more than 80 per month. The reality is police in Phoenix have no idea where he is. He could be living halfway around the world from here, or it's still possible that he's here in America, maybe living right next door to you.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $200,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Jason Derek Brown.
