[A] man who was convicted along with a one-time lawmaker more than four decades ago in what started as an insurance scam that turned into a murder has been arrested in Oregon for fleeing Vermont while still serving a sentence on furlough.
James Joseph Rivers, 55, was taken into custody by authorities last week in Cottage Grove, Oregon. According to court records, the Vermont Department of Corrections obtained a warrant for his arrest in June 2016 for escaping from furlough.
For at least the last six months, according to authorities, Rivers had been living out of his minivan under a fake name.
He is now locked up in an Oregon jail after his nearly two years on the lam. It’s unclear when he’ll be returning to Vermont. He does not yet have a listed attorney.
“It’s certainly good to see this has been resolved,” Michael Barron, supervisor of the warrant division with the U.S. Marshals Service in Vermont, said Monday.
“Sometimes these investigations take a couple of days, sometimes they take a couple months, sometimes a couple years,” Barron said. “It all depends on a number of factors.”
Before fleeing Vermont, court records stated, Rivers was under corrections supervision for several convictions, including second-degree murder, disturbing the peace, two sex crimes as well as a previous offense of escaping from furlough.
His whereabouts were unknown for almost two years prior to his arrest Wednesday, though he is required to register as a sex offender in Vermont.
Rivers was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the 1984 death of Rene Savage Jr. in St. Johnsbury.
According to a report from The Associated Press at that time, Rivers was hired by Gregory Reed, a former legislator, to help carry out a scam to burn down a St. Johnsbury building Reed owned to defraud an insurance company.
Savage was killed, according to the report, to keep him from going to police about the planned fraud. Reed had been one of the youngest people to serve in the Vermont Legislature, elected at age 18 in the early 1970s.
Reed was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for his role in Savage’s death. Rivers received a sentence of 12 to 50 years behind bars.
Rivers has since been released from jail on that murder charge and had since been convicted of others crimes in Vermont, including being found guilty in June 2009 of engaging in a prohibited act and attempting to lure a 12-year-old girl, according to court records.
He was sentenced on those offenses to up to three years in jail, and required to register as a sex offender.
It’s not clear from court records why Rivers fled to Oregon.
The U.S. Marshals Service in Burlington “developed information” that Rivers was living in Cottage Grove, Oregon, under an alias and contacted authorities in Eugene, Oregon, for assistance, according to court records filed in federal court in Oregon last week.
Barron, of the U.S. Marshals Service in Vermont, said Monday he could not comment specifically on what information led them to Rivers in Oregon.
“This was a lengthy investigation,” Barron did say. “There were a lot of things that had to be ruled in and ruled out over time.”
One of things that had to be ruled out, he added, was a rumor of Rivers’ death.
Bryon Carroll of the U.S. Marshals Service in Oregon wrote in an affidavit that he confirmed that Rivers had been living in the Cottage Grove area, and was using the fake name of Jason Jay Rush.
Carroll wrote that three people provided information about Rivers and his time at Cottage Grove, all providing different estimates for how long he lived in the area, from five to eight months.
According to those individuals, who were not named in the filing, Rivers shared stories of being from Vermont and the East Coast.
Rivers had been living out of a minivan that he parked at different locations in and around Cottage Grove, and he rode a bicycle around town, the federal agent said.
In addition, he attended a local church, worked various jobs and also had a social media account in the name of Jason Jay Rush.
Carroll wrote that he saw the minivan believed to be one belonging to Rivers around 7 p.m. Wednesday and “continued to surveil” the vehicle as it parked near a house close to Cottage Grove.
As Rivers got of the vehicle, Carroll wrote that he, along with other local officers, took him into custody at gunpoint. Inside the minivan, according to the affidavit, authorities found a “sleeping surface,” a pillow, blankets and other personal items.
“Rivers made multiple comments that suggested the wrong person had been arrested,” the agent wrote. “Rivers confirmed a recent photo was of him but suggested a confirmed photo of Rivers was not of him. At the time of his arrest, Rivers had no photo identification.”
After he was booked into jail, the affidavit stated, fingerprints confirmed Rivers’ true identity.
Authorities say they expect Rivers will face an additional federal charge of failing to register as a sex offender. His maximum release date on the state convictions in Vermont, according to state corrections officials, is April 14, 2026.
