A Maine man who allegedly pretended he was paralyzed for more than a decade to get federal veterans benefits and is alleged to have faked his own drowning after he learned he was being investigated was arrested last week in Missouri.

Gregory Heimann, 51, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in La Plata, Missouri, on Thursday, ending his run from federal law enforcement more than a year after his disappearance in April 2024 triggered a major search in eastern Maine.

Heimann was charged with making false statements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He convinced doctors that he had been injured during his time in the Army in the 1990s as part of a yearslong effort to convince doctors he could not walk, according to an affidavit filed in support of his arrest that lays out an

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