The long arm of the law finally caught up with an Oregon fugitive in Middle Georgia this week, 30 years after he escaped from a prison work detail. The U.S. Marshals Service, Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force (USMS SERFTF) arrested 70-year-old Steven Craig Johnson, who has been living under a stolen identity, in Macon on Tuesday.
Johnson, also known by his alias "William Cox," was apprehended at an apartment complex located at 2087 Vineville Ave. at around 2:00 p.m., according to a U.S. Marshals press release. Since 2011, Johnson had been a resident at the location and evaded capture by assuming the identity of a deceased child. The 70-year-old was on an Oregon arrest warrant for escape after fleeing from custody on Nov. 29, 1994, while serving a state prison sentence for sexual abuse and sodomy.
Upon renewing a focus on the case in 2015 at the request of the Oregon Department of Corrections, U.S. Marshals developed multiple leads. A breakthrough came in 2024, when new investigative technology from the Diplomatic Security Service shone light on new information, spearheading the efforts that would lead to Johnson's arrest, as per the U.S. Marshals Service.
Investigation details revealed that Johnson had stolen the identity of a child who died in Texas in January 1962, securing a copy of the child’s birth certificate and eventually obtaining a Social Security number in Texas in 1995, as detailed by the U.S. Marshals Service. Johnson first obtained a Georgia Driver’s License in 1998, further entrenching his assumed identity.
The successful capture was the result of collaborative efforts between multiple agencies, including the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, the U.S. Department of State, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Oregon Department of Corrections, the USMS-Middle District of Georgia, and the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
