After three decades on the run, 70-year-old Steven Craig Johnson, named one of Oregon's "most wanted fugitives," has been apprehended in Georgia. Once part of a prisoner work crew, he escaped from a correctional facility in Salem, Oregon. On Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service, Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, were successful in capturing Johnson in Macon, where he is currently detained at the Bibb County Jail, pending his return to Oregon, as reported by KOIN.
In light of his criminal history, which includes convictions for sex offenses, the Oregon Department of Corrections had previously warned that Johnson "presents a high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys." According to a statement obtained by KPTV, Johnson is deemed by authorities to be dangerous and "should not be allowed contact with children." The capture ends a long hunt for Johnson who was serving time for three counts of first-degree sex abuse and one count of first-degree attempted sodomy when he made his escape.
Johnson was able to elude capture by employing the identity of a deceased child. He had obtained a copy of the child’s birth certificate and subsequently secured a Social Security number in the state of Texas in 1995, as CBS News reports. The Diplomatic Security Service's "new investigative technology" played a critical role in unwinding this false identity and led to his 2024 capture.
