An Oregon man who was on the lam for three decades has been apprehended in Macon, Georgia, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Steve Craig Johnson, 70, was discovered living under an assumed identity at an apartment complex on Vineville Avenue on Tuesday afternoon. He assumed the name "William Cox," after stealing the identity of a deceased Texas child years earlier. FOX5 Atlanta reports that Johnson had been using the false name since at least 2011.
Johnson originally fled from a prison work crew in Oregon on November 29, 1994. At the time, he was serving a sentence for sexual abuse and sodomy convictions that included three counts of first-degree sex abuse and one count of first-degree attempted sodomy. According to details provided by CBS News, the escape occurred at the Mill Creek Correctional Facility, a minimum-security institution in Salem, Oregon. The fugitive was wanted on an escape warrant in Oregon, and he had been listed as one of the state's six most wanted individuals, described as a "pedophile" who "presents a high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys."
The case was taken over by the U.S. Marshals Service in 2015, at the request of the Oregon Department of Corrections. They made efforts to develop and follow up on multiple leads over the years. It was the employment of "new investigative technology" by the Diplomatic Security Service that ultimately provided the key leads in the case in 2024, which led to Johnson's arrest. These technologies appear to have been instrumental in solving what would have remained an elusive search for the Marshals Service.
After assuming the dead child's identity, Johnson was able to obtain a Georgia Driver's License under his new name in 1998. He was living a lie, that enabled him to avoid capture for so long. Now, following his capture, Johnson has been detained at the Bibb County Jail in Macon as he awaits to be extradited back to Oregon. Officers tracked him down after new technology provided authorities with actionable information, pointing to his location in Macon, according to FOX5 Atlanta.
This turn of events brings to a close a prolonged manhunt for an individual whose past crimes and escape had placed him on the list of Oregon's most sought-after fugitives. His capture was the result of persistent and advanced law enforcement techniques that overcame the challenges posed by time and deception.
