Escaped Oregon 'pedophile' wanted for 30 years caught in Georgia using dead child's name, officials say
Steven Craig Johnson, aka William Cox (Credit: Oregon Department of Corrections, US Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force)
MACON, Ga. - A man who escaped from an Oregon prison 30 years ago was caught hiding out in Macon under a new name on Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. Marshals tracked 70-year-old Steve Craig Johnson down to an apartment complex on Vineville Avenue. Johnson had been living there since 2011 under the name of a child who died in Texas decades earlier.
On Nov. 29, 1994, Johnson fled from a prison work detail. At the time, he was serving a state prison sentence in Oregon for sexual abuse and sodomy. He was listed as one of Oregon's most wanted criminals for years.
Steven Craig Johnson, aka William Cox (Credit: US Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force)
Johnson allegedly started using the name "William Cox," after stealing the birth certificate, and eventually the social security number, of a child who died in Texas in January 1962. He obtained a Georgia Driver's License under the fake name in 1998.
The U.S. Marshals Service took on the case in 2015 at the request of the Oregon Department of Corrections. They developed and pursued multiple leads.
In 2024, new technology used by the Diplomatic Security Service led them to Macon where Johnson was ultimately caught.
In 2019, the Oregon Department of Corrections described Johnson as a "pedophile" with a "high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys."