According to authorities, a man who escaped from an Oregon state prison nearly 30 years ago and seized the identity of a deceased child was apprehended in Georgia on Tuesday.
On November 29, 1994, Steven Craig Johnson, who had been convicted of sexual abuse charges, escaped from a prison labor detail at the Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, Oregon, according to officials. Since June 1989, he has been under the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections.
The US Marshals Service and one of its fugitive task forces, according to the service, apprehended Johnson, who is now 70, on Tuesday afternoon at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia.
The service stated in a communiqué that he had been residing at the apartment complex under the name William Cox since 2011.
According to the release, Johnson had stolen the identity of an infant who passed away in Texas in January 1962, as a result of an investigation. Johnson was ultimately able to obtain a Social Security number in Texas in 1995 after obtaining a copy of the child’s birth certificate, according to officials. Three years later, Johnson acquired a driver’s license in Georgia.
As per the release, the Oregon Department of Corrections requested that the Marshals Service adopt the case in 2015. The Marshals Service stated that the stolen identity was discovered this year as a result of the development of new leads in the case by the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, which employed new investigative technology. The Marshals Service did not provide further details regarding the technology.
Johnson was incarcerated in the Bibb County Penitentiary in Georgia and is currently awaiting extradition to Oregon, as per the Oregon Department of Corrections. It is uncertain whether or not he retains an attorney.
According to the corrections department’s website, Johnson was one of the most sought-after fugitives in Oregon. A 2019 wanted poster from the corrections department cautioned that he “is a pedophile and presents a high probability of victimizing pre-teenage boys.” Johnson, who is a fugitive, should not be permitted to interact with minors.
According to the Oregon Department of Corrections, the Mill Creek Correctional Facility was closed in 2021 by decree of then-Governor Kate Brown as part of her sentencing reform initiatives. In 1929, it was inaugurated as the Farm Annex of the Oregon State Penitentiary. According to the Oregon Historical Society, inmates were responsible for the processing of milk from a farmers’ cooperative for the use of other state institutions until 1998.
“MCCF was a minimum-security prison situated on 2,089 acres, five miles southeast of Salem.” The department stated that the facility was unfenced and accommodated approximately 290 individuals who were within four years of release and were in custody.
According to The Associated Press, Brown’s decision to shutter three Oregon prisons, including Mill Creek, was made to save the state over $44 million. Brown expressed her desire to decrease the dependence on incarceration and allocate more resources to the prevention of individuals from entering the criminal justice system.
