Authorities in Georgia have caught an Oregon man who escaped from a correctional facility nearly 30 years ago.
Steven Craig Johnson, 70, escaped from Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, Oregon, in November 1994. He was serving time for sex abuse and attempted sodomy, according to a flier put out by the Oregon Department of Corrections.
The flier stated the man presented a “high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys” and he should “not be allowed contact with children.”
Johnson, also known as “William Cox” was arrested on Tuesday around 2pm by the US Marshals Service at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia, WMGT reported.
The Marshals Service took the case on in 2015 at the request of the Oregon Department of Corrections. In 2024, the agency used new technology developed by the Diplomatic Security Service that brought new leads into the case.
Officials said that while on the run, Johnson stole the identity of a child who died in Texas in January 1962. Johnson got a copy of the child’s birth certificate and managed to get a social security number in Texas in 1995.
He obtained a Georgia driver’s license three years later. In 2011, he became a Macon resident, living under the name of William Cox.
Johnson is currently awaiting extradition to Oregon. He’s being held at the Bibb County Jail.