A fugitive wanted and captured after escaping from an Oregon state prison 30 years ago has been found to have been flying under the radar for decades after assuming the identity of a dead child.
Steven Craig Johnson, now 70, escaped from Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, Oregon, on November 29, 1994 after being arrested on three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of attempted first-degree sodomy.
Johnson has been described as a “pedophile” who “has a high likelihood of victimizing prepubescent children,” according to Oregon Department of Corrections.
He was arrested Tuesday around 2 p.m. at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia, according to the U.S. Marshals Service and the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Upon further investigation, authorities discovered that Johnson had been living at the complex since 2011 under the name William Cox, a boy who died in Texas in January 1962.
Steven Craig Johnson, now 70, escaped from Mill Creek Prison in Salem, Oregon, on November 29, 1994. (Pictured: Johnson in his 1990s mugshot)
He was arrested Tuesday around 2 p.m. at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia. Authorities discovered he had stolen the identity of William Cox, a boy who died in Texas in January 1962. (Pictured: Johnson’s mugshot from 2024)
Johnson managed to obtain a copy of the deceased child’s birth certificate and in 1995 obtained a social security permit in Texas. Three years later, she received a Georgia driver’s license, the agency said.
The U.S. Marshals Service took over Johnson’s case in 2015 because “the agency developed and pursued multiple leads.”
In 2019, the Oregon Department of Corrections distributed a wanted poster for Johnson that described him as someone who “should not be allowed contact with children.”
He was listed as one of Oregon’s most wanted fugitives, according to the agency. website.
Johnson, who was wanted on a warrant for escape, has been booked into the Bibb County Jail in Georgia and is scheduled to be extradited to Oregon.
Mill Creek Correctional Facility (pictured) closed in 2021 during then-Governor Kate Brown’s sentencing reform efforts.
The Mill Creek Correctional Facility closed in 2021 during then-Gov. Kate Brown’s sentencing reform efforts, the department said.
The Associated Press It was previously reported that Brown decided to close the prison to save the state more than $44 million.
He decided to do so in order to “reduce the state’s reliance on incarceration” and instead invest in preventing people from entering the criminal justice system.
The state prison opened in 1929 as the Farm Annex of the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Until 1998, “inmates processed milk from a McMinnville-area farmers’ cooperative for use by other state institutions,” he said. Oregon Historical Society reported.
The minimum-security prison of 2,089 people was located five miles southeast of Salem and “housed approximately 290 adult detainees who were four years from release,” according to the department.