St. Charles County prosecutors announced Wednesday afternoon they've charged Earl Webster Cox in the 1993 murder of Angie Housman.
READ MORE: Man charged in 1993 murder of Angie Housman
Cox is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and sodomy.
5 On Your Side broke the story on Monday that investigators were following up on DNA test results that connected to a new suspect. Read the original story below.
ORIGINAL STORY:
ST. LOUIS - The 5 On Your Side I-TEAM uncovered new details about a person of interest in the 1993 murder of 9-year-old Angie Housman.
On Monday, the I-TEAM’s PJ Randhawa reported that re-examined information in the case had revealed a new person of interest. Sources close to the investigation now confirm that investigators have a suspect.
The man suspected in Angie’s murder is a 61-year-old veteran currently in federal custody in North Carolina. Sources close to the investigation said police had not previously connected him to the case.
Police sources said that recently re-tested DNA on the victim’s clothing led them to the inmate who was living just three blocks away from Angie’s home at the time of her death.
The suspect was born and raised in St. Louis and joined the Air Force in 1975. Five years later, he was court-martialed and served a sentence at Fort Leavenworth for sex offenses involving young children he babysat while stationed at an Air Force base in Frankfurt, Germany.
He was free on parole in 1985, which was revoked in 1992 after he was again arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a child. He left Fort Leavenworth again at the end of 1992 and moved back to the St. Louis area, living at an address in the same neighborhood as Angie just months before she disappeared.
Court documents state the suspect was involved in a child pornography network starting in 1997. While living in Colorado, he was caught in an FBI sting operation where an agent posed as a 14-year-old girl online. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to trying to entice a minor across state lines for sexual activity, and to charges for the 45,000 images of child pornography FBI agents found on his home computer.
The man has been in federal custody ever since.
In 2012, the court certified him as a sexually dangerous person who would be committed to federal custody indefinitely under the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act. A judge made the decision based on the evaluations of three psychiatric experts, who agreed that he would likely offend again if he were released.
“The three experts in this case are unanimous in their opinions that [he] will have serious difficulty in refraining from engaging in sexually violent conduct if released,” court documents said. The suspect “has expressed no empathy for his victims and has failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part. The frequency, severity, and variety of his offenses are extremely troubling.”
Angie’s stepfather, Ron Bone, told 5 On Your Side police recently questioned him again in the case. He said they showed him a photo of a suspect that they said matched DNA from Angie’s body.
“They said they found DNA on her, a spot on her and on her whole body,” Bone said. “They said they matched it out to somebody I was supposed to know. I don't know who it is. They showed me a picture of the person, he looks familiar, but you're talking 25, 27 years ago.”