Steven Craig Johnson, 70, thought he had escaped justice. On Tuesday afternoon, his three-decade run of the Oregon fugitive came to an abrupt end in Macon. The arrest, a culmination of years of dogged pursuit, closed a cold case that had puzzled law enforcement since 1994.
In the mid-90s, Johnson vanished from the Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, Oregon. Convicted on three counts of sex abuse and one count of attempted sodomy, he managed to flee during a work detail at the minimum-security prison. The facility, notably lacking a perimeter fence, made his escape easier, setting off a manhunt that would span decades.
Adopting the alias William Cox, Johnson cleverly eluded capture by stealing the identity of a deceased Texas child.
In 1995, he secured a birth certificate and Social Security number belonging to a child who died in 1962. With these documents, he obtained a Georgia driver’s license in 1998, allowing him to construct a new life in Macon, where he lived undetected since 2011.
Johnson’s past, however, was not forgotten. The Oregon Department of Corrections listed him on their “Most Wanted” list, describing him as a high-risk offender likely to target pre-teen boys. By 2015, the U.S. Marshals Service was called in to assist with the search. For years, leads were scarce, and Johnson remained a ghost.
The breakthrough came in 2024. Advances in technology by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service finally provided the critical leads that had eluded investigators. These new techniques allowed authorities to trace Johnson’s steps and pinpoint his location in Macon.
Living under a false identity for nearly three decades, Johnson managed to integrate into the community without raising suspicion. Yet, his capture was inevitable. The U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement apprehended him at his apartment, bringing an end to his years on the run.
The facility from which he escaped, Mill Creek Correctional Facility, was closed in June 2021 under former Governor Kate Brown’s directive. Its closure marked the end of an era for the prison, which had been the site of one of Oregon’s most infamous escapes.
