Astonishing update in hunt for fugitive who escaped Oregon state prison 30 years ago

A wanted fugitive captured after escaping from an Oregon state prison 30 years ago was discovered 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 for three counts of first-degree sex abuse and one count of first-degree attempted sodomy.

Johnson has been described as a 'pedophile' that 'presents a high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys,' according to the Oregon Department of Corrections. 

He was arrested on Tuesday around 2pm at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia, according to the US Marshals Service and Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. 

After further investigation, authorities found that Johnson was living in the complex since 2011 under the name William Cox - a child who died in Texas in January 1962. 

Johnson managed to obtain a copy of the dead child's birth certificate, and in 1995 he got hold of a Social Security in Texas. Three years later he was issued a Georgia driver's license, the agency said.

The US Marshals Service took over Johnson's case in 2015 as 'multiple leads were developed and pursued' by the agency. 

In 2019, the Oregon Department of Correction 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's website. 

Johnson, who was wanted on an arrest warrant for escape, has been booked into Georgia's Bibb County Jail and is set to be extradited back to Oregon. 

The Mill Creek Correctional Facility closed down in 2021 during then Governor Kate Brown's sentencing reform efforts, the department said. 

The Associated Press previously reported that Brown decided to shut down the prison to save the state more than $44million. 

She decided to do so to 'reduce the state’s reliance on incarceration' and instead invest into preventing people from entering the criminal justice system.  

The state prison opened its doors in 1929 under the name Farm Annex of the Oregon State Penitentiary. 

Up until 1998, 'inmates processed milk from a McMinnville-area farmers' cooperative for use by other state institutions,' the Oregon Historical Society reported. 

The 2,089 minimum-security prison was located five miles southeast of Salem and 'housed approximately 290 adults in custody who were within four years of release,' according to the department.