Angie Housman

Case background and investigation

Angie Housman was a nine-year-old from St. Ann, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. On the afternoon of November 18, 1993, she got off her school bus and did not arrive home. According to the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, police were told at about 7:10 that evening that she was missing. When searches failed to find her, the squad was activated on November 22 to assist the St. Ann Police Department.

On November 27, 1993, at about 10:30 in the morning, a hunter found Angie's body in the Busch Wildlife Area in St. Charles County. The Major Case Squad's summary states that she had been tied to a tree, had been sexually assaulted, and had duct tape over her eyes and mouth. St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar later said the cause of death was determined to be hypothermia. The Associated Press reported that investigators believe she was alive until only hours before she was found.

The case remained unsolved for more than 25 years. In 2019, according to ABC News, a forensic analyst found an unknown male's DNA on torn pieces of the child's underwear recovered at the scene. The profile matched Earl Webster Cox, whose DNA was already in the national CODIS database. Lohmar announced charges of murder, kidnapping and sodomy on June 5, 2019. He said at the time that it was possible another person had been involved; no one else has been charged in the sources reviewed.

Cox had a long record of offences against children. ABC News and the Associated Press reported that he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1974 and was dishonorably discharged in 1982 after being convicted of molesting four girls while stationed in Germany. He was paroled in 1985, later returned to prison, and was released again about 11 months before Angie disappeared. In 2003 he was convicted in a federal case involving an international online child pornography network, and he was subsequently held in North Carolina as a sexually dangerous person. He was in federal custody there when he was charged.

On August 20, 2020, Cox pleaded guilty in St. Charles County to first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fox 2 reported that the plea removed the possibility of a death sentence and that several of Angie's relatives gave statements in court. Her mother had died before the case was solved.

Cox died in custody on December 2, 2024. A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson told First Alert 4 that he died of apparent natural causes.