Real Name: Angela Marie Housman
Nicknames: Angie
Date: November 18, 1993
Location: St. Ann, Missouri
Case
Details: On November 18, 1993, Angie Housman disappeared on her way home from school. She was a fourth grader who lived in St. Ann, a quiet suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. She was last seen departing the school bus at her normal bus stop, just eight houses down from her home. After nine days, her frail body was found tied to a tree by a deer hunter in the Busch Wildlife Conservation Area in St. Charles County, a remote area near St. Louis. It is believed she was alive when she was left there, and she had died slowly of exposure. A small pile of ice chips had formed over her body. Later analysis revealed that her abductor had kept her alive a full week, torturing and raping her before tying her to the tree and leaving her to die.
Law enforcement officials state they do have evidence in this case. They have the killer's fingerprint from duct tape found at the crime scene and his DNA. However, no arrests have been made, and no suspects announced.
Suspects: A sketch of a bearded man in a long coat, thought to have been seen in the area of Angie's disappearance, was reported two days prior to her abduction, but nothing ever came of that account. In addition, no one has ever identified the mysterious "uncle" she told her teacher about before her abduction, and none of her relatives had plans to take her anywhere at the time of her abduction.
Law enforcement has also looked into whether other cases could be related to this one. A link was sought between it and that of Cassidy Senter, another St. Louis area child who was abducted and murdered in the same time frame and the same area as Angie's abduction. This case, however, has since been solved, and authorities do not believe they are connected. Since that time, other children have disappeared and been murdered, such as the still unsolved disappearance of Bianca Noel Piper, who has been missing since March 2005 and Heather Kullorn, who was abducted in 1999. The authorities do not believe theses cases are linked.
Extra Notes: This case has not been featured on Unsolved Mysteries. It was documented on On the Case with Paula Zahn after it was resolved.
Results: Solved. In March 2019, a crime lab tested DNA found on Angie's underwear. The DNA profile was placed into CODIS, the national DNA database. It was matched to sixty-one-year-old Earl Webster Cox. At the time of Angie's murder, he had family that lived just three blocks from her school.
Cox had joined the Air Force in 1975 but was dishonorably discharged after he was charged with sexual offenses involving four children in Germany. He served eight years in prison before being paroled. He later moved to Missouri where he was arrested for child abuse in 1992. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to trying to entice a minor across state lines for sexual activity. He also pleaded guilty to charges of having over 45,000 images of child pornography on his computer.
In 2012, Cox was labeled a "sexually dangerous person" and civilly committed indefinitely. On June 5, 2019, after his DNA was matched to the profile found on Angie's underwear, he was charged with murder, kidnapping, and sodomy.
Links:
- From the archives: Coverage of the Angie Housman case - June 4, 2019
- Patient told nurses about killing - November 21, 1997
- McClellan: 20 years of combing for clues in Angie Housman case - November 17, 2013
- The tragic unsolved death of Angie Housman - January 10, 2017
- 25 Years Later, Murder of 9-year-old Angie Housman Remains Unsolved - November 15, 2018
- New details emerge in Angie Housman murder case - November 27, 2018
- Man charged in 1993 murder, abduction, sexual assault of 9-year-old Angie Housman - June 5, 2019
- Cold case in Missouri solved with DNA: Ex-Air Force member charged with 1993 murder of 9-year-old girl - June 6, 2019
- After nearly 27 years, family of Angie Housman witnesses her killer admit guilt - August 20, 2020
- Angie Housman on Find a Grave
- Websleuths Discussion forum