Stolen: The Angie Housman Story /// Part 3 ///

Summary

True Crime Garage: Stolen – The Angie Housman Story (Part 3) Summary

Release Date: July 9, 2025

In the gripping third installment of "The Angie Housman Story," hosts Nic and the Captain delve deep into the complexities of one of True Crime Garage’s most challenging cases. This episode, "Stolen: The Angie Housman Story /// Part 3 ///," offers an exhaustive exploration of the investigation that spanned over two decades, highlighting the relentless pursuit of justice by dedicated law enforcement officers.

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Case Overview

Angie Housman, a young girl from St. Anne, was abducted and brutally murdered, leaving her family and community in profound distress. Her case remained unsolved for years, becoming a focal point for both local and national true crime enthusiasts. This episode chronicles the meticulous efforts of detectives who refused to let Angie's memory fade, showcasing their unwavering commitment to uncovering the truth.

Investigation Challenges

The hosts discuss the myriad obstacles faced by investigators, including:

• Multiple Suspects: Unlike cases with a single perpetrator, Angie's murder involved several potential suspects, complicating the investigation. Detectives had to sift through various leads, each tied to different individuals with varying degrees of relevance.

• Conflicting Evidence: Early theories suggested that Angie might have been handcuffed over a pipe in the basement, but forensic analysis revealed inconsistencies. Detective Ed Copeland emphasized, "[...] the pressure that would be put on her wrists would not do what that, what the cuts on her wrist. We try to duplicate the injuries to her wrist as the... 02:15."

Key Suspects Explored

1. John Wayne Parsons

Parsons, arrested in Florida for molesting two nine-year-old girls, became a person of interest due to his affinity for following the Angie case, as evidenced by newspaper clippings found in his possession. Despite initial enthusiasm from law enforcement, forensic evidence eventually ruled him out as the perpetrator.

2. Bryant Squires

Squires, a dying man in a retirement home, confessed to Angie’s murder and other crimes. His detailed recounts raised suspicions, especially when names of other victims were mentioned. However, further investigation revealed that his alleged accomplice, Nathan Williams, was incarcerated at the time of Angie's murder, casting doubt on the validity of his confessions.

3. Corey Lynn Fox

Fox, serving life in an Illinois state prison, claimed responsibility for multiple murders, including Angie’s. Unlike Squires, Fox provided specific details about the case, making his confession seem credible to the public. However, his history of manipulating law enforcement raised questions about the authenticity of his claims. As Nic pointed out, "He likes the attention. He's got nothing to do all day, all week long. This guy got nothing going on, right? 16:15."

4. Earl Cox

Ultimately, Earl Cox emerged as the confirmed perpetrator. A long-time sex offender with a history of abusing young girls, Cox's DNA and fingerprint matched evidence found at the crime scene. His arrest in a sting operation, coupled with overwhelming forensic evidence, sealed his fate. Despite pleas for a detailed confession, Cox's health declined, leading to his death in December 2024 from natural causes.

Forensic Breakthroughs

A turning point in the investigation came from advancements in forensic technology. Captain John Lankford attended a seminar at Bode Technologies, gaining insights that prompted a reevaluation of existing evidence. Detective Ed Copeland's strategic approach to testing small sections of Angie’s torn underwear yielded critical DNA matches. "Let's test right here. Let's test right here. 30:44," Nic recounted, highlighting the precision that led to Cox’s identification.

Impact on the Community and Law Enforcement

The resolution of Angie Housman's case brought a mix of emotions to the community and the detectives involved. Detective Mickey Morris shared her sentiments:

"It was so important. Important for us, I guess, for us to show Angie that we never stopped, never stopped fearing that she deserved someone to be held accountable for the horrific way that she died. 43:12."

The case reinforced the importance of persistence in cold cases and underscored the emotional toll such investigations take on those involved.

Behind the Scenes and Final Reflections

As the episode concluded, Nic and the Captain reflected on the intricate nature of true crime investigations. They acknowledged the collaborative efforts of various law enforcement agencies and the role of private labs in providing the technological edge needed to solve complex cases. The hosts also paid tribute to the detectives who dedicated over two decades to Angie’s case, emphasizing the profound sense of closure their work provided.

Notable Quotes:

• Detective Ed Copeland: "No doubt she was there. [...] those handcuffs just did not cut the wrist the way they were cut. 01:16."

• Nic: "This is one of the more difficult cases that we've had to cover here in the garage. 03:16."

• Detective Mickey Morris: "That was probably one of the most gratifying experiences of my entire career that to retire right after that happened was just beyond perfect timing. 43:12."

Conclusion

"Stolen: The Angie Housman Story /// Part 3 ///" serves as a testament to the relentless pursuit of justice by dedicated individuals. Through meticulous research, forensic advancements, and unwavering determination, True Crime Garage brings to light the intricate details of a case that once seemed insurmountable. Angie’s story not only honors her memory but also highlights the critical role of perseverance in solving true crime mysteries.

For listeners seeking further engagement with this case or others, True Crime Garage continues to offer in-depth analyses and updates, ensuring that no stone is left unturned in the quest for truth and justice.

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Recommended Reading: For those looking to delve deeper into true crime narratives, Nic recommends "In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polyclass Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child" by New York Times bestseller Kim Cross. Available in multiple formats, this book is praised for its thorough research and compelling storytelling.

Stay Connected: Visit truecrimegarage.com for additional resources, merchandise, and to join the mailing list for exclusive updates.

Transcript

[Nick]

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[Captain]

Sam.

[Detective Ed Copeland]

No doubt she was there. It snowed on Thursday so we know that our freezer rain on Thursday. And Nick, just to add which Ed knows a lot more than I draw. See he was there but she was cut. She had, you know, her wrists were the cuts on her wrist and she had a big cut on her left leg. If I remember inside. Had that child been like handcuffed and put over a pipe in the basement? Let's just say that for the sake of this conversation the pressure that would be put on her wrists would not do what that, what the cuts on her wrist. We try to duplicate the injuries to her wrist as the. With the handcuffs being the factor and we couldn't make that fit. We couldn't. There's no way if she's handcuffed behind her back, if she's handcuffed over the. Like I said, a pipe in the basement to restrain her. Those handcuffs just did not cut the wrist the way they were cut.

[Nick]

You guys have an extensive background in law enforcement. Many years on the force, both of your forces respectively. How rare is it to arrive at any scene and find handcuffs, Bloody handcuffs.

[Detective Ed Copeland]

I don't. You don't put handcuffs on the dead person. I've always said that, you know what I'm saying? They were obviously useful. Yeah. So I, I have never, I have never went to a crime scene. I've investigated quite a few homicides or I've done quite. I've done an extensive number of gun investigations. Never before have I found handcuffs. My victim. The victim that is presented to me if that man and Nick, I'm the same. Just thinking about how many homicides I've never seen.

[Nick]

This case is one of the more difficult cases that we've had to and chose to cover here in the garage. But I think that the great thing about covering a case like this is seeing how this one's for law enforcement because this one goes out to all of the hard working detectives that have been forced to, to work a case for decades. A case that would be and would have been from a stress level, from an emotional level. From just trying to have keep their head and wits about them. Far easier to give up on. And this is a case and we see this and we're. And we're lucky that when these horrible things happen, they should never happen at all. These evil people should not exist. These evil people should not be doing evil things to one another, to our good people, but they do. This is about the stick to itness for these detectives that have decided, I'm, I'm going to see this one through. Whether it kills me, no matter how long or what it takes, I'm going to see this one through. And we're living in that day and age, Captain. We've talked about it so many times here in the garage where there are cases that are being solved that, that were crimes that took place 19 years ago, 25 years ago, 30 years ago. Cases that I'm sure that many people in the public or even family members of the victim had at some point resol themselves to the idea that they may never have the answers.

[Captain]

Well, think about how difficult this situation would be because it's not just Angie's case, it's multiple cases. And then instead of going, well, we have one serial killer or we have one individual that is responsible for all these crimes. Nope, we have different individuals. And then we know how hard it is. Okay, you might have a suspect, you might have pieces of evidence, but now you have to put together those pieces of evidence to get a conviction. So law enforcement had to do that twice already and then now deal with the fact. And I think the only thing, well, one, they lose time, they lose man hours because they have to focus on these other cases. But now you have this, the initial case that brought this, all these law enforcement groups together. And you have to then go, well, okay, we solved those other ones. We got convictions on those other ones, but we can't stop now.

[Nick]

That is one thing that I think would keep you going. Right? And there it. That is like the tiniest glimpse of maybe some kind of bright spot here if you're a person living in this area. Because you're going, okay, look at everything else that they solved and cleaned up throughout the course of trying to, you know, working this one and trying to solve this one. They solved the Cassie center case. They, there was a bunch of. They picked up the stuffle bean jerk down in Texas who was, who was molesting girls and, and accusations from grown women that came about in other parts of the area and in the country. So they get two terrible people off of the streets. But Then also a string of burglaries, car break ins and all those other crimes that we had listed in episode two. So a lot of good hard work is going into this and they are solving crimes, they are solving cases, just not Angie's case. And again, one thing that we point to and that the detectives pointed to and they're trying, they're not trying to make any excuses, it's just the fact of the matter is that they had many people that looked good for this. They had great suspects along the way. And let's touch on a few of those here. And I want to kind of try to move through these at a, at a good pace. So if I slow down, Captain, you smack me and I'll get back up and try to keep going where you.

[Captain]

Want me to smack you.

[Nick]

Let's go. Forehead or back of thigh? Well, so one, one man that was looked at was a guy down in Florida. So his name is John Wayne Parsons. So they pick up this guy, he gets picked up in the state of Florida for molesting two 9 year old girls. Well that victimology seems right. The ages, the gender that's lining up. But during the course of those, that investigation he gets charged with molesting another girl in the state of Missouri. Now this is about 75 or 80 miles south ish of our murder investigation in St. Anne. When he's arrested in Florida, this is what ties him. Not just the Missouri connection, but this is what ties him to Angie's case. When he is arrested in Florida on sex offenses, police find a whole bunch of newspaper clippings on Angie Housman's case. So he's following the case even though he lives many states away. So they talk to him, they look at him and at one point I believe that he says, or I'm sorry, at one point I believe that at least one of the detectives or one of the members of that task force Major case squad is, is on the record saying that he's our best guy. And I take that to mean best guy to date. Now is he, does that mean he's the guy? Well, no, it doesn't because after a while trying to pin this to him, trying to work him to this, they're able to eliminate him based off of the forensic evidence that we've already discussed that they were using to eliminate people like the psychic boy and other suspects. Then we get Bryant, his name's Bryant Squires. The strange stories that come out of this murder case, there's no shortage of them. So he's in this retirement home, he's dying. Dying a pretty slow death. He. He had cancer or aids or both, depending on what reports you read. And during the course of his decline, he's telling the nurses there that he and another individual were responsible for killing Angie Houseman and that they were responsible for some other crimes that had took place in the past as well. And he's saying, look, I'm dying. I want to get this off my chest. I'm trying to confess. I'm trying to get right before I. Before I go, the nurses, they're hearing his confessions. And. And the way that I take this here, Captain, is that he's giving them little. Little tidbits of information, but a lot of it's very detailed. And the nurses would later say, he told us this for an extended period of time. We didn't report it because the stuff he was telling us was so horrible.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

That no way could it be true. We just assume the. The guy is completely lost it. He's, you know, he's in a. Experiencing a lot of dementia due to his health and declining health. And there's no way that these stories could be true. Well, one of them, one of the nurses, at some point finds out that. Wait a second. Some of these names that this guy's saying are actual victims that are out there.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And so eventually they do report this. He didn't commit Angie Housman's murder. These other crimes that he said he had some involvement with, that he was involved with another individual, he says he did the Angie case with. With the Angie murder with this other guy. This other guy, it was confirmed that he was in prison at the time that Angie was abducted and killed. So that that other guy didn't have anything to do with Angie's case. He physically could not have been. Had any involvement. But now, here's what gets. Here's what gets dicey when trying to just say, well, maybe this guy completely lost it. No, this other guy, who is supposedly his good friend Nathan Williams, who was in prison at the time of the Houseman case. He is. That man is a suspect. In other cases, he is known to be good friends with this squire's guy. Right. So there could be some truth to some of these confessions. It gets difficult to say how much truth there is, because what Nathan Williams was in prison for at the time was rape. So it seems plausible that these two could have been involved in. In something together. Definitely seems like Nathan Williams was involved in kidnappings and possible murder as well. But the squire's guy could could be involved as well with. With those other crimes.

[Captain]

Yeah, I think it's strange. I mean, obviously a bad dude does some bad things in his life, and as he's dying, he wants to confess his sins to the nurses or whoever. Maybe he wants the family members to hear about it. Maybe he wants forgiveness from them. So it's possible that he's involved in some of these crimes, but when we know he's not involved in Angie's crime, then that makes you wonder, is he just also just like kind of losing his mind? And maybe he. Because of his sickness, really, and because of his evilness, was he just fascinated with these types of cases? And he looked into them and he has some of the details in his brain so he can tell and talk about the cases, but maybe he is just so far gone that he doesn't understand that he's not responsible for that case. Does that make any sense?

[Nick]

Yeah, that makes absolute sense. So regarding Bryant Squires, he passes away in September of 1996. And it looks like this information was. Didn't make its way until after he passes away to law enforcement. Again, further complicating investigating these. His. His confession not just to Angie's case, but to other cases as well. And so that's 1997 in our timeline, which is only four years after Angie's murder. If we go out a little bit further to 2001, there's another individual. This guy comes forward, right? He's already locked up for murder. He, He. He's not getting out, from my understanding, or shouldn't get out, but his name is Corey Lynn Fox. And this guy comes forward to police saying that he wants to talk, saying that he was involved in other murders. Some persons, I've not seen the. The written confessions or his exact statements here, but many of the reports here, Captain, state that he confessed to a dozen murders, if not dozens of other murders. He seems to me to be like one of these Henry Lucas types, old Henry Lee Lucas. Right. So he's locked up. Corey Lynn Fox comes forward. The thing that makes him a different hurdle, difficult hurdle to clear here, is that when he's talking about Angie's case, he is speaking in detailed information. He is speaking in specifics. And I think. I think a layperson, someone who's not an expert on this case, could look at this because the public was really concerned about this guy. And I think the public thought, this is the guy. Finally, after all these years, after nearly eight years, we finally figured it out and found the guy because he knows detailed information about the case. But the police weren't quick, so quick to fall for that. The detectives weren't there. Like, look, this guy, this is what he does. He comes forward claiming to be some mastermind, crazy criminal that he. He really is not. He's terrible. He deserves to be locked up. He deserves to be where he is. But he's not good for these other murders that he's claiming. He likes the attention. He's got nothing to do all day, all week long. This guy got nothing going on, right? Sitting in a cell. This is his way of getting out, maybe getting some good food to eat, some fast food, smoking some cigarettes, what have you.

[Captain]

Flicky. Yeah.

[Nick]

Telling lies. And, and, and look, a lot of these bad guys, they like messing with the police. They like wasting their time. They like that. They look at it like, oh, cool, I pulled one over. The police, I'm taking advantage of the police. He just, like some of the others that we've discussed, he's not the guy. Now, sadly, Angie's mother passes away in 2016. She died from cancer. She wouldn't find out what happened to her only daughter, Angie. And the reports that I found say that after her daughter's death, that she just really sank into deep, deep depression. So not much of a life for her after that time. And, and in more than 20 years between the time of her daughter's death and her own passing, this.

[Captain]

This case has so many similarities to, like, Amy Mahalovic's case. But do you think that these sickos, do they get the detailed information? Do you think it's from news reports? Or you just wonder, like, before the Internet, these guys, they always. These creeps, these pedophiles, they always find a way of finding each other. So you wonder if some of the details that they're getting are stories that were passed on to somebody else. And it's very fascinating, too, because also, like, there's. There's some killers that have killed children that will never admit to it because they're afraid of what's going to happen to them in prison. But some of these other killers, and I don't know if it's because maybe they're in a situation that they're like, I can confess to anything and either just lie about it or I'm not in a situation that other prisoners can get to me.

[Nick]

So if we're trying to talk about a whole bunch of criminals, it would be difficult to say, obviously. But with this Corey Fox, right, that came forward, his situation is he. He's serving life in Illinois and In an Illinois state prison, it looks like. So he, he got 30 years for armed robbery, he got life in prison for murder with intent to kill. And he also got life in prison for murder slash other forcible felony. Again, on the surface, he's going to look good for it because we know he's capable of murder. His rap sheet tells us so. But him being in the state of Illinois, keep in mind Illinois in St. Louis, this so close to the state line that oftentimes there is a crossover where in, where Illinois State Police might be involved in investigations in Missouri. So it's not difficult to surmise that he probably read a lot of the newspaper coverage and saw it on the news. There was so much news coverage on the Angie Houseman case that it would be nearly impossible to live in this general area and have no familiarity with, with the information that was released to the public. So he probably just picked up on it over the years. He wasn't arrested until years after her murder. So how, how much information did he soak up in the course of that? And again, there were other cases like you said, I, I think you nailed it. This was unfortunately the Amy Mihaljevic case of this area, which if you're new to the show, Amy Mihaljevic is a case that we've covered. It's out of Northeast Ohio. We covered it a couple times here in the garage. Like Amy's case, Angie's case refused to leave the news. And good, good for the media, they didn't, they never lost sight on this story and on this case because everybody, the whole community wanted it solved. They wanted to find the monster that killed this little girl. This is one of the worst murders I've, we've ever covered. In my, in my humble garage opinion, the way that she was left, the cruelty that was shown to this little girl, the, the torture leading up to her death is, it's unfathomable. It's, it's, it's something that, that putting together the story was very difficult to do because it was something that, that we didn't want to spend too much time pondering and thinking about. So this guy, he keep in mind some of the other crimes that he air quote confessed to were other high profile crimes in this area as well. Some that are, that we are not so familiar with just because we are not from that area. But again, he had details. This is all stuff that, that jam up the police and detectives. Angie's mother passes away in 2016, 2018 is when we have the different counties that were involved in Angie's case. Taking another really hardcore look at the case. I hate to say the way that it's been reported in on the Internet that oh, they decided to re examine the case or to look at it again. They never stopped looking at it. Right. I just named, in episode two, I named three detectives that never stopped looking at it. They took it home with them. They would, they would work the case in their personal time. One detective would go and work with other agencies, sometimes weeks at a time, working on different leads or different suspects they had. So to report it that way, I think is, is a disservice to the men and women that work this case so incredibly well and, and put so much time, effort and emotion and heartache into it.

[Captain]

Yeah. And I think it's just probably a generic way to report.

[Nick]

Yeah, you're bank. You gotta bang out an article real quick. It's got to be 600 words. You just kind of revert back to what you know.

[Captain]

But even if, and it's hard to do, I mean, we've been doing this for heck, it's what, almost 10 years. And the friends that we have made that, that have these, if you want to call them, pet cases that they've been working on for so long, sometimes it's hard to. Because they're so far down the path that, and some of the information becomes, and we've talked about this many times, sometimes the speculation becomes fact over time. And so sometimes you have to do a reset. Now that's really difficult unless you have other people in the room with you to help you do that and to get out of whatever tunnel vision that you might have got into.

[Nick]

Captain, when we come back from the beer break, we'll have some behind the scenes information on what was going on in the investigation in 20, 17, 18 and 19, as well as the conclusion to the Angie Housman case.

[Captain]

And we are back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

He's back. I'm back. He only had to smack me once.

[Captain]

Couple times and. Couple times the buttocks. No, this is such a odd case and bizarre and, and it's also, there's, there's just cases that hit you different and maybe it's the manner in which he is found and, and the visuals that, that gives you looking into this case. But it also, just like you were saying earlier to me about this being like the Amy Mahalovic case, I mean it. And you know, they, they started doing some testing on items and Amy's case, so hopefully we get some of those results back soon because I think that started in April. So maybe there'll be some movement on Amy's case. Fingers crossed.

[Nick]

Well, and for the general public out there, one thing that I don't think is perfectly clear to everybody that's not as dialed in as our garage listeners.

[Captain]

Best listeners in the world.

[Nick]

Look, these police departments, these sheriff departments, the FBI, state investigating bureaus, they all are doing very good work. They are all trying their damnedest and they are all trying their best. They have different budgets oftentimes than some of these privatized labs. And because that their budgets aren't the same, the technology is not always the same. It's not cutting edge like you will get with some of the private labs. And we have seen this in plenty of cases. Once a case gets sent off, evidence gets sent off to a private lab. Authorum is a really big one. Bode's a really big one. Parabon nanolabs is a really big one. Just to mention a few here in the United States that are solving cases. These are all three of these are different labs that private labs that the porchlight project here in Ohio has used to solve old cases. Sometimes it takes it going from these public entities to going to a private lab to get the information that you need to find the perpetrator of these horrific murder cases that have satisfaction. I shouldn't say set because we know in this case they were working it. So and with they were working on doing DNA work on this case for several years now. One problem they ran into was the fingerprint. While they could use that fingerprint to. To get a match, a one to one match if they had something to compare it to, they weren't able to pull any touch DNA off of that duct tape because remember, they kept thinking that they could pull a better print from it. So it had been tested and worked and tested and worked and tested and worked. It wasn't going to be a reliable source to try to pull some DNA off of it. So that was a bit of a yes. This thing. What happens here is you get detectives, the detectives I mentioned working this case for all of these years. We didn't even get into Roger Martin, who is somebody. There's a pazan episode on this that came out, I think 2021 Palazon, which.

[Captain]

Sounds like a salad dressing.

[Nick]

It does, it does.

[Captain]

Paon. I don't want the.

[Nick]

Or a nice piece of. Nice piece of outdoor furniture. Yeah.

[Captain]

Or a nice steak. I'll take the pason cut.

[Nick]

Roger Martin is heavily featured in that episode and man, does he look like he's the guy. He's. He's a child molester. He. He raped girls in the area, actually would take them to that. Remember, we have Detective Ed Copeland, who was once a deputy. He was the first one to find. The first member of law enforcement to find Angie's body. Who said that? Look, I would go back in there and look, check cars. This guy would go in that general area to rape and molest girls. And so there was a lot of connective tissue, if you will, to. To a lot of red strings that you could draw a line from him to possibly being involved in Angie Housman's murder. They spent a lot of time. Law enforcement spent a lot of time on this guy because he looked so good. Paula's on with a side of beans and potato, please. Spent a lot of time in her episode on. On Roger Martin as well. He wasn't the guy. So we. We won't bog you down with that here today, but what happens here is one of the detectives goes to a seminar at BOD Technologies, talking and explaining DNA and how they can collect it, DNA evidence and how they can use it to. To solve these crimes. And what he said was, this was Captain John Lankford. And he. He went and attended this talk simply to learn more, to educate himself, because he thought, well, how could I apply it to some of our old cases, like Angie's case and others. Other cases. Well, he learns a lot during this talk. And he comes back and he approaches Ed and says, look, Detective Copeland, we might want to consider Bode or some of the information that I have recently learned in this case, because we're just not getting anything with the testing that we're doing here. And that's not anybody's fault. It was just the technology at the time. Captain Lankford credits Detective Copeland for having the brilliant. Because you can't just take, in this case, the item. One of the items that they were testing was her underwear. The underwear that was recovered. Remember, it was torn, not cut. Some articles in news reports say that it was cut, it was torn, and there. You can't just take that whole article of clothing, throw it under a light, and then they go, well, we found DNA here, here, and here. Now let's test it. No, they're. They're testing small little pieces of that article of clothing. And every time you do that, you. You're running the risk of destroying evidence. You're also running the risk of. I mean. I mean, you're testing this stuff over and over again. That doesn't it's not free. And so Captain Lankford credits Detective Copeland, both the two who'd worked this case for many, many years, where Detective Copeland said, no, if you can only test a small piece of this article of clothing. Let's test right here. Let's test right here. And that's where they end up finding the suspect DNA. And what's, what's interesting about this is it's a complicated crime scene. Again, it's an outdoor crime scene. Lots of debris. Some of this debris may have physical evidence tied to the crime. Some of it may just be happenstance that it's there.

[Captain]

Yeah. But a lot of items, there's sometimes where you find a victim and there's no items.

[Nick]

The great part of this evidence is that this DNA is collected from an item that belonged to the victim. It was found on the victim or with the victim and the person that, that it leads you to. When they get the one to one comparison on the fingerprint, it matches his index finger.

[Captain]

Bingo. Boingo. Got him.

[Nick]

Got him.

[Captain]

What a piece of.

[Nick]

Well, this guy is. Yes, he's an, he's an extra large piece of. With a side of gravy. This is. His name is top Earl Cox.

[Captain]

Earl Cox, Yeah.

[Nick]

And he was. He had been a sex offender for a very long time. This short and not so sweet of it, as one of the detectives put it, was this is a man who had mistreated girls and women his entire life. Never been nice to a girl or a woman. In fact, spent a lot of his time, the time that, that he was out, he was abusing and raping females. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated high school and set in 1975 and then he enrolled in the United States Air Force. While he was in the Air Force, he gets in trouble when he's stationed over in Germany and he gets dishonorably discharged. Not just discharged, but he gets sentenced to go serve out a prison sentence in Fort Leavenworth Prison in Kansas for sexually abusing several girls, young girls, while he was stationed in Germany. Now.

[Captain]

Well, good for them because we've, we've also heard about cases where they get discharged and they try to sweep that under the rug. So at least they followed through with charges and followed through with him serving time for those crimes.

[Nick]

So he gets locked up. The detectives said that getting the detailed information from the M. Military on all of that information was, was difficult, so they didn't want to comment on those charges. And what he was locked up for, to a great extent but just know that he was locked up for several years for some pretty nasty stuff. And then once he is released, he sexually abused these two little girls that he was in charge of babysitting. Okay. This is a grown man. You know, he graduated in 1975. These charges come from the late 80s. We said. We've said it before, and. And it's just true. So I'll say it again. Grown men, normal grown men do not want to hang out with your kids.

[Captain]

Especially want to.

[Nick]

Especially if their kids. Nor. Well, the key word in that sentence was normal. Normal grown men do not want to hang out with your kids, especially if they're not kids that they don't know. Right. He's babysitting some lady's kids. He's doing that because it's an opportunity for him.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

It's an opportunity for him. Normal grown men want to be out on the golf course. They want to be drinking a beer with their buddy. They want to be watching a football game or sitting in the garage and having a beer with their buddy. All right, we're sorry. We're a selfish gender. This is a guy who's taking advantage of a situation. These poor girls, we won't get into any details here. I can report that they grew up to be happy people, normal people. So there's the silver lining there. But they. I mean, you want to talk about survivors? Yeah, they were. He abused them for a year and a half, approximately hoodwinked the mom into letting him babysit time and time again. Meanwhile, when she's gone or being absent, whatever. He's an absolute monster to these. These tiny little kids. He was living in the area very near Angie's bus stop, very near Angie's home at the time of her abduction and murder. It's the. What. The best that they could put together. He does plead guilty, ultimately, to this, but he doesn't offer up any great detailed confession. And oftentimes, what we see here, Captain, when these bad guys do talk, they lie to minimize either their involvement or minimize what kind of monster they really are. His confession says something like, oh, I happen to be driving through that neighborhood, and I had some kind of vehicle trouble, so I stopped to diagnose a problem, and this little girl comes up to me, and she engaged me in conversation. Now, that doesn't seem outside of the realm, because we. We do. We talked about her personality, but this doesn't. His confession doesn't ring true. He says that she said she was cold and hungry, so he was kind enough to put her in his car and take her to go get something to eat, some fast food. But. Oh, then he magically decides I'm going to take her home and terrorize her. Oh, also, how did you. You never told anybody how you fixed your car or what was wrong with your vehicle. Yeah. See, if.

[Captain]

If these individuals confess multiple times, and I'm not saying he did, but when the, the monsters do confess multiple times, I tell people the one the confession you should believe is the one where he's the worst.

[Nick]

Yeah, he. He doesn't confess multiple times. What happens in this case is he pleads guilty. The judge. This is how it was explained to me from the detectives. The judge is telling him, well, you have to give a confession. He refuses to do so. So the judge is asking him questions in the courtroom. He's saying yes or no, and then offering a little bit of information along the way till the point where they got to the point where they're. I mean, look, the guy did. Would be helpful to. To have some of that information, but at the end of the day, the guy did it. You got the right guy.

[Captain]

Yeah, I question that, though. Like, in these cases where there's not a detailed confession, is. Is it better or worse? I mean, obviously, as far as a law, law enforcement and, and sometimes the family wants to know those details. I think the details would only help with law enforcement or correct further investigation or further studying these sick individuals. But other than that, like. Well, I think if I necessarily need.

[Nick]

All the details, the reason why they were trying. I think that they were trying to pry this out of him with such force is look how long the investigation took, how much effort was put into it, how many different suspects they had over the years. Plus right there. There was always thought that it was tied to other crimes. And then you find a guy that, you know, committed other crimes, if you can get him to give a detailed confession on this, what other detailed confessions will he offer? What other cases could you close out? What other information could you glean from this? The.

[Captain]

Well, this monster might understand that that's what they're doing. The more details I give them, the more that they possibly can link me to another crime.

[Nick]

The problem with, with Cox here is that he, Earl Cox, was going to be stuck in prison for the rest of his life anyway by the time they caught up to him. So he was. This is one thing the detectives said that they take mild satisfaction in this because this guy was such a monster. He was always mistreating, harming raping women and girls, that the only satisfaction they could take out of this was that he spent very little amounts of his adulthood walking around free.

[Captain]

That's because he was such a monster that he'd get out and then I got to commit another crime.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Captain]

There's something that's very. It's not satisfying. It's not satisfying when you're like, we got him. Oh, but he's already in prison and he's already, he's already planning to spend his life in prison. So even if you get. Give him another life sentence or whatever, you, it's almost like you feel like he's getting no punishment for this crime.

[Nick]

True.

[Captain]

Doesn't it feel a little. It's not, it's not as satisfying where when you hear the guy is caught and he's sentenced to 120 some years in prison, he's never going to get out.

[Nick]

Yeah. So he was already never going to get out from the way that I understand it, because he was picked up in 2002. 2003. The conviction may have been in 2003, but he was. So he's only out for 10 years after he killed Angie. And he moved around a little bit during that time, but he's ultimately picked up in some type of sting operation where he's meeting an underage girl. He gets picked up in that. And then when they, when they go.

[Captain]

To where jumped out. Gotcha.

[Nick]

Where he's living, they find over 40,000 images of child sex abuse material. And given his background and his history, he was due to be released from those charges in, I believe it was 2012. But they. Under Adam Walsh. So sorry. Under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and safety act of 2006, he was deemed to be a threat, a sexual, sexually dangerous person. And so he was going to be committed for the rest of his life. They, they, they deemed him to be unfit to live amongst the rest of us. So he was sent off to federal prison and actually serving time in North Carolina. That is when they trace this DNA to him and then the fingerprint to him as well. And like you said, it's, it's a victory, but it's one that never feels good and it's never going to feel good. She. We can't bring Angie back. We can't take away what happened to her. The. The monster died in prison. He was pronounced dead in December of 2024.

[Captain]

Does it say what he died of? Hopefully he suffered a little bit.

[Nick]

The information I have says he died of natural causes. And that was one of his. I. His health was declining. I. Before he, It Seems like his health was in decline for. For many years leading up to this. So if there were some complications that I'm unaware of, but yes. Earl Cox, one of the worst people monsters that we've ever covered, and he died last year at the end of last year.

[Captain]

I wish I would have. I wish I would have been able to light him on fire and put him out with a shovel.

[Nick]

Thank you to the detectives that helped us with this week's story. The officers voices that you heard played throughout these three episodes in order of appearance are Detective Mickey Morris, St. Charles County Police Department, Detective Lt. Ed Copeland, St. Charles County Police department, and Captain John Lankford, St. Ann Police Department. All three lived, worked, and helped to finally close out this case. Detective Mickey Morris was brought on the case after years of investigation as the other detectives were nearing retirement. Detective Lieutenant Ed Copeland and Captain John Lankford both put in over 20 years on this case. Ed Copeland responded to the scene where the little girl was found. It was only through their great work that this case was finally solved. Thank you to all the dedicated members of law enforcement who worked this incredibly difficult case throughout the years and who helped to get justice for a little girl, Angie Housman, who was stolen away from her family that loved her in a community that prayed for her. Before we were done talking with Detective Mickey Morris, we asked her what closing this case meant to the community, the officers in the departments that worked the case, and if she remembers how she felt when she first learned of the news that the case had finally been solved, this is what she had to say.

[Detective Mickey Morris]

Angie. Oh, my gosh. It's about like, like I'm behaving now. It was just. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, my goodness. That poor little girl and her mom had passed, which was just heartbreaking that her mom had passed before they figured out who it was. But it was just. It was so important. Important for us, I guess, for us to show Angie that we never stopped, never stopped fearing that she deserved someone to be held accountable for the horrific way that she died. And just jubilation, just yay, finally. And then when you see him, it's just like, oh, well, no doubt. That poor girl. That made it even worse. So we were all incredibly happy. Oh, my goodness. There was some pride, I think, but there was more, a grateful that no more children were going to be hurt by this sob. And I was grateful for Angie that we identified it, that she mattered, you know, that she mattered enough that we could help her. Proud that I could contribute for certain. But when all of this was over. As you said, it was such a collective effort of so many dedicated people. I just happened to be in the last bunch. But yeah, that was probably one of the most gratifying experiences of my entire career that to retire right after that happened was just beyond perfect timing. Nick, if you had just been a person here that lived here and doing your podcast, even if you had all the research that you have now, you would not be able to stop thinking about this until it was solved. You know what I mean? You just can't or. It's not inherent in most of the people I know. You know, if something like this horrific happens, you just, you can't let it go. You're dogged about it. It's just the way it's gonna be. Yeah, a lot of people that. It's just, that's why we're cops. That's why we do what we do. Because we're not going to stop until the bad guys are are taken care of. If at all possible. I'm the one who is blessed. God chose me to help the vulnerable people, vulnerable people who did it or need help. And I hope I've contributed to that and made made a difference.

[Captain]

Want to thank you all so much for joining us here in the Garage. Make sure you check out our website, truecrimegarage.com go to the store page. Hey, maybe you pick yourself something up so you look sexy looking fresh for the summer or sign up on our.

[Nick]

Mailing list or cover yourself up with some true crime garage swag so you don't look too sexy.

[Captain]

Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful, beautiful listeners?

[Nick]

Yes, of course. I referenced this book in part one of our case coverage here this week in the Garage. This is very easily one of the very best true crime books to be released in 2023. I've recommended it before. I just read it again for the second time. It's In Light of All Darkness Inside the Poly Class Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child by New York Times bestseller Kim Cross. This is available in all formats, ebook, print, Kindle, Audible Go and pick this one up if you need more true crime for your earballs because or your eyeballs because. Kim Cross is a historian known for her meticulously reported narrative non fiction. The layout and the organization of this book is absolutely incredible and Kim's research is much more thorough than most writers out there. That title is In Light of All Darkness. You can find that title and many other great recommendations on our recommended page. Go to true crimegarage.com now and until next week.

[Captain]

Be good, be kind, don't litter.

[Nick]

We quilt this city with a comfy roll. Quilted Northern is quilted with three cushy layers for your comfort. The quilted comfort of Quilted Northern. Keep it quilted with Quilted Northern.