He Stole a Dead Child's Identity, Lived on the Lam 30 Years

Steven Johnson is back in custody three decades after he escaped from a prison work detail in Oregon, reports CBS News. The man described as a "pedophile" in a wanted poster from the 1990s was arrested at an apartment complex in Macon, Georgia, where he was living under the alias of William Cox, say authorities in a release. As it turns out, William Cox was the name of a child who died in Texas in 1962, and Johnson managed to use the birth certificate to obtain a Social Security number and driver's license, per KOIN.

Johnson, now 70, had been imprisoned on sexual abuse charges, per CNN, and his wanted poster in Oregon warned that he "is a pedophile and presents a high probability of victimizing pre-teen boys." It's not clear exactly how authorities finally tracked him down. A "new investigative technology" used by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service established new leads this year, according to CNN, but no details were provided about the technology. (More escaped criminal stories.)