51ºÚÁÏ

ST. CHARLES — The man accused in the gruesome death of 9-year-old Angie Housman in 1993 pleaded guilty to the killing Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Earl W. Cox, 63, was facing charges of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse after his DNA was found on a piece of Angie’s clothing more than 25 years after her death. He pleaded guilty to both counts, bringing some closure to one of the most high-profile criminal cases in the 51ºÚÁÏ area for the last 30 years.

“Your crimes not only terrified Angie and her family, but the entire community,� St. Charles County Circuit Judge Jon A. Cunningham said before sentencing Cox, who appeared in court using a walker with gray hair past his shoulders and a blue surgical mask covering a white beard.

Members of Angie’s family appeared for the plea and sentencing, with the girl’s stepfather, brother, aunts and cousin addressing the court about years of pain that continues to this day.

St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar told reporters after the sentencing that he regretted that the death penalty was not an option, but said he decided to enter the plea deal to avoid the uncertainty of trial and secure from Cox a confession and some explanation of what happened to Angie.

“He does deserve the death penalty, he deserves a worse fate than what he gave to Angie,� Lohmar said.

Angie disappeared from her school bus stop in November 1993 in St. Ann. Cox, a disgraced Air Force veteran and convicted pedophile, had stayed for a time with his mother who lived just blocks from where the girl was last seen.

Cox admitted in court Thursday that he picked up the girl, who he said was a stranger to him, that frigid afternoon. She was tired and cold and got into his orange sedan, he said. He said he drove off against her will, taking her to Wentzville where Cox was renting a home. He admitted in court to sexually abusing the girl in the home and holding her captive there.

Cox then admitted to binding the fourth grader to a tree in a remote area of Busch Wildlife Area in St. Charles County and leaving her to die.

A deer hunter found Angie’s body nine days after she disappeared. She had been starved, bound, sexually assaulted, and her eyes and mouth were covered with duct tape. Authorities believe she died from exposure within about a day before she was found.

Panic in the region

The killing set off panic in the 51ºÚÁÏ area as one of three murders of young girls that year and led to one of the most intense police investigations ever launched in the region.

Dozens of detectives were assigned to the case. A tip line dedicated to the investigation received more than 5,000 calls in just one day from people offering information that might be used to find the killer.

But it wasn’t until more than 25 years later that advances in technology allowed investigators to extract DNA from a scrap of Angie’s underwear. The DNA was matched to a sample from Cox in a national database in March 2019. Cox was charged three months later.

Lohmar, the St. Charles County prosecutor, said Thursday that investigators interviewed neighbors of the Wentzville home where she was taken, but no one had a memory of seeing the girl. The prosecutor added that investigators believe Cox acted alone.

Lohmar said that had the killing happened today, the case would have been solved much sooner given the improvements in law enforcement technology.

Cox has been incarcerated since 2003, when he was convicted of being an administrator for an international online child pornography network. He completed his sentence for that crime in 2011 but authorities designated him a sexually dangerous person and kept him incarcerated at the Butner Medium Security Facility in North Carolina.

He had a history of sexually abusing children before abducting Angie, and admitted in court Thursday that he underwent treatment for pedophilia after a 1982 conviction. In that case, Cox was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force and convicted of molesting four girls he babysat while stationed at a base in Germany.

He was released in 1985 but sent back to prison in 1992 after he was arrested on suspicion of inappropriate contact with two girls in Overland.

Cox was released from prison 11 months before Angie disappeared.

‘He killed my wife’

Cox declined an opportunity Thursday to make a statement about his crime, but members of Angie’s family spoke during and after court about decades of hurt caused by the death.

Cox’s sentencing came too late, however, for Angie’s mother, Diane Bone, who died of cancer in 2016 at age 52.

“He ought to be in for two murders. He killed my wife,� Angie’s stepfather, Ron Bone Sr., said after the sentencing. “She might have died from cancer, but she died a long time ago ... it just tore her up.�

Angie’s brother, Ron Bone Jr., said it was difficult to hear Cox admit some details of the torture before his sister’s death.

“I was 2 when she was taken,� he said. “She was a big part of my life, so to have her taken away like that was taking my best friend away.�

He said the family was racked with guilt after the death, and as a young child said he needed to stop his mother from harming herself.

“My mom was never the same after that,� he said.

Angie’s mother spoke to the Post-Dispatch in 1994, a year after her daughter’s death.

“I cry in the daytime. I cry in the nighttime,� she said. “I try not to cry in front of my son, so I’ll walk in the bathroom so he doesn’t see me. I don’t think I’ll ever get over this.�

Diane Bone that year constantly worried about the safety of children in the area and kept a porch light on outside the family’s rented duplex.

“When they find the killer and put him in jail,� she told the Post-Dispatch nearly 27 years ago, “that’s when the light goes off.�