DNA evidence cracks case of rape and murder of 9-yr-old girl 25 years ago; pins it on Air Force veteran and convicted pedophile
Investigators have used DNA evidence to identify a suspect in the rape and murder of a young girl in Missouri from a case 25 years ago. The child, nine-year-old Angie Housman disappeared after she got off a school bus in 1993 in the suburb of St. Ann, St. Louis. Her body was discovered tied to a tree nine days after she vanished by a deer hunter in a remote area of Busch Wildlife Area in St. Charles County.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that forensic scientists found a DNA sample in fall last year on a piece of the clothing taken from the crime scene that was previously undetected. It is also understood that a fingerprint was found at the scene.
According to the outlet, scientists were able to match a 61-year-old Air Force veteran and convicted pedophile to the crime using latest advances in DNA analysis. Sources who are familiar with the case said that the man is a seller of international online child pornography. It has been reported that the suspect was born and raised in St. Louis and joined the US Air Force in 1975.
Only five years after joining, he was court-martialed and served his sentence at Fort Leavenworth for sex offenses that involved young children whom he babysat while he was stationed at the Air Force base in Frankfurt, Germany. He was freed on parole in 1985, which was revoked in 1992 after he was arrested and charged once again with sexual abuse of a child.
The unnamed man moved back to the St. Louis area after this and lived in an address in the same neighborhood as Angie only months before she disappeared. St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar told the paper that charges against the man will be announced very soon.
It is believed that he is being held in prison under the Adam Walsh Act, which means that the government has proven in court that he will commit sexual attacks on children again if he is released. Lohmar also claimed that there have been "new developments" in the case but did not go into details.
Ron Bone, Angie's stepfather, claimed that authorities had interviewed him around two or three months ago. They had allegedly shown him pictures of a man they thought was responsible for Angie's death. Bone said that he did not know who the man was. He told the publication: "That picture, he’s a young kid but I don’t know him exactly by name but the picture looks familiar, the face looks familiar but I can’t picture who he is."
He is glad that the police are close to solving the decades-old case but also blames them for not doing so sooner. He added: "If they got the guy, fantastic." Angie's mother, Diane, died of cancer two years ago at the age of 52.
It was previously reported that Angie had been starved, handcuffed, and sexually assaulted. She also had her eyes and mouth bound with duct tape in what the authorities claimed was a horrific end to a young life. Investigators believe that she died from exposure hours before she was found. The horrific crime sparked alarm in the community which led to one of the most significant investigations ever launched in St. Louis.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the St. Charles County Police Department’s tip line at 636-949-3002.
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