Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘Justice for Angie’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘On The Case with Paula Zahn,’ the primary focus is on the disappearance and brutal murder of 9-year-old Angie Housman, who had a bright future ahead of her. What was initially a missing persons case turned into a homicide case when her remains surfaced at a wildlife area in St. Charles County, Missouri. The investigation went on for multiple decades until DNA evidence led the detectives straight to the perpetrator responsible for the gruesome crime. The documentary also features insightful and emotional interviews with Angie’s loved ones, who were deeply affected by her untimely passing.
Angie Housman Was Abducted After She Got Off Her School Bus Near Her House
On February 18, 1984, in Saint Louis, Missouri, Angela Marie “Angie” Housman entered the world of Diane M. Housman and Angelo D’Andrea in the form of a little bundle of joy. Soon after her birth, her father was reportedly asked to stay away by Diane’s parents. Angie received several gifts and money from her biological father while residing with her mother, stepfather, Ronald Walter Bone Sr., and siblings — Richie Earl Bone, Ronald Walter Bone, Jr., and Rebel Lee Bone. Hoping to reconnect with his daughter and watch her grow up, Angelo’s dreams were shattered on the fateful afternoon of November 18, 1993.
After deboarding her school bus a few houses away from her own, the 9-year-old girl suddenly vanished and never made it to her house in St. Charles County, Missouri. An extensive search was launched by the authorities, who were helped by several volunteers of the community, in order to look for her and bring her to safety. Unfortunately, after nine days of search, her unclothed remains were discovered by a hunter at the Busch Wildlife Area in St. Charles County on November 27. As the authorities inspected the remains, they concluded that she had been sexually assaulted and left to die in freezing temperatures. The cause of her death was deemed to be hypothermia. Without wasting any time, a homicide investigation was launched.
DNA Evidence Found on Angie Housman’s Clothing Led to the Killer’s Capture Nearly Three Decades Later
The authorities led a manhunt for several months, during which they interviewed multiple potential suspects and persons of interest. At the time, a former US Air Force computer operator named Earl Cox was also suspected due to his connections in the area where Angie was last seen. He was a convicted child molester who was discharged from the Air Force due to multiple sex offenses against juveniles. He was also charged with the molestation of a 7-year-old girl in 1989, a few years before Angie’s death. After serving time, he was released from prison in 1992, after which he relocated to Missouri. However, the authorities couldn’t gather incriminating evidence against him.
For more than two decades, the case remained cold, with no new concrete leads. However, as new DNA technology allowed the authorities to test the DNA recovered from Angie’s piece of clothing, which was found at the crime scene. In 2019, it turned out that the DNA matched Earl Cox’s DNA, making him a prime suspect in the case. As per Earl, on the fateful day of November 18, 1993, he was fixing his car when he saw the 9-year-old girl, Angie, getting out of her school bus. He claimed that she approached him and he had asked her if she was hungry. St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar told KSDK, “Since she was, she got in his car and they stopped by Burger King and just drove around and the rest, unfortunately, is history.”
Tim elaborated, “They were in the car for an extended period of time, potentially hours. And eventually, he took her back to his residence and that’s where he brutally sexually assaulted her for an extended period of time. It was torturous. I can’t imagine what was going through this little girl’s mind.” Earl alleged that he held Angie hostage in one of the rooms of his mobile home for several days and instructed her then live-in girlfriend not to go inside that room. The accused then allegedly left her to die in the woods a few miles away from his residence. At the time, he was already in custody for an unrelated international child pornography case. So, he was charged with first-degree murder, sexual abuse, sodomy, and kidnapping in connection with Angie’s murder.
Earl Cox Passed Away While Serving Time at a Missouri Prison Facility
In August 2020, Earl Cox pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and child molestation. He agreed to confess his crimes, but in return, the prosecution had to take the death penalty off the table. The prosecution considered the plea deal due to Earl’s poor health and age. Thus, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After his sentencing, he was transferred from a federal facility dedicated to rehabbing sexual predators to a Missouri prison.
The following year, on March 5, 2021, he also took an Alford plea, acknowledging that the state had enough evidence to prove him guilty of four counts of sodomy. Consequently, he was sentenced to a decade at the Missouri Department of Corrections. While serving his sentence, Earl was taken to the Missouri Delta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on the night of December 2, 2024. As per reports, the cause of his death was apparent natural causes.
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