April 25, 2023 • 49 mins
The Wizard travels the world and ends up in West St. Louis. But it took too long to expose the seemingly powerful as a murderous fraud.
Sources:
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/earl-cox-plea-angie-housman-case/63-eaab6669-ec18-4af4-945c-312eba311d3e
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/jul/02/internetnews.childprotection
https://apnews.com/article/d4ad86487f5b4d3d840165a7662ee0ca
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark (00:00):
Wizard always imagined this moment romantically, like
some movie, he would sweep herup and off, they would go.
Marcy (00:08):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
(00:30):
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
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(00:52):
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Mark (01:20):
Wizard drove his van down the neighborhood street.
It was mid-afternoon on atypical Midwestern November day
breezy, but the winter cold didnot yet set in.
He found a place to park on theside of the road where the trees
might obscure any nosyneighbors.
He's a little early, so hesettled back into his seat to
wait.
For wizard, this isn't the firstday of the expedition.
(01:44):
Far from it.
He's been a busy guy for thelast few days, patiently
watching, waiting.
He had to be cautious too close,and someone might take notice of
him amongst the surge of carsjocking for position, trying to
make their pickup as fast aspossible and get the hell out of
there.
Between the scrum of privatevehicles and buses, wizard
thought he would never pick outthe target.
(02:05):
Then success, he saw her.
He even got a vehicle number.
Wizard's, caution paid off.
He was pretty sure he had gottenaway clean.
No one taking notice of theinterloper in the crowd.
From there, tracking was easier.
The vehicle was distinct,clearly marked, so all he needed
to do was monitor the outboundcourse.
(02:26):
By day three, he knew the routeand termination point.
By day four, he set up down thestreet and watched.
That's how Wizard came to besitting in position on that fine
november afternoon, his vanpartially obscured from view by
prying eyes by a tree in bushes,bordering the sidewalk in the
working class neighborhood, asuburb of West St.
(02:46):
Louis.
Wizard congratulated himself ona job well done.
Almost done.
He checked his watch time wasshort.
Wizard reminded himself thatthis wasn't done.
It was just the beginning andthe riskiest part still lay
ahead.
Nevertheless, he almost vibratedwith excitement as he slowly
scanned from side to side andtoward the rear with the
(03:08):
mirrors.
He saw nothing.
The mission was a go.
Wizard heard the roaring enginebefore he saw it A few seconds
later, the big yellow busemerged from between two houses.
As it approached the corner, thefamiliar ringing of brakes,
hydraulic hiss and the powerfulengine slowed to idle.
The door opened and the girl,his girl stepped down onto the
(03:29):
sidewalk.
Wizard, held his breath, thenexhaled raggedly past the spike
of adrenaline.
The bus doors, accordion closed,engine powered up, diesel smoke
puffing out the rear, and thenit was gone.
And she was alone on the corner.
Wizard stole a glance.
Left, right rear still no onearound.
The girl was half a block away,walking towards him, swinging a
(03:51):
little bag, not paying attentionto anything.
He was caught in her spell asshe approached.
Time slowed down.
He guessed she was eight ornine, maybe four, six.
She was thin with a palecomplexion.
Her shoulder length, wavy brownhair blew across her face in the
breeze as she carelesslystrolled up the block.
(04:13):
Wizard stepped out of the vanand crept around to the rear.
He scanned the neighborhoodagain, trying to look
nonchalant, but his heart washammering in his chest.
As the girl walked between hiscar and the bushes Wizard
stepped out blocking the narrowsidewalk, he said, oh, hello.
As a surprise, by her suddenappearance, the girl looked up
(04:33):
at him eyes wide with genuinesurprise.
Wizard always imagined thismoment romantically, like some
movie, he would sweep her up andoff, they would go.
Instead, he stammered out a halfbaked ruse that neither one of
them could believe.
Your parents sent me to pick youup." The girl started backing
away, shaking her head part infear, part disbelief,"no"!
(04:54):
Wizard lunged forward as shetook her second backward step
simultaneously, grabbing her byone arm and opening the
passenger side door.
The girl cried"no!" moreforcefully trying to pull away.
Wizard pushed her in, bendingher over, pinning her upper body
of the seat.
He had once seen a bunny rabbitcaught in a snare eyes, wild,
(05:15):
desperate, frantic.
This is how the girl looked.
She began to whimper her cries,partially muffled in the seat.
"No, I need to go home.
I need my mommy." He warned herto be quiet or he would hurt
her.
Wizard promised the girl that wewould take her home to her mommy
if she would just calm down.
He said, I'm really a policeofficer and I've been sent to
(05:36):
take you.
As he Spoke, he put handcuffs onher wrist, ratcheting them down
as tight as they would go.
The girls' crying became sobs.
She screamed ow the unyieldingmetal restraints binding into
the soft skin of her wrists.
Wizard didn't bother withappearances as he rushed around,
jumped in the driver's side.
The girl was twisting in theseat to herself.
Wizard shoved her back down,pinning her with his hand as he
(05:58):
drove out of the neighborhood.
He began talking to the girl,telling her not to be afraid
that he wasn't going to hurther.
She was inconsolable.
Through her sobs.
The girl expressed the ferventwish of that bunny rabbit to be
set free.
The drive took less than 15minutes, which seemed like an
eternity.
Wizard knew better than to drawattention by driving as fast as
(06:21):
his mind was racing.
Once he cleared theneighborhood, he maneuvered in
traffic.
Being careful did not allowanyone a good view of his cargo.
He hit the highway, crossed theriver, and into St.
Charles County where the houseswere more spread out.
Wizard shitty little trailerwasn't in the wilderness by any
means, but it was set off on hisown with no close neighbors to
(06:42):
nose around.
On that day as it came intoview, it looked as welcoming as
a fortress to wizard.
He was safe and he had his girl.
As he pulled up to the shack,she continued to cry.
It didn't matter.
She was his now.
He shifted in the park, turnedto her, and disposed of all
pretense.
(07:02):
"Stop crying." He snapped.
"You will do as you're told,you're mind until I say you're
not." He leaned over almostsnarling.
"If you do not do what I say, Iwill hurt you, and then I'll go
to your house and I'll hurt yourmommy." He stared at the girl
who was trying to control hercrying.
(07:23):
She said,"I just want to gohome." I don't give a shit what
you want, but when I'm done withyou, I'll let you go.
If you're a good girl with thatwizard, pulled her out, up the
steps and up into the trailerfrom the outside.
An optimistic observer mighthave described Wizard's home as
(07:43):
a rustic hovel.
It didn't get better on theinside, where Dim Light was a
blessing.
Sparsely furnished, yetcluttered, unkept, and grimy.
The girl barely had time toregister her new surroundings as
Wizard pulled her down the longnarrow hallway, the master
bedroom, if you could call it,that was lit by a single naked
(08:05):
bulb protruding from the ceilingoutlet in the center of the
room.
Thick wool blankets blocked outany trace of late afternoon.
There was a small mattress on aninstitution, gray metal frame
along the opposite wall.
A shabby wood dresser that oncehad been painted white completed
the bedroom set.
Wizard, closed the door, turnedher roughly and released one
(08:27):
handcuff.
"Strip." The girl looked up athim, scared, confused"what?" He
slapped her across the face hardenough that she dropped to her
knees.
"Take.
All.
Your.
Clothes.
Off." The girl started sobbingonce again, but she slowly
complied.
Wizard watched her drinking inevery detail.
(08:47):
He was most excited by theunderwear.
The little girl's, white Barbieprint panties with pink and
yellow trim.
Perfection.
When the girl was naked.
Wizard carressed her body,pushing her backward down onto
the bed.
He didn't completely losecontrol of himself.
He remembered to handcuff onehand to the metal bar.
(09:09):
Wizard kept her for eightglorious days doing whatever
came to mind, and he had a loton his mind.
Initially it was pretty tame,but when the girl stopped
reacting, got that blank starelike they do, he had to spice it
up.
Another time when he was outtaking a break, she tried to
yell for help.
(09:30):
Wizard came in and punished herby taping her mouth shut.
That gave him some ideas.
He enjoyed punishing her.
After a while, she becamedifficult to rouse, just laying
there helpless.
So Wizard had to up the ante.
At first, showing her theknives, flashing in front of her
face was enough to get areaction.
(09:51):
When that threat wore off, hebegan cutting.
Not too much.
He didn't wanna lose her.
Not yet.
The sight of blood, brought thegirl back to the moment.
That was where Wizard wantedher.
He didn't spend all that timepreparing, risking everything to
do a zombie.
Wizard fed on her fear, reveledin the power and control.
(10:12):
It recharged him like no drugever could.
He felt like he could go foreverwith the girl chain to his bed.
But after a week, the searcherswere still the top story on the
evening news.
They were looking.
Hard.
Wizard started feeling pressure.
The longer he kept the girl, thehigher the risk.
(10:33):
He'd had his fun.
He started to think about whatto do with her.
He didn't really want to beresponsible for her death, so he
took her out and tied her to atree, helpless her arms pinned
behind her with the cuffs,cranked down hard.
His rational self didn't wanther to be found.
In the back of his mind, he knewhe should have buried her.
(10:55):
But he didn't like the waste.
He wanted recognition.
Their week together had been awork of art, and he wanted his
masterpiece to live on in theminds of even those who found
her.
He wanted to drive by there inthe future and think of her like
that.
Chained, hopeless, helpless to atree.
Who knows?
They might never find her, andthat tree would become a sacred
(11:16):
monument just for him.
The wizard.
Marcy (11:36):
Earl Webster cox was born and grew up in the suburbs of
St.
Louis.
He enlisted in the US Air Forcein 1975 and trained as a
computer systems operatorstationed in Germany at Rhine
Main Air Force Base.
During his off hours he babysat.
In 1979, they arrested him formolesting four of those kids
(12:00):
whose ages ranged between sevenand 11.
Convicted in a court marshal,Cox was sentenced to eight years
at Fort Leavenworth Prison.
When interviewed by apsychiatrist about victimizing
little girls, Cox blamed hisbehavior on the abuse he
suffered as a child at the handsof his stepfather.
In 1984, having served only fiveyears.
(12:23):
Cox was released from prison andejected from the military with a
dishonorable discharge and therank of E one.
Cox moved back to the St.
Louis area.
His parents and sister had neverleft that area, and he moved
into a trailer near Overland, atownship in their vicinity.
In 1989, the Overland Policearrested Cox for the sexual
(12:47):
abuse of two seven year oldgirls.
He'd been watching the childrenand had molested them at a movie
theater and at a park.
He was also suspected offondling another child.
Instead of prosecuting Cox forthese new crimes, his parole was
violated and he was sent back toFort Leavenworth Prison.
(13:09):
In 2003, Cox was the subject ofa federal enticement
investigation using the screenname, young stuff, Cox started
messaging a 14 year old girlnamed Brenda, ultimately telling
her he wanted to have sex withher, including details like his
desire to spank her.
(13:30):
When Brenda wasn't scared away,Cox sent her a bus ticket to
leave her home from the Eastcoast and meet him in Colorado.
He told her she was going to behis sex slave and explicitly
instructed her what to wear whenshe got off the bus.
A short skirt, a red tube top,no bra and no panties.
(13:53):
Brenda stepped off the bus inColorado right on schedule.
Cox greeted her but said, youdon't look 14." That's because
she wasn't.
At that point, the arrest teammoved in and took Cox into
custody.
During the follow upinvestigation, they raided Cox's
home and seized his computer.
(14:14):
The FBI agents working on Cox'scase discovered that he was an
administrator in an online childpornography ring called the
Shadows Brotherhood.
The group ran chat and webpageswith servers in numerous
countries using computerexpertise he'd gained in the Air
Force.
(14:34):
They referred to Cox as theWizard.
He oversaw submissions to boardgroups with names like Panty
Raiders and Lolita Lovers.
Shadow's brotherhood ran on amerit system.
The more child pornographycontributed, the greater access
a member would have to the site.
(14:54):
Members would submit picturesand videos containing child
pornography.
Much of it shared from outsideinternet sources, but the most
venerated members were producingnew material.
All the members were collectors,but there were also many
sadistic abusers.
The FBI agents tallied up whatthey found.
(15:17):
Cox's computer contained 45,000stored child porn photos and
videos.
Cox was in communication withothers in the group who were
planning a get together, whatthey referred to as a teddy bear
picnic at a farm in ruralMissouri.
The first round of shadows,brotherhood, arrests included
(15:39):
100 people jailed in 11countries.
During the investigation, Coxtried to play the situation off
as a misunderstanding.
He said he knew that Brenda wasa federal agent and was using
the opportunity to expose theshadow's, brotherhood to the
fbi.
Later, when speaking to apsychologist, he claimed he was
(16:01):
only involved in the groupbecause it was like group
therapy.
For the attempt to entice aminor.
Cox was sentenced to 10 years inprison with three years of
probation.
He was sent to the ButnerFederal Correctional Complex in
North Carolina.
As his 2011 release dateapproached federal prosecutors
(16:23):
had Cox certified as a sexuallydangerous person.
Evaluations by psychologistsdetermined Cox had a mental
defect, and if released, hewould be a serious threat to
girls.
Under the 2006 Adam Walsh ChildProtection and Safety Act, the
federal government can keepsexually dangerous persons in
(16:45):
prison beyond their sentences.
Cox was still sitting in federalprison in 2019 when a new
indictment came down, like apresent from the ghost of
Christmas past.In 1993, AngieHouseman was nine years old,
living in St.
(17:06):
Anne, Missouri.
St.
Anne was a working class suburbjust west of St.
Louis.
Angie lived with her parents ina modest home and attended buter
Elementary School.
November 18th had begun as anormal day for Angie.
She rodee the bus to school inthe morning and in the afternoon
(17:26):
was dropped at the corner of herblock, just a few driveways down
from her house.
Somewhere on the walk betweenthe bus stop and the safety of
home.
Angie disappeared without atrace.
Later that afternoon when herparents noticed she hadn't
walked in the door, they calledaround.
(17:48):
None of her friends or neighborsknew where Angie might be.
The bus driver confirmed thatshe was last seen walking up the
block alone.
Angie's parents checked door todoor and up and down the street,
but found no signs of the girl.
They called 9 1 1.
(18:08):
The police recanvassed theblocks, but also turned up
nothing.
In the following days, police,friends, family, and a crowd of
volunteers would search broadswaths of West St.
Louis.
But these searches were alsofruitless.
There was no answer to themystery of the missing girl for
nine days.
(18:28):
Nine days of agony for parentsand family.
Then a man hunting in theAugust, a bush memorial
conservation area called thePolice.
Angie Houseman's body waspartially covered in snow, tied
to the base of a tree.
The medical examiner estimatedshe'd only been dead a matter of
(18:48):
hours before the hunter foundher.
Her little body told a tale ofsadistic vicious abuse.
Hands cuffed behind her, thelittle girl's struggles, left
her wrists raw and deeplylacerated.
With her head and face wrappedin duct tape and only her nose
left clear.
Pieces of torn pink Barbie printunderwear were stuffed inside
(19:11):
her mouth.
She hadn't been fed since herabduction according to the
autopsy.
She'd been repeatedly raped.
And she had many superficialcuts on her body and a
particularly deep laceration toone thigh.
Ultimately, Angie died fromexposure.
At the time, Angie Houseman'smurder scene deep in the woods
(19:33):
was a discreet tableau withlittle, immediately linking it
to any specific suspect.
As detectives looked around,they found no similar crimes
with similar mos leading the wayout of the mystery.
As the details of Angie's deathleaked out, parents became
hyper-vigalent.
People looked for signs of themonster living among them.
(19:54):
The initial terror turned into adistressful unease as time
passed without an arrest.
People closest to Angie nevergave up hope as the weeks turned
into months, years, and decades.
But back in 1993, investigatorslogged away a tiny drop of
suspect DNA N found on a pieceof Angie's Barbie print
(20:18):
underwear.
By 2019, technology andtechnique had advanced enough to
allow a criminalist to isolateand test the dna.
N only one in 58.1 trillionhuman beings could have the same
DNA as that found on the Barbieunderwear.
(20:38):
That person was the now 61 yearold Cox.
Investigators quickly piecedtogether that Cox would've been
36 when the murder occurred.
At that time, he had lived inthe West St.
Louis suburbs.
His sister lived three blocksfrom Angie's Elementary School.
(20:58):
Cox agreed to an interview withinvestigators.
He'd recently had a stroke andclaimed not to remember
everything, but he rememberedenough.
Cox told interrogators that hewas driving through a
neighborhood the afternoon thatAngie Houseman went missing.
His car broke down and he pulledto the side of the road.
(21:18):
A few minutes later, he saw aschool bus stop at the corner,
and the girl got out.
He watched her walk down thestreet toward him.
Cox said, Angie approached himand they started talking.
Angie said she was hungry, sothey got into his car and went
to Burger King.
After the meal, Cox admittedthat he took her to his trailer,
(21:39):
which was about six miles westin St.
Charles County.
He admitted to having sex withAngie, keeping her restrained in
his room for days.
He concluded the confession bysaying that he left Angie in the
wooded area.
He claimed that he didn't wantthe girl to die, rather he hoped
that someone passing by wouldfind her Prosecutor tim Lomar
(22:02):
didn't believe all of Cox'sstory.
He didn't think Angie approachedhim for food, didn't buy that
Cox wanted her to be found.
He said,"My theory is that hethought by the time anybody
would discover her body, theywould never be able to identify
the remains because it was thatremote.
(22:22):
I think that ultimately he gothimself into a situation that he
didn't know how to get out of,and in his mind, the only way
that he could protect himself atthat point was to try to end her
life, so she couldn't tellanyone else what had happened
and hopefully not get caught inthe process." On Thursday,
August 20th, 2020.
(22:44):
63 year old Cox pled guilty tothe 1993 kidnapping sexual
assault, and first degree murderof nine year old Angie Houseman.
In exchange for the plea, theprosecutor agreed not to ask for
the death penalty while Coxloses the ability to appeal the
case or the sentence.
(23:05):
They sentenced Cox to life inprison without parole for the
murder, plus seven years for thesexual assault.
Not everyone was pleased withthe sentence.
Angie's mother had died ofcancer in 2016 without ever
knowing the identity of herkiller, but Angie had many
(23:25):
family members and supporterswho wanted to see Cox on death
row.
Angie's Aunt Debbie Skaggsbelieved that Cox should die for
the crime, insisting"he doesn'tdeserve to live.
I'm never going to change mymind about that, and he is going
to hell." the prosecutordefended the deal by reasoning
(23:47):
that Cox was in poor health andprobably wouldn't survive long
enough to get to the point ofexecution.
To him, it made more sense tolimit Cox's ability to challenge
the conviction.
In the spring of 2021,prosecutors brought another case
against Cox by adding insuranceto his already unsurvivable
(24:08):
prison sentence.
The investigators who did theresearch for the final push in
the Angie Houseman murderdeveloped this case.
They rediscovered andresurrected the neglected
Overland PD case where Cox hadmolested two little girls before
they sent him back toLeavenworth.
(24:28):
One of those victims by then, anadult, welcomed the prosecution.
Prosecutors charged Cox withfour counts of sodomy, which in
Missouri is the legal term thatincludes sexual assault of a
child under 14.
These specific assaults happenedin 1988 and 1989.
(24:50):
Cox took an Alfred plea forthese additional charges.
With this kind of plea, adefendant agrees that there is
enough evidence to convictwithout directly admitting to
the crime.
During the sentencing hearing,Cox sent silently while the
victim addressed him.
She told Cox that she had waited30 years.
For that moment, she cursed him,saying,"you will rot in a lonely
(25:14):
jail cell.
No family, no friends, and mostimportantly, no more victims."
the judge tucked on another 10years to Cox's life sentence.
After the hearing, St.
Louis County prosecutingattorney Wesley Bell said, we
hope this guilty plea helps tohonor the memory of Angie
(25:35):
Houseman and to honor the stillliving victims of this predator.
We hope this conviction givessome closure and semblance of
justice to these courageousvictims." beginning the
(26:01):
discussion.
I am glad that they went throughwith adding those last charges,
even though Cox was alreadysentenced to life in prison.
Mark (26:11):
Yeah, I think a cynic might say that it was wasted
time, like politicalgrandstanding by a prosecutor.
He came from a different county.
This happened in a differentcounty.
Maybe that prosecutor wanted tosay had convicted Cox.
But I think it's more than that.
Marcy (26:26):
Yeah, it gave the, that first victim who had to live
with that trauma her entirelife, A moment in court to
actually confront him.
Mark (26:34):
Yeah, I think it's great.
She's still relatively young.
He's old, frail, powerless,loveless freedom less forever.
Marcy (26:43):
Tell me why you used the name wizard in the narrative.
Mark (26:48):
Yeah.
It was his name in the childporn ring.
Cox is the only one of the badguys in any of our episodes that
I allowed to name himself.
I actually wanted to call himSleaze but the name wizard
worked on me.
Very dark Wizard of Oz aspectwith these little girls who are
lost literally or figurativelybecause of what he did to them.
Marcy (27:09):
You wanna say something about the usual kinds of
suspects in these cases?
Mark (27:14):
Sure.
Most suspects in cases like thisare known to the children and
the families.
Actually, this is how mostmolesters gain access to their
victims.
They're trusted.
You can also see this in caseswhere the little kids disappear
and are later found dead.
It's often an inside job.
In fact, in my community, werecently had a case that rocked
(27:35):
our community.
A mom went to work leaving herboyfriend to babysit her kid.
The man raped the child, andpursuant to the assault the kid
died, that insider betrayalthing was true of his first
victims that we know about, theones in Germany and later in
Missouri.
My take on Angela's murder wasthat because she wasn't a direct
(27:56):
link to him, he felt freer to gofurther, to torture her, to kill
her.
When, if he had done that withthe original girls that he was
linked to, that would've gottenhim immediately locked up.
But then again with Angela, hedid hold to the principal I've
talked about several times inthe past.
He selected a victim from aplace he was very familiar with.
His parents lived close, hissister lived within a few blocks
(28:17):
of her school.
So she was obviously selected.
I wanted to say this about thatabout the narrative.
The reason that I set it up ashe, he's following her.
He's picking her out.
He's surveilling her is becausehe didn't just turn up on that
block with the bus stop at up atthe corner, a single girl
getting out, walking down theblock alone.
(28:38):
That's a hell of a coincidence.
It wasn't a coincidence.
He stalked her and he kidnappedher.
Along these same lines, I pickedout a quote from the prosecutor
who prosecuted angie's case, TimLomar"this is the prototypical
child kidnapping case that youthink about.
The one you hear your parentswarn you about when you're a
(28:59):
kid.
Stranger danger, things likethat.
In the vast majority of ourchild molestation cases, there
is some sort of connection or arelationship between the victim
and the perpetrator."
Marcy (29:10):
in the narrator, you used the common threat that child
molesters used to keep theirvictims quiet.
Mark (29:19):
Yes.
See that over and over again.
Cooperate, or I will hurt orkill you.
And if you tell, I'll hurt orkill, members of your family.
It sets the kid up to make adecision.
They aren't mature enough torationally make.
Marcy (29:37):
Talk about how the initial investigation failed
angie.
You said that you think that themolestation of the two girls a
few years prior should have beena key focus from day one.
Mark (29:49):
Yes, and that's not just my opinion.
Some of the senior investigatorswhen they learned about Cox's
identity in 2019 and what hishistory was, they couldn't
believe that they missed him.
In my opinion and theirs, Coxshould have been a top suspect
because of the proximity of theprior molestation cases.
The fact he had multiple victimseven going back into, in his Air
(30:12):
Force days, they should havekept a record of him.
Cox was not prosecuted at thetime that they caught him for
molesting the two girls inMissouri.
The investigators or theprosecutor instead opted to
violate him back to Leavenworth.
Marcy (30:26):
And then it turned out they only kept him for a year.
Mark (30:28):
Yeah, a year is obscene.
Worse than that, he had no localconviction, which undoubtedly
sheltered him from a lot oflocal attention and helped him
stay completely under the radarfor the people investigating the
houseman murder.
In any competent investigation.
He should have gotten immediateattention.
(30:49):
Think about it, Cox kept heralive for a week, more than a
week.
There was a chance to intervenehere.
When investigators were askedhow Cox, how it was that Cox
never came up as a suspect inthe initial investigation, they
all pointed back to the lack ofmodern systems like the sex
offender registry, the DNAdatabase, ViCAP basic searchable
(31:12):
police databases on the locallevel, and also links with
social media.
Marcy (31:19):
Playing sort of devil's advocate, you have mentioned
that SAM cases or sexual abuseof a minor cases can be really
difficult to prosecute,particularly with young victims.
Mark (31:28):
Yeah, it's true.
They can be challenging casesfor prosecutors.
Young victims may not make thebest witnesses.
And in our system of justice,they may have to give testimony
also what parent wants theirchild to go through the trauma
of a trial to be confronted.
Like that.
Other thing is there may be lackof solid evidence that abuse
(31:51):
even happened.
A lot of time, physicalexaminations are inconclusive.
But when a child describescertain things happening that
they themselves don'tunderstand, they're not making
that shit up.
But proving it beyond areasonable doubt is another
issue.
But I wanna be clear, difficultis not impossible.
(32:13):
Keep in mind they did in theend, successfully prosecute one
of those historic cases.
In my opinion, that prosecutionshould have been attempted back
in the day.
But in defense of n of 1993policing I think there has been
since then a growingrealization, say in the past 40
years, that child sexual abusecrimes aren't usually a one and
(32:35):
done type of offense.
I think it's better understoodnow that if a case can't be
made, you'll see that offendersurface again, which means
additional victims.
Marcy (32:45):
Let's talk about the advancements in laws and
technology since Angie's murder.
Mark (32:51):
Yeah.
This is a bright spot in thisstory.
Sometimes we learn and improve.
Missouri was one of 26 states atthe time that did not keep a
database of convicted sexoffenders.
The national law requiringstates to maintain these
registries, of rapists, childmolesters and other convicted
sex offenders was passed theyear after 1994 and offenders
(33:15):
started to register in 1995.
The law made it so that anyonewith a sex offense later than
1979 was required to register.
Marcy (33:26):
It was because of cases like Angie Houseman and the
frustration of the investigatorsthat law came about.
Mark (33:31):
Yeah that's exactly right.
There were cases similar to hersall over the country, and what
had started as a patchwork ofstate registries we're
eventually standardized andlinked nationally with the 2006
Adam Walsh Child Protection andSafety Act.
To give some perspective on theimportance of the database in
terms of this case, RobertMcCulloch, who is a St.
(33:56):
Louis County prosecutingattorney, said, referring to the
houseman murder that a registry"would've cut the investigation
that took days down to hours".
He's referring there just to thecompilation of suspects.
Just gathering a list would'vetaken a long time.
It's worth noting there areother holes in the system.
(34:16):
It's not perfect.
military convictions notorious,are often missing from the
system.
in fact, at the time of hisarrest for the murder, Cox's
name was not in the Missouri,Colorado or even the National
Registry.
It was also the
Marcy (34:32):
Adam Walsh Act that was effective in keeping Cox from
being released.
Mark (34:39):
Yeah, I think that label as a habitual sexual offender is
great.
But it is controversial, theidea of keeping a person in
longer than their sentence.
But this case shows exactly howthat provision in the law can
keep kids safe.
Marcy (34:54):
While we're talking about it, I think that what Joe Walsh
and his wife did with theexpanding awareness of this
problem in the wake of theirboys' murder is really
inspiring.
Mark (35:05):
Yes, it is.
The Adam Wall story is justheartbreaking.
But what that family did withtheir grief and anger is
testament to the human capacityfor good, for faith, for
recovery.
Marcy (35:17):
Do you think improved technology laws and training
would make a difference ifAngie's murder happened today?
Mark (35:26):
Yeah, I do, and I'm not alone.
Here's what the lead prosecutorTim Lomar said in 2020 when they
were clearing up this case,"St.
Louis County and the smallermunicipalities had several
investigative agencies that wereinvolved in this case.
There wasn't a system ofinformation sharing back then.
We saw in the banker boxes thatwere full of interviews over the
(35:49):
years, we noticed severalinstances where multiple
departments had interviewed thesame suspect and they didn't
even know about it.
Had this crime happened todaywith the technology that we
have, not just with the DNAtesting, but with surveillance,
with information sharing betweendepartments, with Ring doorbell
cameras.
I have no doubt this casewould've been solved within a
(36:11):
matter of days."
Marcy (36:13):
Talk about how the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children which theWalsh has started.
Open your eyes about sexualexploitation and travelers.
Mark (36:24):
So I was brought in to Vice and the human trafficking
problem as a detective in 2005.
Which in relation to the broaderstory here was the time when the
feds were starting to strengthenfederal laws and penalties.
Targeting what they calledtravelers and entices.
The effort included the AdamWalsh Act in 2006.
This effort was based on thewhole shit show.
(36:47):
Old sex offense crimes, new sexoffenses that were taking
advantage of, emergingtechnology.
People were enticing young girlsover the internet or they were
traveling to meet and stockthem.
That's how Cox was arrested.
It was law enforcement'sresponse to what they were
seeing at the local level acrossthe country.
(37:08):
It just happened when theyturned over that rock.
A bunch of child molesters andchild pornographers also crawled
out.
So the National Center forMissing Exploited Children
Trading I went to is basicallytailored to give investigators
like myself, tools to detectchild sexual exploitation.
Human trafficking and otherrelated problems, just like we
(37:31):
see in the case against Cox.
Marcy (37:33):
Yeah.
But how is it that he only got10 years for enticement out of
that whole thing?
Mark (37:38):
I'm not certain about that.
He should have got more with thechild pornography thing, but I
think what happened is heprobably cooperated in the
takedown of the porn ring.
I don't see how he could haveavoided more time if he hadn't
done that.
It sounds bad, but with acooperative like that, a guy
inside the organization, you'regonna be more effective in
(37:59):
rooting out people in the insidethe criminal network.
Marcy (38:03):
Would that have gotten him completely off for the child
porn charges?
Mark (38:06):
Yeah, sometimes, it's, especially on the, in the
federal system I have moreexperience with this, with
drugs.
Sometimes cooperation can get aperson completely off.
But if you look at this casewhen you're talking about
grabbing dozens, maybe hundredsof other offenders across
several countries, it, the dealmight be worth it.
(38:28):
But they also may have made thatdeal fully understanding the law
and that they wanted to hammerhim at the end of that, cuz he
is a dangerous guy, right?
They probably knew that theywould hammer him with the Adam
Walsh act later after hiscooperation.
Marcy (38:44):
Why did it take until 2019 to test the material in
Angie's case from 1993 in orderto get that DNA profile?
Why so long?
Mark (38:56):
So to test each time you take a piece of the, what is
limited evidence material youhave to destroy it.
So say your sample is a tinylittle drop of semen on a pair
of underwear.
And current technology requiresthat whole thing.
However big that drop is, yougotta use the whole thing.
You have one shot at that.
(39:17):
the decision on when to destroythat sample is a gamble.
It's a gamble of whether or notyour technology's good enough in
the, like in this instance,whether the test sensitivity was
high enough, has progressed farenough to give you a solid
result, solid profile from thatsample.
(39:38):
And in 2019, they finally feltthat gamble was worth the risk,
and it turned out it was.
Marcy (39:47):
I had a question about something that you mentioned.
You think that there may bephotos of Angie before Cox
killed her circulating on theinternet?
Mark (39:57):
Yeah, it's horrible.
But I think it's likely Cox kepther for a week, living on his
fantasies with her andthereafter became the curator of
a network of child pornography,producers, collectors, and
sharers.
What I learned at nacmec, whichNational Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, is thatthese pictures circulate all
(40:20):
over the place, all over theworld, and they, and the same
photos pop up repeatedly.
Some are found in cachesuncovered during police invest.
But nammack keeps a registry ofknown sets of child pornography
so that victims can beidentified.
And so the possession of thesesets can be traced back to the
original crime.
Marcy (40:41):
Wait, wouldn't they have linked Cox to Angie's death if
he'd had photos of her on hiscomputer?
Mark (40:48):
Not necessarily.
Keep in mind, he had over 45,000pictures and videos of kids,
many, maybe most are notidentified.
when investigators go throughthose photos they may just be
looking at another child, theymay not know the significance of
her.
Maybe the photos didn't showfully, show faces, this kind of
thing.
So somebody, a lot of thesephotos can be difficult to
(41:09):
identify or lead back to aspecific child, although that's
what Nacmec database is foridentifying those specific
victims.
And if they're timely, maybethere have been cases where a
photo set can be tracked backand a child actually rescued.
I think it's very likely thatCox took pictures of Angie
showed them to his group andthose members probably shared
(41:31):
with people outside their littlecult.
Marcy (41:35):
And they say once pictures are online, there's no
way of totally getting rid ofthat image.
Mark (41:41):
Yeah.
One case I'm familiar with,there was a little girl whose
photographed being raped.
That victim's guardian asked theinvestigator if he knew whether
or not those photos had beenshared on the internet.
The best the detective could saywas that he had found no
evidence that they wereuploaded.
Unfortunately, this is noguarantee, and if they were,
they're likely to be out theresomewhere forever.
(42:02):
It's a very sad thing tocontemplate.
Marcy (42:06):
Nacmec does have a way for victims to register with
them to be notified if theirphotos are ever tagged in a
case.
You have problems with theconfession details that Cox
provided?
Talk about that.
Mark (42:20):
These points are insignificant, considering the
weight of this case, but Iwanted to point out a couple
things that I've talked aboutbefore on other episodes.
Namely, the suspect wants toportray his crimes as out of his
control.
He said it happened because hiscar broke down.
So it's the fault of fate.
That girl just happened to getoff the bus right after, and
(42:41):
apparently miraculously his carcould then run and the girl was
hungry, right?
Like he was helping out a poor,starving child from this
neighborhood and just had tohelp.
So he's justifying what he didthere to a certain extent.
Like he's a good guy because hetook her for a burger before he
killed her.
I've said it before almost everysuspect that you catch with
(43:02):
enough evidence, so it'sludicrous for them to totally
deny it.
They put it in a frame thatmakes it seem reasonable.
Cox is the kind of guy thatbelieves if I do something for
her, then she owes me.
And he assumes that other peoplethink that too.
Marcy (43:17):
That's why you didn't put the Burger King trip into the
narrative that you wrote.
Yeah
Mark (43:22):
I think that's complete bullshit.
Okay.
Think about this.
Do you think considering hisrecord and being caught he was
gonna drive around, hit a burgerjoint with this new trophy?
Marcy (43:33):
No.
Mark (43:34):
Another thing I'm glad the prosecutor saw through the BS
that Cox didn't want AngieHouseman to die, but the
prosecutor did say that hebought, that Cox felt like he
had painted himself into acorner.
That he didn't want to kill her,but that she had to be disposed
of in some way that he wouldn'tget caught.
I don't agree with that.
(43:55):
I think he planned to kidnap andto kill her, he took a girl who
would be very difficult to traceback to him.
When you consider all of hisother victims ultimately told on
him, he had to get a victim thathad a certain degrees of
separation.
He had fantasies of what hewanted to do and he did those to
Angie because he thought theywouldn't trace back to him and
(44:17):
he wouldn't get caught.
I also wanna point out that Idon't know how bad Cox's stroke
was.
But, despite a stroke, herecalled general facts, the soft
facts.
But like so many other offenderswe've talked about in different
episodes, he used an excuse sohe didn't have to go into detail
describing the truth about,torture, rape, and killing.
(44:37):
He didn't wanna look like amonster as he told the story.
Marcy (44:40):
They initially thought that Cox might have had an
accomplice.
Why was that?
Mark (44:44):
Some of that came from questions that the investigators
had about how long he had heldAngie.
How did he watch her how did hemove her?
How could he have restrained herfor so long?
Some theorized that it would'vebeen easier done by, more than
one person.
Cox held to grow in his trailerfor a week.
(45:04):
During that time I guess he wasseen in public.
So the feeling of some of theseinvestigators was, how could he
hide a girl?
How could he control her?
His trailer was in a place inwest of St.
Louis that was in a less denselypacked suburb.
There have been lots of otherexamples of this kind of thing
happening, with even longerimprisonments.
In his confession.
Cox never once made any mentionof an accomplice and never used
(45:31):
one in any of his othermolestation offenses.
He did have a girlfriend who wasstaying with him at the time.
She was working odd hours.
They brought her in andinterrogated her.
And she described a completelyabusive relationship.
Marcy (45:47):
Seems hard to believe.
Mark (45:49):
She was scared of him.
She denied any knowledge.
She was from another country,didn't speak English well.
And my guess is if she knew anypiece of it, she's probably
afraid of going to theauthorities.
This whole thing reminds me of acase that happened when I was a
new officer and it stuck withme.
A young girl, maybe even youngerthan Angie was taken while
walking to school one morning.
(46:11):
The kidnapper, drove the girlfor what she said was a long
time, so maybe even out of town,maybe half an hour out of town,
to a house where he raped thelittle girl.
Later that afternoon, he droveher back into town and dropped
her back off on the street.
When that girl was interviewed,she said that they went to a
(46:32):
house where there was a woman.
Based on what she said, probablyelderly, and she was there at
the time the rape occurred.
So it seems likely that someoneother than the offender knew
that something was up.
That aspect of the case stuckwith me because of the
implication that someone,particularly a woman may have
(46:54):
just looked the other way.
Through my career, I alwayshoped that was incorrect, but
over time I saw other cases.
Where that kind of immoralindifference was exhibited by
both men and women.
Marcy (47:09):
You criticized the detective work in 1993.
Talk about the detective work inthis case that you really
respect.
Mark (47:16):
As I mentioned earlier, I think someone in 1993 made the
wrong decision, and did the easything to ship Cox back to
Leavenworth.
And obviously that wasineffective.
In 2019 the detectives had adifferent focus.
Instead of just hammering Coxwith a Houseman case, which with
the DNA hit was kinda lowhanging fruit.
(47:37):
They worked up the peripheralcrimes too, documenting
everything, and one of thoseworkups led to a conviction.
When you look at Cox's timeline,there are significant gaps.
I think it's more thanreasonable to assume that there
were a bunch of cases, a bunchof victims out there.
Who have just silently livedwith their experience, or maybe
(47:59):
they didn't live with thatexperience.
That's why I respectinvestigators that put
everything together that theycould.
That's the mark of a gooddetective going through cases,
not just focusing on theirparticular objective, but
watching for other angles theyhave to target with doing a
comprehensive assessment ofcriminal exposure.
(48:20):
This might have seemed like awaste of time in 1993, and it
might seem like a waste of timewhen you consider Cox is in
prison forever.
But it meant something to thevictim and it sends a message to
other offenders that we're gonnago to the mat for these horrible
crimes.
And who knows, Cox may stillhave some undetected murders out
(48:41):
there, maybe in Colorado and younever know, the work of those
detectives in St.
Louis could help other cold caseinvestigators solve their crime
in the future, and I fuckinglove that angle.
Marcy (48:59):
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(49:23):
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(49:46):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
Wizard always imagined this moment romantically, like
some movie, he would sweep herup and off, they would go.
Marcy (00:08):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
(00:30):
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
law.
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
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With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
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To support Crime Raven, Audibleis allowing our listeners to try
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(00:52):
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That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:20):
Wizard drove his van down the neighborhood street.
It was mid-afternoon on atypical Midwestern November day
breezy, but the winter cold didnot yet set in.
He found a place to park on theside of the road where the trees
might obscure any nosyneighbors.
He's a little early, so hesettled back into his seat to
wait.
For wizard, this isn't the firstday of the expedition.
(01:44):
Far from it.
He's been a busy guy for thelast few days, patiently
watching, waiting.
He had to be cautious too close,and someone might take notice of
him amongst the surge of carsjocking for position, trying to
make their pickup as fast aspossible and get the hell out of
there.
Between the scrum of privatevehicles and buses, wizard
thought he would never pick outthe target.
(02:05):
Then success, he saw her.
He even got a vehicle number.
Wizard's, caution paid off.
He was pretty sure he had gottenaway clean.
No one taking notice of theinterloper in the crowd.
From there, tracking was easier.
The vehicle was distinct,clearly marked, so all he needed
to do was monitor the outboundcourse.
(02:26):
By day three, he knew the routeand termination point.
By day four, he set up down thestreet and watched.
That's how Wizard came to besitting in position on that fine
november afternoon, his vanpartially obscured from view by
prying eyes by a tree in bushes,bordering the sidewalk in the
working class neighborhood, asuburb of West St.
(02:46):
Louis.
Wizard congratulated himself ona job well done.
Almost done.
He checked his watch time wasshort.
Wizard reminded himself thatthis wasn't done.
It was just the beginning andthe riskiest part still lay
ahead.
Nevertheless, he almost vibratedwith excitement as he slowly
scanned from side to side andtoward the rear with the
(03:08):
mirrors.
He saw nothing.
The mission was a go.
Wizard heard the roaring enginebefore he saw it A few seconds
later, the big yellow busemerged from between two houses.
As it approached the corner, thefamiliar ringing of brakes,
hydraulic hiss and the powerfulengine slowed to idle.
The door opened and the girl,his girl stepped down onto the
(03:29):
sidewalk.
Wizard, held his breath, thenexhaled raggedly past the spike
of adrenaline.
The bus doors, accordion closed,engine powered up, diesel smoke
puffing out the rear, and thenit was gone.
And she was alone on the corner.
Wizard stole a glance.
Left, right rear still no onearound.
The girl was half a block away,walking towards him, swinging a
(03:51):
little bag, not paying attentionto anything.
He was caught in her spell asshe approached.
Time slowed down.
He guessed she was eight ornine, maybe four, six.
She was thin with a palecomplexion.
Her shoulder length, wavy brownhair blew across her face in the
breeze as she carelesslystrolled up the block.
(04:13):
Wizard stepped out of the vanand crept around to the rear.
He scanned the neighborhoodagain, trying to look
nonchalant, but his heart washammering in his chest.
As the girl walked between hiscar and the bushes Wizard
stepped out blocking the narrowsidewalk, he said, oh, hello.
As a surprise, by her suddenappearance, the girl looked up
(04:33):
at him eyes wide with genuinesurprise.
Wizard always imagined thismoment romantically, like some
movie, he would sweep her up andoff, they would go.
Instead, he stammered out a halfbaked ruse that neither one of
them could believe.
Your parents sent me to pick youup." The girl started backing
away, shaking her head part infear, part disbelief,"no"!
(04:54):
Wizard lunged forward as shetook her second backward step
simultaneously, grabbing her byone arm and opening the
passenger side door.
The girl cried"no!" moreforcefully trying to pull away.
Wizard pushed her in, bendingher over, pinning her upper body
of the seat.
He had once seen a bunny rabbitcaught in a snare eyes, wild,
(05:15):
desperate, frantic.
This is how the girl looked.
She began to whimper her cries,partially muffled in the seat.
"No, I need to go home.
I need my mommy." He warned herto be quiet or he would hurt
her.
Wizard promised the girl that wewould take her home to her mommy
if she would just calm down.
He said, I'm really a policeofficer and I've been sent to
(05:36):
take you.
As he Spoke, he put handcuffs onher wrist, ratcheting them down
as tight as they would go.
The girls' crying became sobs.
She screamed ow the unyieldingmetal restraints binding into
the soft skin of her wrists.
Wizard didn't bother withappearances as he rushed around,
jumped in the driver's side.
The girl was twisting in theseat to herself.
Wizard shoved her back down,pinning her with his hand as he
(05:58):
drove out of the neighborhood.
He began talking to the girl,telling her not to be afraid
that he wasn't going to hurther.
She was inconsolable.
Through her sobs.
The girl expressed the ferventwish of that bunny rabbit to be
set free.
The drive took less than 15minutes, which seemed like an
eternity.
Wizard knew better than to drawattention by driving as fast as
(06:21):
his mind was racing.
Once he cleared theneighborhood, he maneuvered in
traffic.
Being careful did not allowanyone a good view of his cargo.
He hit the highway, crossed theriver, and into St.
Charles County where the houseswere more spread out.
Wizard shitty little trailerwasn't in the wilderness by any
means, but it was set off on hisown with no close neighbors to
(06:42):
nose around.
On that day as it came intoview, it looked as welcoming as
a fortress to wizard.
He was safe and he had his girl.
As he pulled up to the shack,she continued to cry.
It didn't matter.
She was his now.
He shifted in the park, turnedto her, and disposed of all
pretense.
(07:02):
"Stop crying." He snapped.
"You will do as you're told,you're mind until I say you're
not." He leaned over almostsnarling.
"If you do not do what I say, Iwill hurt you, and then I'll go
to your house and I'll hurt yourmommy." He stared at the girl
who was trying to control hercrying.
(07:23):
She said,"I just want to gohome." I don't give a shit what
you want, but when I'm done withyou, I'll let you go.
If you're a good girl with thatwizard, pulled her out, up the
steps and up into the trailerfrom the outside.
An optimistic observer mighthave described Wizard's home as
(07:43):
a rustic hovel.
It didn't get better on theinside, where Dim Light was a
blessing.
Sparsely furnished, yetcluttered, unkept, and grimy.
The girl barely had time toregister her new surroundings as
Wizard pulled her down the longnarrow hallway, the master
bedroom, if you could call it,that was lit by a single naked
(08:05):
bulb protruding from the ceilingoutlet in the center of the
room.
Thick wool blankets blocked outany trace of late afternoon.
There was a small mattress on aninstitution, gray metal frame
along the opposite wall.
A shabby wood dresser that oncehad been painted white completed
the bedroom set.
Wizard, closed the door, turnedher roughly and released one
(08:27):
handcuff.
"Strip." The girl looked up athim, scared, confused"what?" He
slapped her across the face hardenough that she dropped to her
knees.
"Take.
All.
Your.
Clothes.
Off." The girl started sobbingonce again, but she slowly
complied.
Wizard watched her drinking inevery detail.
(08:47):
He was most excited by theunderwear.
The little girl's, white Barbieprint panties with pink and
yellow trim.
Perfection.
When the girl was naked.
Wizard carressed her body,pushing her backward down onto
the bed.
He didn't completely losecontrol of himself.
He remembered to handcuff onehand to the metal bar.
(09:09):
Wizard kept her for eightglorious days doing whatever
came to mind, and he had a loton his mind.
Initially it was pretty tame,but when the girl stopped
reacting, got that blank starelike they do, he had to spice it
up.
Another time when he was outtaking a break, she tried to
yell for help.
(09:30):
Wizard came in and punished herby taping her mouth shut.
That gave him some ideas.
He enjoyed punishing her.
After a while, she becamedifficult to rouse, just laying
there helpless.
So Wizard had to up the ante.
At first, showing her theknives, flashing in front of her
face was enough to get areaction.
(09:51):
When that threat wore off, hebegan cutting.
Not too much.
He didn't wanna lose her.
Not yet.
The sight of blood, brought thegirl back to the moment.
That was where Wizard wantedher.
He didn't spend all that timepreparing, risking everything to
do a zombie.
Wizard fed on her fear, reveledin the power and control.
(10:12):
It recharged him like no drugever could.
He felt like he could go foreverwith the girl chain to his bed.
But after a week, the searcherswere still the top story on the
evening news.
They were looking.
Hard.
Wizard started feeling pressure.
The longer he kept the girl, thehigher the risk.
(10:33):
He'd had his fun.
He started to think about whatto do with her.
He didn't really want to beresponsible for her death, so he
took her out and tied her to atree, helpless her arms pinned
behind her with the cuffs,cranked down hard.
His rational self didn't wanther to be found.
In the back of his mind, he knewhe should have buried her.
(10:55):
But he didn't like the waste.
He wanted recognition.
Their week together had been awork of art, and he wanted his
masterpiece to live on in theminds of even those who found
her.
He wanted to drive by there inthe future and think of her like
that.
Chained, hopeless, helpless to atree.
Who knows?
They might never find her, andthat tree would become a sacred
(11:16):
monument just for him.
The wizard.
Marcy (11:36):
Earl Webster cox was born and grew up in the suburbs of
St.
Louis.
He enlisted in the US Air Forcein 1975 and trained as a
computer systems operatorstationed in Germany at Rhine
Main Air Force Base.
During his off hours he babysat.
In 1979, they arrested him formolesting four of those kids
(12:00):
whose ages ranged between sevenand 11.
Convicted in a court marshal,Cox was sentenced to eight years
at Fort Leavenworth Prison.
When interviewed by apsychiatrist about victimizing
little girls, Cox blamed hisbehavior on the abuse he
suffered as a child at the handsof his stepfather.
In 1984, having served only fiveyears.
(12:23):
Cox was released from prison andejected from the military with a
dishonorable discharge and therank of E one.
Cox moved back to the St.
Louis area.
His parents and sister had neverleft that area, and he moved
into a trailer near Overland, atownship in their vicinity.
In 1989, the Overland Policearrested Cox for the sexual
(12:47):
abuse of two seven year oldgirls.
He'd been watching the childrenand had molested them at a movie
theater and at a park.
He was also suspected offondling another child.
Instead of prosecuting Cox forthese new crimes, his parole was
violated and he was sent back toFort Leavenworth Prison.
(13:09):
In 2003, Cox was the subject ofa federal enticement
investigation using the screenname, young stuff, Cox started
messaging a 14 year old girlnamed Brenda, ultimately telling
her he wanted to have sex withher, including details like his
desire to spank her.
(13:30):
When Brenda wasn't scared away,Cox sent her a bus ticket to
leave her home from the Eastcoast and meet him in Colorado.
He told her she was going to behis sex slave and explicitly
instructed her what to wear whenshe got off the bus.
A short skirt, a red tube top,no bra and no panties.
(13:53):
Brenda stepped off the bus inColorado right on schedule.
Cox greeted her but said, youdon't look 14." That's because
she wasn't.
At that point, the arrest teammoved in and took Cox into
custody.
During the follow upinvestigation, they raided Cox's
home and seized his computer.
(14:14):
The FBI agents working on Cox'scase discovered that he was an
administrator in an online childpornography ring called the
Shadows Brotherhood.
The group ran chat and webpageswith servers in numerous
countries using computerexpertise he'd gained in the Air
Force.
(14:34):
They referred to Cox as theWizard.
He oversaw submissions to boardgroups with names like Panty
Raiders and Lolita Lovers.
Shadow's brotherhood ran on amerit system.
The more child pornographycontributed, the greater access
a member would have to the site.
(14:54):
Members would submit picturesand videos containing child
pornography.
Much of it shared from outsideinternet sources, but the most
venerated members were producingnew material.
All the members were collectors,but there were also many
sadistic abusers.
The FBI agents tallied up whatthey found.
(15:17):
Cox's computer contained 45,000stored child porn photos and
videos.
Cox was in communication withothers in the group who were
planning a get together, whatthey referred to as a teddy bear
picnic at a farm in ruralMissouri.
The first round of shadows,brotherhood, arrests included
(15:39):
100 people jailed in 11countries.
During the investigation, Coxtried to play the situation off
as a misunderstanding.
He said he knew that Brenda wasa federal agent and was using
the opportunity to expose theshadow's, brotherhood to the
fbi.
Later, when speaking to apsychologist, he claimed he was
(16:01):
only involved in the groupbecause it was like group
therapy.
For the attempt to entice aminor.
Cox was sentenced to 10 years inprison with three years of
probation.
He was sent to the ButnerFederal Correctional Complex in
North Carolina.
As his 2011 release dateapproached federal prosecutors
(16:23):
had Cox certified as a sexuallydangerous person.
Evaluations by psychologistsdetermined Cox had a mental
defect, and if released, hewould be a serious threat to
girls.
Under the 2006 Adam Walsh ChildProtection and Safety Act, the
federal government can keepsexually dangerous persons in
(16:45):
prison beyond their sentences.
Cox was still sitting in federalprison in 2019 when a new
indictment came down, like apresent from the ghost of
Christmas past.In 1993, AngieHouseman was nine years old,
living in St.
(17:06):
Anne, Missouri.
St.
Anne was a working class suburbjust west of St.
Louis.
Angie lived with her parents ina modest home and attended buter
Elementary School.
November 18th had begun as anormal day for Angie.
She rodee the bus to school inthe morning and in the afternoon
(17:26):
was dropped at the corner of herblock, just a few driveways down
from her house.
Somewhere on the walk betweenthe bus stop and the safety of
home.
Angie disappeared without atrace.
Later that afternoon when herparents noticed she hadn't
walked in the door, they calledaround.
(17:48):
None of her friends or neighborsknew where Angie might be.
The bus driver confirmed thatshe was last seen walking up the
block alone.
Angie's parents checked door todoor and up and down the street,
but found no signs of the girl.
They called 9 1 1.
(18:08):
The police recanvassed theblocks, but also turned up
nothing.
In the following days, police,friends, family, and a crowd of
volunteers would search broadswaths of West St.
Louis.
But these searches were alsofruitless.
There was no answer to themystery of the missing girl for
nine days.
(18:28):
Nine days of agony for parentsand family.
Then a man hunting in theAugust, a bush memorial
conservation area called thePolice.
Angie Houseman's body waspartially covered in snow, tied
to the base of a tree.
The medical examiner estimatedshe'd only been dead a matter of
(18:48):
hours before the hunter foundher.
Her little body told a tale ofsadistic vicious abuse.
Hands cuffed behind her, thelittle girl's struggles, left
her wrists raw and deeplylacerated.
With her head and face wrappedin duct tape and only her nose
left clear.
Pieces of torn pink Barbie printunderwear were stuffed inside
(19:11):
her mouth.
She hadn't been fed since herabduction according to the
autopsy.
She'd been repeatedly raped.
And she had many superficialcuts on her body and a
particularly deep laceration toone thigh.
Ultimately, Angie died fromexposure.
At the time, Angie Houseman'smurder scene deep in the woods
(19:33):
was a discreet tableau withlittle, immediately linking it
to any specific suspect.
As detectives looked around,they found no similar crimes
with similar mos leading the wayout of the mystery.
As the details of Angie's deathleaked out, parents became
hyper-vigalent.
People looked for signs of themonster living among them.
(19:54):
The initial terror turned into adistressful unease as time
passed without an arrest.
People closest to Angie nevergave up hope as the weeks turned
into months, years, and decades.
But back in 1993, investigatorslogged away a tiny drop of
suspect DNA N found on a pieceof Angie's Barbie print
(20:18):
underwear.
By 2019, technology andtechnique had advanced enough to
allow a criminalist to isolateand test the dna.
N only one in 58.1 trillionhuman beings could have the same
DNA as that found on the Barbieunderwear.
(20:38):
That person was the now 61 yearold Cox.
Investigators quickly piecedtogether that Cox would've been
36 when the murder occurred.
At that time, he had lived inthe West St.
Louis suburbs.
His sister lived three blocksfrom Angie's Elementary School.
(20:58):
Cox agreed to an interview withinvestigators.
He'd recently had a stroke andclaimed not to remember
everything, but he rememberedenough.
Cox told interrogators that hewas driving through a
neighborhood the afternoon thatAngie Houseman went missing.
His car broke down and he pulledto the side of the road.
(21:18):
A few minutes later, he saw aschool bus stop at the corner,
and the girl got out.
He watched her walk down thestreet toward him.
Cox said, Angie approached himand they started talking.
Angie said she was hungry, sothey got into his car and went
to Burger King.
After the meal, Cox admittedthat he took her to his trailer,
(21:39):
which was about six miles westin St.
Charles County.
He admitted to having sex withAngie, keeping her restrained in
his room for days.
He concluded the confession bysaying that he left Angie in the
wooded area.
He claimed that he didn't wantthe girl to die, rather he hoped
that someone passing by wouldfind her Prosecutor tim Lomar
(22:02):
didn't believe all of Cox'sstory.
He didn't think Angie approachedhim for food, didn't buy that
Cox wanted her to be found.
He said,"My theory is that hethought by the time anybody
would discover her body, theywould never be able to identify
the remains because it was thatremote.
(22:22):
I think that ultimately he gothimself into a situation that he
didn't know how to get out of,and in his mind, the only way
that he could protect himself atthat point was to try to end her
life, so she couldn't tellanyone else what had happened
and hopefully not get caught inthe process." On Thursday,
August 20th, 2020.
(22:44):
63 year old Cox pled guilty tothe 1993 kidnapping sexual
assault, and first degree murderof nine year old Angie Houseman.
In exchange for the plea, theprosecutor agreed not to ask for
the death penalty while Coxloses the ability to appeal the
case or the sentence.
(23:05):
They sentenced Cox to life inprison without parole for the
murder, plus seven years for thesexual assault.
Not everyone was pleased withthe sentence.
Angie's mother had died ofcancer in 2016 without ever
knowing the identity of herkiller, but Angie had many
(23:25):
family members and supporterswho wanted to see Cox on death
row.
Angie's Aunt Debbie Skaggsbelieved that Cox should die for
the crime, insisting"he doesn'tdeserve to live.
I'm never going to change mymind about that, and he is going
to hell." the prosecutordefended the deal by reasoning
(23:47):
that Cox was in poor health andprobably wouldn't survive long
enough to get to the point ofexecution.
To him, it made more sense tolimit Cox's ability to challenge
the conviction.
In the spring of 2021,prosecutors brought another case
against Cox by adding insuranceto his already unsurvivable
(24:08):
prison sentence.
The investigators who did theresearch for the final push in
the Angie Houseman murderdeveloped this case.
They rediscovered andresurrected the neglected
Overland PD case where Cox hadmolested two little girls before
they sent him back toLeavenworth.
(24:28):
One of those victims by then, anadult, welcomed the prosecution.
Prosecutors charged Cox withfour counts of sodomy, which in
Missouri is the legal term thatincludes sexual assault of a
child under 14.
These specific assaults happenedin 1988 and 1989.
(24:50):
Cox took an Alfred plea forthese additional charges.
With this kind of plea, adefendant agrees that there is
enough evidence to convictwithout directly admitting to
the crime.
During the sentencing hearing,Cox sent silently while the
victim addressed him.
She told Cox that she had waited30 years.
For that moment, she cursed him,saying,"you will rot in a lonely
(25:14):
jail cell.
No family, no friends, and mostimportantly, no more victims."
the judge tucked on another 10years to Cox's life sentence.
After the hearing, St.
Louis County prosecutingattorney Wesley Bell said, we
hope this guilty plea helps tohonor the memory of Angie
(25:35):
Houseman and to honor the stillliving victims of this predator.
We hope this conviction givessome closure and semblance of
justice to these courageousvictims." beginning the
(26:01):
discussion.
I am glad that they went throughwith adding those last charges,
even though Cox was alreadysentenced to life in prison.
Mark (26:11):
Yeah, I think a cynic might say that it was wasted
time, like politicalgrandstanding by a prosecutor.
He came from a different county.
This happened in a differentcounty.
Maybe that prosecutor wanted tosay had convicted Cox.
But I think it's more than that.
Marcy (26:26):
Yeah, it gave the, that first victim who had to live
with that trauma her entirelife, A moment in court to
actually confront him.
Mark (26:34):
Yeah, I think it's great.
She's still relatively young.
He's old, frail, powerless,loveless freedom less forever.
Marcy (26:43):
Tell me why you used the name wizard in the narrative.
Mark (26:48):
Yeah.
It was his name in the childporn ring.
Cox is the only one of the badguys in any of our episodes that
I allowed to name himself.
I actually wanted to call himSleaze but the name wizard
worked on me.
Very dark Wizard of Oz aspectwith these little girls who are
lost literally or figurativelybecause of what he did to them.
Marcy (27:09):
You wanna say something about the usual kinds of
suspects in these cases?
Mark (27:14):
Sure.
Most suspects in cases like thisare known to the children and
the families.
Actually, this is how mostmolesters gain access to their
victims.
They're trusted.
You can also see this in caseswhere the little kids disappear
and are later found dead.
It's often an inside job.
In fact, in my community, werecently had a case that rocked
(27:35):
our community.
A mom went to work leaving herboyfriend to babysit her kid.
The man raped the child, andpursuant to the assault the kid
died, that insider betrayalthing was true of his first
victims that we know about, theones in Germany and later in
Missouri.
My take on Angela's murder wasthat because she wasn't a direct
(27:56):
link to him, he felt freer to gofurther, to torture her, to kill
her.
When, if he had done that withthe original girls that he was
linked to, that would've gottenhim immediately locked up.
But then again with Angela, hedid hold to the principal I've
talked about several times inthe past.
He selected a victim from aplace he was very familiar with.
His parents lived close, hissister lived within a few blocks
(28:17):
of her school.
So she was obviously selected.
I wanted to say this about thatabout the narrative.
The reason that I set it up ashe, he's following her.
He's picking her out.
He's surveilling her is becausehe didn't just turn up on that
block with the bus stop at up atthe corner, a single girl
getting out, walking down theblock alone.
(28:38):
That's a hell of a coincidence.
It wasn't a coincidence.
He stalked her and he kidnappedher.
Along these same lines, I pickedout a quote from the prosecutor
who prosecuted angie's case, TimLomar"this is the prototypical
child kidnapping case that youthink about.
The one you hear your parentswarn you about when you're a
(28:59):
kid.
Stranger danger, things likethat.
In the vast majority of ourchild molestation cases, there
is some sort of connection or arelationship between the victim
and the perpetrator."
Marcy (29:10):
in the narrator, you used the common threat that child
molesters used to keep theirvictims quiet.
Mark (29:19):
Yes.
See that over and over again.
Cooperate, or I will hurt orkill you.
And if you tell, I'll hurt orkill, members of your family.
It sets the kid up to make adecision.
They aren't mature enough torationally make.
Marcy (29:37):
Talk about how the initial investigation failed
angie.
You said that you think that themolestation of the two girls a
few years prior should have beena key focus from day one.
Mark (29:49):
Yes, and that's not just my opinion.
Some of the senior investigatorswhen they learned about Cox's
identity in 2019 and what hishistory was, they couldn't
believe that they missed him.
In my opinion and theirs, Coxshould have been a top suspect
because of the proximity of theprior molestation cases.
The fact he had multiple victimseven going back into, in his Air
(30:12):
Force days, they should havekept a record of him.
Cox was not prosecuted at thetime that they caught him for
molesting the two girls inMissouri.
The investigators or theprosecutor instead opted to
violate him back to Leavenworth.
Marcy (30:26):
And then it turned out they only kept him for a year.
Mark (30:28):
Yeah, a year is obscene.
Worse than that, he had no localconviction, which undoubtedly
sheltered him from a lot oflocal attention and helped him
stay completely under the radarfor the people investigating the
houseman murder.
In any competent investigation.
He should have gotten immediateattention.
(30:49):
Think about it, Cox kept heralive for a week, more than a
week.
There was a chance to intervenehere.
When investigators were askedhow Cox, how it was that Cox
never came up as a suspect inthe initial investigation, they
all pointed back to the lack ofmodern systems like the sex
offender registry, the DNAdatabase, ViCAP basic searchable
(31:12):
police databases on the locallevel, and also links with
social media.
Marcy (31:19):
Playing sort of devil's advocate, you have mentioned
that SAM cases or sexual abuseof a minor cases can be really
difficult to prosecute,particularly with young victims.
Mark (31:28):
Yeah, it's true.
They can be challenging casesfor prosecutors.
Young victims may not make thebest witnesses.
And in our system of justice,they may have to give testimony
also what parent wants theirchild to go through the trauma
of a trial to be confronted.
Like that.
Other thing is there may be lackof solid evidence that abuse
(31:51):
even happened.
A lot of time, physicalexaminations are inconclusive.
But when a child describescertain things happening that
they themselves don'tunderstand, they're not making
that shit up.
But proving it beyond areasonable doubt is another
issue.
But I wanna be clear, difficultis not impossible.
(32:13):
Keep in mind they did in theend, successfully prosecute one
of those historic cases.
In my opinion, that prosecutionshould have been attempted back
in the day.
But in defense of n of 1993policing I think there has been
since then a growingrealization, say in the past 40
years, that child sexual abusecrimes aren't usually a one and
(32:35):
done type of offense.
I think it's better understoodnow that if a case can't be
made, you'll see that offendersurface again, which means
additional victims.
Marcy (32:45):
Let's talk about the advancements in laws and
technology since Angie's murder.
Mark (32:51):
Yeah.
This is a bright spot in thisstory.
Sometimes we learn and improve.
Missouri was one of 26 states atthe time that did not keep a
database of convicted sexoffenders.
The national law requiringstates to maintain these
registries, of rapists, childmolesters and other convicted
sex offenders was passed theyear after 1994 and offenders
(33:15):
started to register in 1995.
The law made it so that anyonewith a sex offense later than
1979 was required to register.
Marcy (33:26):
It was because of cases like Angie Houseman and the
frustration of the investigatorsthat law came about.
Mark (33:31):
Yeah that's exactly right.
There were cases similar to hersall over the country, and what
had started as a patchwork ofstate registries we're
eventually standardized andlinked nationally with the 2006
Adam Walsh Child Protection andSafety Act.
To give some perspective on theimportance of the database in
terms of this case, RobertMcCulloch, who is a St.
(33:56):
Louis County prosecutingattorney, said, referring to the
houseman murder that a registry"would've cut the investigation
that took days down to hours".
He's referring there just to thecompilation of suspects.
Just gathering a list would'vetaken a long time.
It's worth noting there areother holes in the system.
(34:16):
It's not perfect.
military convictions notorious,are often missing from the
system.
in fact, at the time of hisarrest for the murder, Cox's
name was not in the Missouri,Colorado or even the National
Registry.
It was also the
Marcy (34:32):
Adam Walsh Act that was effective in keeping Cox from
being released.
Mark (34:39):
Yeah, I think that label as a habitual sexual offender is
great.
But it is controversial, theidea of keeping a person in
longer than their sentence.
But this case shows exactly howthat provision in the law can
keep kids safe.
Marcy (34:54):
While we're talking about it, I think that what Joe Walsh
and his wife did with theexpanding awareness of this
problem in the wake of theirboys' murder is really
inspiring.
Mark (35:05):
Yes, it is.
The Adam Wall story is justheartbreaking.
But what that family did withtheir grief and anger is
testament to the human capacityfor good, for faith, for
recovery.
Marcy (35:17):
Do you think improved technology laws and training
would make a difference ifAngie's murder happened today?
Mark (35:26):
Yeah, I do, and I'm not alone.
Here's what the lead prosecutorTim Lomar said in 2020 when they
were clearing up this case,"St.
Louis County and the smallermunicipalities had several
investigative agencies that wereinvolved in this case.
There wasn't a system ofinformation sharing back then.
We saw in the banker boxes thatwere full of interviews over the
(35:49):
years, we noticed severalinstances where multiple
departments had interviewed thesame suspect and they didn't
even know about it.
Had this crime happened todaywith the technology that we
have, not just with the DNAtesting, but with surveillance,
with information sharing betweendepartments, with Ring doorbell
cameras.
I have no doubt this casewould've been solved within a
(36:11):
matter of days."
Marcy (36:13):
Talk about how the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children which theWalsh has started.
Open your eyes about sexualexploitation and travelers.
Mark (36:24):
So I was brought in to Vice and the human trafficking
problem as a detective in 2005.
Which in relation to the broaderstory here was the time when the
feds were starting to strengthenfederal laws and penalties.
Targeting what they calledtravelers and entices.
The effort included the AdamWalsh Act in 2006.
This effort was based on thewhole shit show.
(36:47):
Old sex offense crimes, new sexoffenses that were taking
advantage of, emergingtechnology.
People were enticing young girlsover the internet or they were
traveling to meet and stockthem.
That's how Cox was arrested.
It was law enforcement'sresponse to what they were
seeing at the local level acrossthe country.
(37:08):
It just happened when theyturned over that rock.
A bunch of child molesters andchild pornographers also crawled
out.
So the National Center forMissing Exploited Children
Trading I went to is basicallytailored to give investigators
like myself, tools to detectchild sexual exploitation.
Human trafficking and otherrelated problems, just like we
(37:31):
see in the case against Cox.
Marcy (37:33):
Yeah.
But how is it that he only got10 years for enticement out of
that whole thing?
Mark (37:38):
I'm not certain about that.
He should have got more with thechild pornography thing, but I
think what happened is heprobably cooperated in the
takedown of the porn ring.
I don't see how he could haveavoided more time if he hadn't
done that.
It sounds bad, but with acooperative like that, a guy
inside the organization, you'regonna be more effective in
(37:59):
rooting out people in the insidethe criminal network.
Marcy (38:03):
Would that have gotten him completely off for the child
porn charges?
Mark (38:06):
Yeah, sometimes, it's, especially on the, in the
federal system I have moreexperience with this, with
drugs.
Sometimes cooperation can get aperson completely off.
But if you look at this casewhen you're talking about
grabbing dozens, maybe hundredsof other offenders across
several countries, it, the dealmight be worth it.
(38:28):
But they also may have made thatdeal fully understanding the law
and that they wanted to hammerhim at the end of that, cuz he
is a dangerous guy, right?
They probably knew that theywould hammer him with the Adam
Walsh act later after hiscooperation.
Marcy (38:44):
Why did it take until 2019 to test the material in
Angie's case from 1993 in orderto get that DNA profile?
Why so long?
Mark (38:56):
So to test each time you take a piece of the, what is
limited evidence material youhave to destroy it.
So say your sample is a tinylittle drop of semen on a pair
of underwear.
And current technology requiresthat whole thing.
However big that drop is, yougotta use the whole thing.
You have one shot at that.
(39:17):
the decision on when to destroythat sample is a gamble.
It's a gamble of whether or notyour technology's good enough in
the, like in this instance,whether the test sensitivity was
high enough, has progressed farenough to give you a solid
result, solid profile from thatsample.
(39:38):
And in 2019, they finally feltthat gamble was worth the risk,
and it turned out it was.
Marcy (39:47):
I had a question about something that you mentioned.
You think that there may bephotos of Angie before Cox
killed her circulating on theinternet?
Mark (39:57):
Yeah, it's horrible.
But I think it's likely Cox kepther for a week, living on his
fantasies with her andthereafter became the curator of
a network of child pornography,producers, collectors, and
sharers.
What I learned at nacmec, whichNational Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, is thatthese pictures circulate all
(40:20):
over the place, all over theworld, and they, and the same
photos pop up repeatedly.
Some are found in cachesuncovered during police invest.
But nammack keeps a registry ofknown sets of child pornography
so that victims can beidentified.
And so the possession of thesesets can be traced back to the
original crime.
Marcy (40:41):
Wait, wouldn't they have linked Cox to Angie's death if
he'd had photos of her on hiscomputer?
Mark (40:48):
Not necessarily.
Keep in mind, he had over 45,000pictures and videos of kids,
many, maybe most are notidentified.
when investigators go throughthose photos they may just be
looking at another child, theymay not know the significance of
her.
Maybe the photos didn't showfully, show faces, this kind of
thing.
So somebody, a lot of thesephotos can be difficult to
(41:09):
identify or lead back to aspecific child, although that's
what Nacmec database is foridentifying those specific
victims.
And if they're timely, maybethere have been cases where a
photo set can be tracked backand a child actually rescued.
I think it's very likely thatCox took pictures of Angie
showed them to his group andthose members probably shared
(41:31):
with people outside their littlecult.
Marcy (41:35):
And they say once pictures are online, there's no
way of totally getting rid ofthat image.
Mark (41:41):
Yeah.
One case I'm familiar with,there was a little girl whose
photographed being raped.
That victim's guardian asked theinvestigator if he knew whether
or not those photos had beenshared on the internet.
The best the detective could saywas that he had found no
evidence that they wereuploaded.
Unfortunately, this is noguarantee, and if they were,
they're likely to be out theresomewhere forever.
(42:02):
It's a very sad thing tocontemplate.
Marcy (42:06):
Nacmec does have a way for victims to register with
them to be notified if theirphotos are ever tagged in a
case.
You have problems with theconfession details that Cox
provided?
Talk about that.
Mark (42:20):
These points are insignificant, considering the
weight of this case, but Iwanted to point out a couple
things that I've talked aboutbefore on other episodes.
Namely, the suspect wants toportray his crimes as out of his
control.
He said it happened because hiscar broke down.
So it's the fault of fate.
That girl just happened to getoff the bus right after, and
(42:41):
apparently miraculously his carcould then run and the girl was
hungry, right?
Like he was helping out a poor,starving child from this
neighborhood and just had tohelp.
So he's justifying what he didthere to a certain extent.
Like he's a good guy because hetook her for a burger before he
killed her.
I've said it before almost everysuspect that you catch with
(43:02):
enough evidence, so it'sludicrous for them to totally
deny it.
They put it in a frame thatmakes it seem reasonable.
Cox is the kind of guy thatbelieves if I do something for
her, then she owes me.
And he assumes that other peoplethink that too.
Marcy (43:17):
That's why you didn't put the Burger King trip into the
narrative that you wrote.
Yeah
Mark (43:22):
I think that's complete bullshit.
Okay.
Think about this.
Do you think considering hisrecord and being caught he was
gonna drive around, hit a burgerjoint with this new trophy?
Marcy (43:33):
No.
Mark (43:34):
Another thing I'm glad the prosecutor saw through the BS
that Cox didn't want AngieHouseman to die, but the
prosecutor did say that hebought, that Cox felt like he
had painted himself into acorner.
That he didn't want to kill her,but that she had to be disposed
of in some way that he wouldn'tget caught.
I don't agree with that.
(43:55):
I think he planned to kidnap andto kill her, he took a girl who
would be very difficult to traceback to him.
When you consider all of hisother victims ultimately told on
him, he had to get a victim thathad a certain degrees of
separation.
He had fantasies of what hewanted to do and he did those to
Angie because he thought theywouldn't trace back to him and
(44:17):
he wouldn't get caught.
I also wanna point out that Idon't know how bad Cox's stroke
was.
But, despite a stroke, herecalled general facts, the soft
facts.
But like so many other offenderswe've talked about in different
episodes, he used an excuse sohe didn't have to go into detail
describing the truth about,torture, rape, and killing.
(44:37):
He didn't wanna look like amonster as he told the story.
Marcy (44:40):
They initially thought that Cox might have had an
accomplice.
Why was that?
Mark (44:44):
Some of that came from questions that the investigators
had about how long he had heldAngie.
How did he watch her how did hemove her?
How could he have restrained herfor so long?
Some theorized that it would'vebeen easier done by, more than
one person.
Cox held to grow in his trailerfor a week.
(45:04):
During that time I guess he wasseen in public.
So the feeling of some of theseinvestigators was, how could he
hide a girl?
How could he control her?
His trailer was in a place inwest of St.
Louis that was in a less denselypacked suburb.
There have been lots of otherexamples of this kind of thing
happening, with even longerimprisonments.
In his confession.
Cox never once made any mentionof an accomplice and never used
(45:31):
one in any of his othermolestation offenses.
He did have a girlfriend who wasstaying with him at the time.
She was working odd hours.
They brought her in andinterrogated her.
And she described a completelyabusive relationship.
Marcy (45:47):
Seems hard to believe.
Mark (45:49):
She was scared of him.
She denied any knowledge.
She was from another country,didn't speak English well.
And my guess is if she knew anypiece of it, she's probably
afraid of going to theauthorities.
This whole thing reminds me of acase that happened when I was a
new officer and it stuck withme.
A young girl, maybe even youngerthan Angie was taken while
walking to school one morning.
(46:11):
The kidnapper, drove the girlfor what she said was a long
time, so maybe even out of town,maybe half an hour out of town,
to a house where he raped thelittle girl.
Later that afternoon, he droveher back into town and dropped
her back off on the street.
When that girl was interviewed,she said that they went to a
(46:32):
house where there was a woman.
Based on what she said, probablyelderly, and she was there at
the time the rape occurred.
So it seems likely that someoneother than the offender knew
that something was up.
That aspect of the case stuckwith me because of the
implication that someone,particularly a woman may have
(46:54):
just looked the other way.
Through my career, I alwayshoped that was incorrect, but
over time I saw other cases.
Where that kind of immoralindifference was exhibited by
both men and women.
Marcy (47:09):
You criticized the detective work in 1993.
Talk about the detective work inthis case that you really
respect.
Mark (47:16):
As I mentioned earlier, I think someone in 1993 made the
wrong decision, and did the easything to ship Cox back to
Leavenworth.
And obviously that wasineffective.
In 2019 the detectives had adifferent focus.
Instead of just hammering Coxwith a Houseman case, which with
the DNA hit was kinda lowhanging fruit.
(47:37):
They worked up the peripheralcrimes too, documenting
everything, and one of thoseworkups led to a conviction.
When you look at Cox's timeline,there are significant gaps.
I think it's more thanreasonable to assume that there
were a bunch of cases, a bunchof victims out there.
Who have just silently livedwith their experience, or maybe
(47:59):
they didn't live with thatexperience.
That's why I respectinvestigators that put
everything together that theycould.
That's the mark of a gooddetective going through cases,
not just focusing on theirparticular objective, but
watching for other angles theyhave to target with doing a
comprehensive assessment ofcriminal exposure.
(48:20):
This might have seemed like awaste of time in 1993, and it
might seem like a waste of timewhen you consider Cox is in
prison forever.
But it meant something to thevictim and it sends a message to
other offenders that we're gonnago to the mat for these horrible
crimes.
And who knows, Cox may stillhave some undetected murders out
(48:41):
there, maybe in Colorado and younever know, the work of those
detectives in St.
Louis could help other cold caseinvestigators solve their crime
in the future, and I fuckinglove that angle.
Marcy (48:59):
Please rate and review Crime Raven wherever you listen.
It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
$10 off our very coolmerchandise.
Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
(49:23):
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
send you a free Crime Ravent-shirt.
Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
don't miss an episode Pleaserecommend us to your friends
too.
Check our website atcrimeraven.com crime Raven
(49:46):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
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