Convicted pedophile charged in 1993 killing of Missouri girl

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A convicted pedophile who ran an international child pornography ring has been charged with the 1993 abduction, rape and killing of a 9-year-old Missouri girl, after previously undetected DNA found on her clothing implicated him in the crime, authorities announced Wednesday.

Earl Webster Cox, who has been in custody for years because the state deemed him a sexually dangerous person likely to re-offend if set free, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and sodomy in the death of Angie Housman, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said at a news conference.

Angie disappeared after getting off her school bus on Nov. 18, 1993, less than a block from her home in St. Ann, a St. Louis suburb. Her body was found nine days later in the August A. Busch Wildlife area, which is about 20 miles west of St. Ann, in St. Charles County.

Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted, starved and handcuffed, and that she died just hours before she was found. Lohmar said her head was covered in duct tape except for her nose and that she had tried hard to free herself.

"She was dehydrated, she was malnourished and she was alive when she was left out in the woods to die," Lohmar said, noting that investigators don't know where she was kept while she was missing.

Angie's mother, Diane Bone, died of cancer in 2016 at age 52. Her stepfather, Ron Bone, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday, "I can't say anything about being happy until he's found guilty."

The disappearance of Angie and a 10-year-old girl, Cassidy Senter, the following month caused a panic in the area. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers searched for Angie before a deer hunter found her body. Cassidy, meanwhile, was later found dead in a St. Louis...