# 2 Cases That Were Solved With Modern Forensics: Angie Housman and Bonnie Craig

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 8 Sep 2025, 19 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO7546676296.mp3

Join me as we discuss the cases of Angie Housman and Bonnie Craig. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 solved cold cases, modern forensic science, Angie Housman case, Bonnie Craig murder, DNA evidence solved case, forensic breakthroughs, true crime solved cases, forensic genealogy, cold cases cracked, unsolved murders solved, DNA testing crime, forensic science podcast, solved true crime stories, justice through forensics, forensic investigation

## Transcript

[0:00] In November 1993, the disappearance of nine year old
[0:03] Angie Houseman gripped the Saint Louis community.
[0:07] Angie stepped off her school bus on a quiet suburban street just
[0:10] a few doors away from her home and then vanished without a
[0:14] trace. Her family and neighbors
[0:17] launched a desperate search as fear spread through the
[0:19] neighborhood, with hundreds of volunteers and police scouring
[0:23] the area for any sign of the missing girl.
[0:26] For 9 agonizing days, loved ones in law enforcement held out
[0:30] hope. But when a Deer Hunter finally
[0:33] stumbled upon Angie's body bound to a tree in a remote wildlife
[0:37] preserve, the community's worst nightmare became reality.
[0:42] The case would remain one of the region's most haunting cold
[0:45] cases for over 25 years, until a tiny piece of DNA evidence
[0:49] finally brought the perpetrator to justice.
[0:54] On Thursday, November 18th, 1993, Angie Houseman stepped off
[0:59] her school bus at about 4:00 PM in Saint Anne, Missouri.
[1:03] She was only nine years old, walking the short distance to
[1:07] her house on a seemingly ordinary afternoon.
[1:10] But somewhere between the bus stop and her front door, less
[1:14] than a block away in broad daylight, Angie vanished.
[1:19] That evening when she still hadn't arrived home.
[1:23] Her worried mother and stepfather contacted the police
[1:26] at around 7:00 that evening, reporting Angie as missing.
[1:31] What began as a frantic search by family quickly escalated into
[1:35] a massive police operation. Within days, the Major Case
[1:39] Squad of Greater Saint Louis was activated to assist the Saint
[1:43] Anne police in the investigation.
[1:46] As hours turned into days with no sign of Angie, the
[1:49] community's concern turned to panic.
[1:52] Dozens of law enforcement officers and volunteers combed
[1:56] the neighborhood, knocked on doors, and scoured nearby parks
[2:00] and backyards. Despite these efforts, there
[2:04] were no witnesses, no clues, and no answers.
[2:10] Nine days after Angie disappeared, the search came to
[2:13] a tragic end. On November 27th, 1993, a Deer
[2:19] Hunter exploring the Bush Wildlife Conservation Area in
[2:22] Saint Charles County stumbled upon a horrifying scene.
[2:27] He found Angie's lifeless body in the woods, tied tightly to a
[2:31] tree and partially covered by snow in the cold late November
[2:35] air. I'm going to spare you most of
[2:37] the details here because they're horrific.
[2:40] But she was subjected to an indecent assault, and biological
[2:44] evidence was left behind by the predator.
[2:47] And seriously, when I say don't look up the details here, I'm
[2:50] not joking. I wish I could unread what I
[2:53] read. In the months and years after
[2:57] Angie's slaying, investigators struggled to find the
[3:01] perpetrator and bring him to justice.
[3:03] The crime had been so brazen and cruel that many feared it could
[3:07] happen again. In fact, just a few weeks after
[3:11] Angie's death, another local girl was abducted and slain,
[3:15] sparking fears of a serial predator on the loose.
[3:19] However, this case was quickly wrapped up and the perpetrator
[3:22] was definitively proven not to have been involved in Angie's
[3:25] case. By the late 1990's, the trail
[3:31] had gone cold and Angie's case haunted detectives for decades,
[3:35] remaining officially open but with no meaningful developments.
[3:39] Meanwhile, Angie's family and the community kept her memory
[3:43] alive. Sadly, her mother Diane lived
[3:47] the rest of her life in grief, passing away in 2016 without
[3:52] ever seeing justice for her daughter.
[3:57] In 2019, more than 1/4 century after Angie's tragic passing,
[4:02] the long-awaited breakthrough finally came.
[4:05] On February 27th, 2019, a senior forensic scientist at the Saint
[4:11] Charles County Crime Lab made a stunning discovery.
[4:16] There was previously undetected DNA on the torn remnants of
[4:19] Angie's undergarments. Advanced testing had lifted A
[4:23] genetic profile that investigators in the 1990s could
[4:27] never have obtained with the forensic science of the time.
[4:33] The DNA belonged to two individuals.
[4:35] One was Angie herself, and the other was an unknown male
[4:39] profile now identified through the national CODIS database.
[4:44] The match pointed to a man who was thankfully already behind
[4:47] bars. His name was Earl Webster Cox, a
[4:52] 61 year old convicted predator who had grown up in the Saint
[4:55] Louis area. At the time of Angie's
[4:58] abduction, Cox had been living just a few blocks away from her
[5:01] home in Saint Anne. He was a former Air Force airman
[5:05] who had been dishonorably discharged in the 1980s for
[5:08] committing disturbing and unnatural acts against minors.
[5:12] By 2019, he was in federal custody at a medical facility in
[5:17] North Carolina, serving time due to his role in an international
[5:21] ring producing this disgusting content.
[5:26] Investigators in shock at the DNA results collected a fresh
[5:31] DNA sample from Cox to double check the match.
[5:35] It confirmed that Cox's genetic fingerprint was on Angie's
[5:38] clothing, a probability of coincidence so low that it was
[5:42] virtually impossible anyone else could be responsible.
[5:46] After 26 years of mystery, prosecutors finally had their
[5:50] suspect. In June 2019, Saint Charles
[5:55] County Prosecutor Tim Lomar announced charges in relation to
[5:59] the slaying of Angie Houseman. There was also a lingering
[6:04] possibility that Cox hadn't acted alone.
[6:07] Investigators hinted that someone else might have been
[6:10] involved, but to date no other accomplice has been publicly
[6:14] identified or charged. Facing the mountain of evidence
[6:20] against him, Earl Cox eventually chose to admit his guilt rather
[6:24] than go to trial. In August 2020, he pleaded
[6:29] guilty to 1st degree slaying in Angie's case on the condition
[6:33] that he would avoid the state sponsored DP.
[6:37] Personally, with the level of evidence against him, I don't
[6:41] see why they didn't just go full bore and seek the DP, but given
[6:46] his age and health, it's unlikely that it ever would have
[6:48] been done. And I say this for a specific
[6:51] strategic purpose since as you'll recall, there was a
[6:54] mention of someone else potentially being involved.
[6:58] Facing down a trial where his life was legitimately on the
[7:01] line may have forced him to name the name of his potential
[7:04] accomplice, if one existed. But all that said, no case is a
[7:12] slam dunk. So perhaps simply ensuring this
[7:15] sick excuse for a human being would never be on the streets
[7:18] again, no matter what, was good enough.
[7:21] After all, had the prosecution missed their one shot, it's
[7:26] theoretically possible that he would have one day become a free
[7:29] man once again. A judge sentenced the 63 year
[7:34] old Cox to life in prison without the possibility of
[7:37] parole. For the Houseman family and the
[7:40] investigators who had pursued the truth for so long, it was a
[7:44] moment of both relief and sorrow.
[7:48] In late 2024, while serving his life sentence, the 66 year old
[7:53] Cox died of natural causes in a Missouri prison hospital, a fate
[7:58] which was all too good for him. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[8:05] with my usual reminder for you to hit like and subscribe and
[8:09] also tap that notification bell. Also, don't forget to suggest
[8:13] solved cold cases you'd like to see covered on my channel in the
[8:16] comments. They can be anything from
[8:19] extremely well known cases to local cases that have never
[8:23] gotten any attention outside of your own neck of the woods.
[8:30] On a chilly autumn morning in 1994, eighteen year old Bonnie
[8:34] Craig set out for an early morning college English class in
[8:37] Anchorage, AK. She never arrived and by
[8:40] afternoon a hiker discovered a young woman's body face down in
[8:45] the waters of McHugh Creek, a rugged area about 10 miles South
[8:49] of the city. It was Bonnie, and she had been
[8:53] subjected to an indecent assault, viciously beaten, and
[8:57] left for dead in that frigid Creek.
[9:00] This slaying rattled Anchorage, and outraged residents wouldn't
[9:04] forget the young woman whose life was stolen in such a
[9:07] senseless and evil manner. This gruesome discovery shocked
[9:11] the community and launched an investigation that would span
[9:14] nearly 2 decades. From the start, detectives faced
[9:20] a perplexing scene. Because Bonnie's body was found
[9:23] in a remote Creek and showed signs of drowning, authorities
[9:27] initially considered the possibility of an accidental
[9:30] fall. However, evidence of foul play
[9:33] quickly emerged. Bonnie's school belongings were
[9:36] missing, her hands bore bruises and cuts consistent with
[9:40] defensive wounds, and an indecent assault examination
[9:44] found biological evidence. This quickly dispelled that
[9:48] initial theory that her passing was an accident.
[9:53] Investigators pieced together Bonnie's final known movements
[9:56] as a University of Alaska freshman, she usually walked
[10:00] through the pre dawn dark to catch a bus to her early class.
[10:05] On September 28th, 1994, a driver saw her heading toward
[10:10] the bus stop at around 5:20, but she never made it onto the bus.
[10:15] Sometime during that short walk, she vanished, and no one
[10:19] witnessed the attack or abduction itself.
[10:22] Neighbors later reported a suspicious vehicle in the area,
[10:26] and an anonymous caller claimed Bonnie was seen talking to two
[10:29] men in a car at the bus stop, but these leads went nowhere.
[10:34] Whoever had attacked her left few traces beyond the DNA
[10:37] evidence, which with the forensic technology of the time,
[10:42] wasn't quite as powerful a piece of evidence as it is today.
[10:48] Clues from the scene painted a grim picture of what happened.
[10:52] It appeared Bonnie had been overpowered and then thrown from
[10:55] a 30 foot Cliff into the Creek, likely in an attempt to hide the
[10:59] brutal crime. The autopsy found a dozen wounds
[11:03] on her head, including a severe blow at the base of her skull
[11:07] that couldn't have come from the fall down the slope.
[11:11] In fact, some of her blood was discovered on the leaves at the
[11:14] top of the embankment, indicating she was already
[11:17] bleeding profusely before her body landed in the water below.
[11:23] Despite an intensive investigation, the trail to
[11:26] Bonnie's attacker soon grew cold.
[11:29] Police conducted hundreds of interviews and ran down
[11:31] countless tips. Bonnie's face became familiar on
[11:35] posters and the sides of city buses as her family and
[11:39] authorities pleaded for information, emphasizing that
[11:42] even the smallest tip could crack the case open.
[11:46] The attack was one of the most notorious cases Anchorage had
[11:49] ever seen, yet no viable suspect emerged.
[11:54] Investigators looked at several individuals, but DNA and alibis
[11:59] ruled them all out. The answer finally came from a
[12:04] leap in forensic science. All the while, the unknown
[12:08] Assailants DNA profile from the crime scene sat waiting for a
[12:11] match. In late 2006, more than 12 years
[12:16] after Bonnie's slaying, that profile hit a match in the
[12:20] national database. A routine DNA sample taken from
[12:24] an incarcerated felon on the East Coast matched the DNA from
[12:28] Bonnie's case, and the cold case had cracked open at last.
[12:33] The DNA belonged to 36 year old Kenneth Dionne, a former Army
[12:37] paratrooper who had lived in Alaska in the early 1990s.
[12:42] At the time of the hit, Dionne was serving a prison sentence in
[12:46] New Hampshire for robbery. He had indeed been in Anchorage
[12:50] around 1994. In fact, he was on probation
[12:54] after a prior robbery conviction and had been released from an
[12:57] Alaska prison just months before Bonnie's death.
[13:03] Yet Dionne had never been on investigators radar until this
[13:06] moment, and the forensic match was virtually certain.
[13:10] After years of mystery, science had finally revealed the
[13:13] perpetrator's identity. Dionne was indicted for Bonnie's
[13:18] slaying in 2007 and extradited back to Alaska to face charges.
[13:26] Nearly 17 years after Bonnie's death, Kenneth Dionne went on
[13:30] trial in Anchorage in May 2011. Bonnie's smiling portrait was
[13:34] shown to the jury as prosecutors retold the story of her long
[13:38] unsolved death. Prosecutors then presented a
[13:41] powerful case built on compelling forensic evidence.
[13:45] The autopsy showed that Bonnie's wounds came from a violent
[13:48] beating, not an accident, and the blood found atop the Cliff
[13:52] further disproved any notion that her fall was unintentional.
[13:57] Investigators described how Dion, then 25 years old at the
[14:01] time of the crime, likely spotted Bonnie on her early
[14:05] morning walk and abducted her. He then drove her out to the
[14:10] secluded Creek to carry out his horrific acts.
[14:15] Dion's defense team did not dispute that his DNA was
[14:17] present, but they offered an alternate explanation for the
[14:21] events that's basically guaranteed to piss everyone off.
[14:25] They claimed that Dionne and Bonnie had a consensual
[14:27] encounter early that morning, and that she later slipped and
[14:30] fell from the Cliff to her death by accident.
[14:34] This theory, however, was undermined by the physical
[14:38] evidence and by Bonnie's own character.
[14:41] She had been in love with her long distance boyfriend at the
[14:44] time, and wasn't the kind of person to engage in a reckless
[14:48] interaction with a stranger early in the morning on the way
[14:50] to class. Dionne perhaps hadn't hired a
[14:56] star defense team to represent him either, because his own
[14:59] statements to the cops after he was brought in undermined their
[15:02] theory of the case. When first questioned by police
[15:06] after the DNA match, Dionne had claimed he'd never even met
[15:10] Bonnie, undermining this trash tier theory crafted by his
[15:14] defense. Moreover, the extensive injuries
[15:18] and signs of struggle made the accident story impossible to
[15:21] believe. After a three-week trial full of
[15:26] emotional testimony, the jury rejected the defense's version
[15:30] of events. In June 2011, they found Kenneth
[15:35] Dion guilty on all charges, and that October, a judge sentenced
[15:39] him to 124 years in prison. At the sentencing, authorities
[15:45] noted that Dionne's prior violent offenses and probation
[15:48] violations meant he should never have been free in 1994.
[15:54] This was a bitter reminder that Bonnie's slaying would have been
[15:56] prevented had he been properly jailed earlier.
[16:01] Spurred by this case, Alaska lawmakers in 2007 passed what
[16:06] became known as the Bonnie Craig Law, requiring DNA to be
[16:10] collected at the time of all felony arrests.
[16:14] In the years since, many other states have followed suit by
[16:17] implementing similar DNA on arrest laws so that violent
[16:21] offenders are identified sooner. The logic was simple.
[16:25] If such a policy had existed earlier, Dionne's DNA from his
[16:29] prior arrests would have been on file and the match could have
[16:33] caught him much sooner. The defense strategy in Bonnie
[16:38] Craig's case stands out as one of the most unsettling aspects
[16:42] of the entire case. Aside from the crime itself, the
[16:46] claim that Bonnie had willingly engaged in a consensual
[16:49] encounter was both cruel and didn't even potentially match
[16:53] the evidence. The physical evidence, from her
[16:57] extensive defensive injuries to the blood found at the cliff's
[17:00] edge painted a reality of the terror she was forced to endure
[17:04] in her last moments. To suggest otherwise forced her
[17:10] loved ones to relive the horror while hearing her memory
[17:13] distorted in court. It reduced Bonnie to a narrative
[17:17] that contradicted both her character and the clear facts of
[17:21] the case. And Simply put, the defense
[17:24] raised didn't have the air of reality for her family.
[17:29] Sitting through such testimony must have been excruciating.
[17:33] Rather than simply attempting to prove he wasn't guilty, these
[17:37] defense lawyers dragged the family through yet another layer
[17:40] of trauma for no reason whatsoever.
[17:43] And before you comment, I do fully understand that the duty
[17:47] of defense counsel is to raise all possible defenses for their
[17:51] client. But what they raised here in
[17:54] this instance wasn't even theoretically possible on the
[17:57] basis of the evidence, and they had no evidence to prove it
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