Toddler’s killing went unsolved for two decades. Now dad is charged, Georgia cops say
A Georgia man has been charged in the 20-year-old cold case killing of his young son, police said.
Christopher Houston Sr.’s arrest comes two decades after 3-year-old Christopher Houston Jr. died after being found unresponsive at the family’s Atlanta home in 2004, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
On July 24, investigators secured warrants on charges of murder and child cruelty in the toddler’s death, the department said in a news release.
Officers were called to the apartment on April 29, 2004, about an unresponsive male, police said. Christopher Houston Jr. was found “not alert, conscious, or breathing.”
The toddler was rushed to a hospital for treatment but later was pronounced dead, according to police.
At the time, Houston Sr. told police his son passed out after coming in from playing outside, WSB-TV reported. Investigators suspected foul play, however, and the youngster’s death was ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma, the station reported.
Houston was arrested on unrelated charges in 2023 and has been in custody at the Fulton County Jail, police said.
Authorities didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him in his son’s death until now.
“We just got lucky,” homicide detective Summer R. Benton told WSB-TV. “We were able to get some people to come forward in the last couple of weeks that actually had information on this case and we were actually able to close this case and I was able to call his mom and say, ‘You know what? I know it’s been 20 years but we got him!’”
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Toddler’s killing went unsolved for two decades. Now dad is charged, Georgia cops say."