Overview
- Eric Johnson, 39, was taken into custody by La Porte police on Monday after the Texas attorney general’s office announced an arrest in the 2012 homicide of toddler Shawn McCloskey.
- Shawn was found unresponsive on July 19, 2012, and an autopsy ruled his death a homicide from multiple blunt-force injuries comparable to those seen in a high-speed vehicle crash.
- La Porte detectives named Johnson an early primary suspect but did not have enough evidence to charge him, and the investigation remained unsolved for 14 years.
- La Porte investigators submitted the case to the Office of the Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit for review in May 2026, and officials say that joint work produced the information now cited as probable cause; authorities have not released the specific new evidence.
- The 'Texas Solves' program brings forensic experts and local detectives together to reexamine cold cases and has led to this arrest, and the matter will now move through the court system with further details likely to appear in filings and court appearances.