Father arrested 20 years after 3-year-old son found dead at metro Atlanta apartment

ATLANTA, Ga. — A two-decade old murder case involving a three-year-old Atlanta boy has finally been solved.

On Wednesday, Atlanta police announced the arrest and charges against the child’s father.

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Channel 2′s Michael Seiden was at Atlanta police headquarters Monday, where detectives delivered the news of the arrest to Christopher Houston Jr.’s mother right after the arrest of 40-year-old Christopher Houston Sr.

The child was found dead at the family’s apartment on Neal Street in April 2004. Houston told police that his son had been playing outside and that when he came inside, he passed out.

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The Medical Examiner’s Office eventually ruled his death a homicide with the cause of death being blunt force trauma to the head.

Still, there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest Houston until now, two decades later.

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Houston was already in jail on unrelated charges.

“We just got lucky,” homicide detective Summer R. Benton said. “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!’”

Benton wanted the public, as well as other families of cold case victims, to know that the Atlanta police don’t forget those cases, and that they will remain open until detectives can solve them.

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