A 70-year-old man from Nevada has currently been charged with the 1982 killing of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class in California. Some detectives solved the case using DNA evidence, authorities said.
Robert John Lanoue, of Reno, Nevada, was charged last week in the killing of Anne Pham and was due in court Monday in Washoe County for a hearing about his extradition to Monterey County in California.
Lanoue, who is a registered sex offender in Nevada, was 29 years old at the time of the girl’s killing and had lived near her home in Seaside. Pham disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School in Seaside, California, on January 21, 1982. Pham’s body was found two days later in the former Fort Ord.
The case was reopened in 2020 when investigators submitted evidence from the case for DNA testing after receiving a grant to reopen cold cases. According to investigations, Pham had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and strangled.
Lanoue was charged with one count of first-degree murder.
