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MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. – More than four decades after 5-year-old Anne Pham was abducted and murdered, authorities say they’ve solved the crime. Robert Lanoue, 70, has been charged with her murder, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement on Thursday.
Pham was snatched on Jan 21, 1982 while on the way to Highland Elementary School in Seaside, California. The kindergarten student was found dead two days later on what was then known as Fort Ord. Authorities credit advances in criminal technology after they figured out who killed the young girl, Law&Crime reported.
Pham had been strangled to death, the autopsy report concluded, according to a media report at the time. Highland Elementary School was just three blocks away. The little girl who was described as shy and sensitive, yet independent, reportedly told her mother, “Stay home, Mom. I can walk by myself.”
“The initial investigation did not result in any arrests, and Pham’s murder went unsolved for more than 40 years,” prosecutors said. “In 2020, investigators with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force worked collaboratively with Seaside Police Department to reopen Pham’s case and submit items of evidence from the case for DNA testing. A new type of DNA testing not previously available to earlier investigators identified Lanoue as the suspect in Pham’s murder. Lanoue was 29 years old at the time of the homicide and lived in Seaside.”
Anne Pham (Seaside Police)
Lanoue later moved to Reno, Nevada. On July 6, 2022, investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest. He is currently being held in custody in the state of Nevada pending his extradition to California.
Lanoue is charged with one count of first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations that he murdered Pham while committing kidnapping and a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office said in the press statement, “Astrea Forensics, Dr. Ed Green of UC Santa Cruz, Parabon NanoLabs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Nevada State Police Division of Parole and Probation and the Regional Sex Offender Notification Unit provided valuable assistance to the Cold Case Task Force during the investigation.”
Astrea Forensics referred to the news as “ground-breaking” based upon the methods used.
“Breaking news for what will be a ground-breaking case using genomic methods for forensic identification,” the company wrote in a statement. “We admire the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force and the Seaside Police Department who never gave up on Anne Pham and are still fighting for her justice.”
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Source: www.lawofficer.com