A father was with his 4-year-old daughter on Nov. 25, 1991, when he made a startling discovery upon entering a California home: His 11-month-old baby was sitting in a high chair, wailing and alone.
His wife, 35-year-old Cindy Wanner, was nowhere to be found inside the Granite Bay home, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
“Her shoes, coat, and car were all left behind,” deputies said.
A massive search ensued across Placer County. Devastating news came three weeks later when the mother of two was found strangled to death in a remote area outside of Foresthill, about 40 miles from where she vanished.
Despite an investigation, Wanner’s slaying went unsolved for decades.
But earlier this year, as investigators examined one final piece of evidence, advanced DNA analysis identified 64-year-old James Lawhead Jr. as a suspect in Wanner’s kidnapping and slaying, deputies said. Lawhead was arrested in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Friday, April 24.
The Placer County District Attorney’s Office charged Lawhead with one count of murder, two special circumstances — one for murder during the rape during the commission of a murder and a kidnapping during the commission of that murder — and one count of kidnapping, District Attorney Morgan Briggs Gire said at a Monday news conference.
“This is one of the most notorious and heinous cold cases we have here in Placer County,” Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a statement. “We’ve never given up pursuing justice for Cindy and her family. “We hope this is a small step in the healing process.”
Who is James Lawhead Jr.?
In 1980, Lawhead was accused of breaking into a Sacramento County home, beating a grandmother unconscious, and sexually assaulting her young granddaughter, Woo said.
Lawhead was sentenced to 19 years in prison but released after serving 11 years, according to Woo. Less than a year later, Lawhead is accused of kidnapping and killing Wanner.
“In 2005, he was arrested for a weapons charge,” Woo said. “(He) told an acquaintance that he believed he was going to go back to prison for the rest of his life, and that he was going to disappear, and shortly after that, completely disappeared.”
Though investigators identified Lawhead as a suspect earlier this year, finding him didn’t prove easy. Deputies said, “He appeared to have vanished.” They could not find any record of him after 2005.
“As detectives dug deeper, they came to believe Lawhead had assumed a new identity,” deputies said.
Detectives reached out to law enforcement agencies where they believe he may be living, including the Scottsdale Police Department.
Leveraging facial recognition technologies, an analyst with Scottsdale police found a match on a photo of Lawhead in the Arizona Department of Transportation database, Woo said at the news conference.
Detectives found Lawhead in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Friday, April 24, where he had been living under the name of “Vincent Reynolds,” according to deputies.
While serving a search warrant at Lawhead’s home in Arizona, Woo said detectives found additional evidence, “including multiple loaded firearms staged throughout the house and a bag that had his clothes, $15,000 in cash, and a burner phone.”
Authorities booked Lawhead into jail in Arizona, deputies said, adding that he will be extradited to Placer County to face charges.
“This crime devastated a family and shook an entire community. For years, they have carried the weight of unanswered questions,” Gire said in a statement. “Today does not erase that pain, but it does move us closer to the truth and to accountability.”
The day after Lawhead’s arrest, his 71-year-old sister — Terry Lawhead Steele, of San Clemente, California — was also arrested in Lancaster County, South Carolina, according to deputies. She is facing an accessory charge.
“Steele had spoken with law enforcement several times over the years, including with our detectives just weeks ago, and claimed she had not heard from her brother in more than 20 years,” deputies said.
Investigators, however, learned the sister owned the Arizona home Lawhead had been living in and that the two had remained in contact.
‘Lawhead Jr. could be responsible for additional crimes’
Deputies said they are now looking into “the possibility that James Lawhead Jr. could be responsible for additional crimes.”
Since leaving California, Lawhead has lived in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, according to Woo.
“We encourage law enforcement agencies, specifically those across the West Coast, to look at any cold cases that may have similarities to this case and reach out to our team at 530-889-7835,” deputies said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Family gets justice in California mom’s cold case slaying with arrest
Reporting by Daniella Segura, USA TODAY NETWORK / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
