July 8 Update:
Prosecutors say a 70-year-old Nevada man charged in the 1982 killing of a 5-year-old girl has been extradited to California.
Monterey County prosecutor Matt L'Heureux said Robert Lanoue entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment Friday.
Lanoue is a registered sex offender. He was arrested earlier this month in Reno in the killing of Anne Pham after detectives say they solved the cold case using DNA evidence.
The child disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class in Seaside, California.
Authorities say her body was found two days later. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Lanoue was assigned a public defender.
---------------
Original Story:
A 70-year-old man from Reno has been charged with the murder of a 5-year-old girl in Monterey County, California that happened in 1982.
Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced that Robert John Lanoue, age 70 of Reno has been charged with the January 1982 murder of five-year-old Anne Pham of Seaside.
Pham disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School on January 21, 1982. She was never seen alive again.
On January 23, 1982, her remains were discovered on the former Fort Ord.
The initial investigation did not result in any arrests, and Pham’s murder went unsolved for more than 40 years.
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.
On July 6, 2022, investigators obtained a warrant for Lanoue’s arrest.
Lanoue is currently being held in custody in the Washoe County Jail 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
In January 2022, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force received a $535,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant, titled “FY 2021 Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA,” provides funding to support forensic testing and investigative activities in the prosecution of cold cases where DNA from a suspect has been identified. Funding from the U.S. Department of Justice grant enabled the Cold Case Task Force to seek justice in Pham’s case.
Anyone who has information about Pham’s case is encouraged to contact DA Investigator Justin Bell at 831-755-5070
