DNA solves murder case 40 years later: Man charged for killing minor girl in 1982

A 70-year-old man in Nevada has been accused of the 1982 murder case of a 5-year-old girl who vanished while making her way to her kindergarten. The investigators solved the case with the help of DNA evidence, as per the authorities. Pham vanished on January 21, 1982, on her way to kindergarten at High Elementary School in Seaside, California. Two days later, her body was found in an abandoned Fort Ord. However, after being charged last week with the killing of the little girl, Robert John Lanoue of Reno, Nevada, was scheduled to appear in Washoe County for a hearing about his extradition to Monterey County, media reports said.

As per the authorities, the child had been kidnapped, sexually molested, and strangled.

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannie Pacioni said, Lanoue, a Nevada-registered sex offender, was 29 years old when the girl was killed and resided close to her Seaside home. After obtaining a grant to reopen the cold case, the old case was reopened in 2020 when detectives with the Monterey Case Task Force collaborated with Seaside Police Department to submit the evidence from the case for DNA testing.

According to Pacioni, Lanoue was charged with one count of first-degree murder along with special circumstance accusations that he milled the girl while engaging in kidnapping and lewd acts on a minor.

According to Attorney Pacioni, investigators in California were able to secure a warrant for Lanoue’s arrest on July 6. Records showed that the man was already incarcerated in the Washoe County jail when he was arrested on June 8 for a parole violation.

(With inputs from agencies)

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