A 64-year-old man wanted in connection with the 1991 kidnapping and murder of a Northern California woman was arrested last week in Bullhead City, Arizona, where he had been living under a false name for years, the Placer County Sheriff's Office announced Monday.
James Lawhead Jr. was taken into custody Friday. He is accused of abducting and killing Cindy Wanner, who was 35 years old when she disappeared from her Granite Bay, California, home on November 25, 1991. Her 11-month-old baby was found alone in a highchair at the residence. Wanner's coat and car were still at the house.
Her body was discovered three weeks later in a remote area near Foresthill, roughly 40 miles from her home. She had been strangled.
Lawhead was 30 at the time of the murder. He had been released from prison earlier that year after serving 11 years of a 19-year sentence for prior sex crimes involving a child. Investigators linked him to the Wanner killing through advanced DNA analysis, authorities said. He had no documented presence in any official records after 2005. Investigators found he had been living in Arizona under the name Vincent Reynolds.
His 71-year-old sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested Saturday in South Carolina on an accessory charge. Though she told investigators over multiple interviews, including one just weeks ago, that she had not heard from her brother in more than 20 years, authorities determined that Lawhead had been living in a home she owned. Evidence also showed the two had remained in contact. Detectives executed a search warrant at her San Clemente, California, home on Sunday.
"This is one of the most notorious and heinous cold cases we have here in Placer County," Sheriff Wayne Woo said. "We've never given up pursuing justice for Cindy and her family."
Lawhead remains held in Arizona pending extradition to Placer County to face charges. Detectives said they are also investigating whether he may be responsible for additional crimes. Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said the case demonstrated that cold cases "remain urgent, they remain personal."
