A Seaside cold case from 40 years ago is closed after the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced that Robert Lanoue was sentenced for the murder and kidnapping of 5-year-old Anne Pham back in 1982.
Lanoue, 72, from Reno, Nevada was given 25 years to life in prison plus 31 additional years. On Feb. 20 Lanoue pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, committing a forcible lewd act on a child under 14, forcible rape and forcible sodomy. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Pham disappeared Jan. 21, 1982 while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School. She was never seen alive again, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Two days later on Jan. 23, 1982, her remains were discovered on the former Fort Ord military base. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death, prosecutors said.
The case went cold for 40 years, but in 2020 the county’s Cold Case Task Force, alongside the District Attorney’s Office and Seaside Police Department, reopened the case and submitted evidence for DNA analysis.
A piece of pubic hair found on Pham was enough to create a DNA profile that could be used in genealogical databases and Lanoue’s name came up as a possible suspect.
At the time of the crime, Lanoue was 29 serving in the U.S. Army while stationed at Fort Ord. He lived 60 feet away from the Pham family and one of his children also attended Highland Elementary School, though prosecutors said there is no indication the families knew each other.
Investigators interviewed Lanoue July 6, 2022 and he admitted to picking up Pham from school, but claimed he did not remember killing her.
Lanoue said he may have blocked it out of his memory to protect himself, and admitted to having a history of sexually assaulting young girls.