(CNN) — For more than 30 years, the answer to who killed Cindy Wanner remained much of a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement after she vanished from a Northern California home, leaving everything but her purse behind, including her baby.
Her sudden disappearance in 1991 rattled residents of Granite Bay, a suburb of Sacramento where the 35-year-old mother of two had gone to clean her sister’s home, investigators said. Wanner’s 11-month-old baby was buckled into a high chair and crying, without her mom, when her husband arrived at the home that day.
An extensive search ended three weeks later when Wanner’s body was found in a remote area about 40 miles from her sister’s home, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. An autopsy determined she had been strangled, officials said.
But many questions remained about who was behind Wanner’s death – and why.
Over the years, law enforcement continued testing evidence without any sufficient results until newer DNA testing technology gave them new hope in finding Wanner’s killer.
Suspect flew under the radar for decades
Detectives recently submitted a “final piece of evidence” from Wanner’s case to a neighboring sheriff’s office forensics lab, which yielded a match identifying James Lawhead Jr., 64, as a suspect, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.
While the latest DNA match pointed them to Lawhead finding him became a challenge.
Investigators looking for Lawhead found no trace of him and “it appeared that he just disappeared since 2005,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a news conference in late April.
“We explored all possibilities on what could have happened, whether he was still living under a fake identity, whether he had left the country, or whether he was even deceased,” Woo said, noting the sheriff’s office checked records in both the US and Canada.
Detectives asked other agencies for help and the Scottsdale Police Department, using the Arizona Department of Transportation’s facial recognition system, identified a match, Woo said. The system is typically used to flag fake driver’s licenses, state IDs and suspected identity theft.
In Arizona, he wasn’t known by his real name. Lawhead went by the name of Vincent Reynolds, the sheriff’s office said, and was living in Bullhead City – near the state’s border with Nevada and nearly 600 miles away from Placer County.
Authorities believe suspect could be linked to other crimes
The man was arrested on the driveway of his home in Bullhead City on April 24, Woo said. After Lawhead’s arrest, investigators searched the house and found loaded firearms, a bag with $15,000 and a burner phone, the sheriff said.
Lawhead pleaded guilty to murder with the special circumstances of kidnapping and rape and was sentenced on July 14 to life without the possibility of parole, according to court records and a joint news release from the Placer County District Attorney’s Office and Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
CNN has reached out to an attorney for Lawhead.
“This arrest is a powerful reminder that time does not erase responsibility, and it does not diminish our commitment,” Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said in a statement following the arrest.
Lawhead’s Bullhead City neighbors told CNN affiliate KPHO they were shocked to learn the man had been living among them. Investigators later learned the home was owned by Lawhead’s sister, who previously told authorities she hadn’t heard from her brother “in more than 20 years,” the sheriff’s office said.
The sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, 71, was arrested in South Carolina on an accessory charge, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. In June, she pleaded no contest. On July 14, a judge sentenced Steele to time served with two years of probation, according to court records.
CNN has reached out to an attorney for Steele.
During a search warrant on her home in San Clemente, California, investigators said they found evidence showing she owned the home Lawhead was living in and had remained in contact with her brother over the years, despite telling authorities otherwise.
“These arrests represent a significant step toward justice for Cindy and for the family who has waited decades for answers,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Detectives attempted to retrace Lawhead’s movements over the past 20 years, including in states like Washington, Oregon and Arizona. They were investigating whether he was connected to any other crimes, Woo said previously.
Further investigation later revealed Lawhead’s registered residence in 1991 was approximately 1.4 miles from the area where the Wanner’s ATM card was last fraudulently used after she disappeared, officials said.
Prior to Wanner’s kidnapping and murder, Lawhead broke into a home in 1980 and was convicted for sex crimes involving a 71-year-old grandmother and a young girl, according to Woo and criminal records. He served 11 years of a 19-year sentence and was released months before Wanner’s murder, authorities said.
“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,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.
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