DNA evidence and the help of a Scottsdale police analyst has led to the arrest of a Bullhead City man suspected in the 1991 strangulation death of a mother in central California, authorities said.
James Lawhead Jr. was taken into custody April 24 in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Cindy Wanner, 35, of Granite Bay, California, according to the Placer County Sheriff's Office.
Lawhead, 64, was identified as the suspect through DNA analysis after multiple items were submitted for testing to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office Forensic Lab, according to the Placer County Sheriff's Office.
Wanner went missing Nov. 25, 1991, with her 11-month-old child left crying in a high chair, the Sheriff's Office said. Her shoes, coat and car were left behind, according to the law enforcement agency. Some three weeks later, she was found strangled in a remote area outside Foresthill, about 40 miles from where she went missing, the agency added.
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Lawhead was released from prison earlier that year, after serving 11 years of a 19-year sentence for a sex crime involving a young child, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Detectives found Lawhead through a facial recognition comparison with the help of the Scottsdale police, the Sheriff's Office said.
Lawhead was found in Bullhead City, living under the name Vincent Reynolds, and was taken into custody by Bullhead City police, the Sheriff's Office said. He was being held in an Arizona jail awaiting extradition to Placer County, the agency said April 27.
Sister owns home in Bullhead City, now charged in case
The Sheriff's Office said they also arrested Lawhead's sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, 71, on suspicion of accessory charges.
Lawhead Steele owns a home where her brother was staying, according to the Sheriff's Office. But she told detectives for years, and as early as a few weeks ago, that she had not spoken to him in more than 20 years despite evidence showing they remained in communication, according to the agency.
According to public records, Lawhead Steele owns a property in the area of Clearwater Drive and Mariana Boulevard in Bullhead City.
Her primary residence is in Florida, and she also has a home in San Clemente, California, public records indicate. The Sheriff's Office said a search warrant was executed on her San Clemente home, and she was taken into custody in South Carolina.
Scottsdale police analyst a 'hero' in case, sheriff says
Pathologists at the time thought Wanner was kept alive for some time before she was killed, Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said during an April 27 press conference.
Wanner, a mother of two, was taken from her sister's home, which she had gone to clean, a video shared by the Sheriff's Office detailed.
Her remains were recovered about 300 feet from the roadway, the video mentioned.
The video also noted Lawhead is suspected of killing Wanner 10 months after his prison release. His prison sentence, according to the video, stemmed from a 1980 incident in which he broke into a grandmother's home, beat her unconscious and sexually assaulted a child.
Lawhead "beat a 71-year-old grandmother nearly to death, stating he thought he killed her. He then subsequently raped and sodomized the 11-year-old granddaughter," Woo said of the Sacramento County case. "When he was sentenced, psychiatrists from the state classified him as a mentally disordered sex offender who was not amenable to treatment."
Lawhead disappeared in 2005 after a weapons charge, according to the video.
Woo praised an "unsung hero" analyst with Scottsdale police who he said found Lawhead through the Arizona Department of Public Safety database the week the suspect was arrested. The Sheriff's Office, Woo said, had asked out-of-state agencies for help with facial recognition technology to find Lawhead.
