SEASIDE, Calif. (TCN) — A 72-year-old Nevada man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for abducting, sexually assaulting, and fatally strangling a child who disappeared over four decades ago.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced March 20 that a judge sentenced Robert Lanoue to 25 years to life in prison with an additional 31 years after he pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder, kidnapping, committing a forcible lewd act on a child under 14, forcible rape, and forcible sodomy. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life.
According to prosecutors, on Jan. 21, 1982, 5-year-old Anne Pham went missing while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School, and she was “never seen alive again.” Two days later, her body was found, and officials determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Despite the initial investigation, no arrests were made at the time, and the case went cold for more than 40 years.
Investigators reopened the case in 2020 and submitted items of evidence for DNA testing. Officials performed DNA analysis on a rootless pubic hair found on Pham’s remains and identified Lanoue as a likely match after further testing.
According to the district attorney’s office, Lanoue was 29 when Pham was killed. He reportedly served in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Ord, where the child’s remains were located. Prosecutors said Lanoue lived near Pham’s family home, and one of his children attended school with her. However, investigators do not believe their families knew each other.
During an interview in July 2022, Lanoue allegedly said he picked up Pham while she was walking to school, but he claimed he did not “remember killing her.” Prosecutors said the defendant “acknowledged that he may have blocked it out of his memory to protect himself.” Lanoue also “admitted that he had a history of sexually assaulting young girls.” By the time he was named a suspect, Lanoue was already on the Nevada Sex Offender Registry for three convictions in 1998.
