Man accused in 1991 cold case homicide has allegedly lived under false identity for over 20 years

PLACER COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) – Police announced a suspect has been arrested in connection with a 1991 cold case involving the homicide of a missing mother. 

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 64-year-old James Lawhead Jr. on April 24. On November 25, 1991, 35-year-old Cindy Wanner went missing from her home. Her car and shoes were left behind, and when her husband got home with their 4-year-old, the couple’s 11-month-old baby was still in a highchair, crying. 

Wanner’s body was found in a wooded area several weeks later, and the case went cold for more than 34 years. At the time, investigators believed that she might have been kept alive for some time after being kidnapped, according to KTVU.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit identified Lawhead as a suspect following an investigation and advances in DNA testing, but it was difficult for law enforcement to track him down. There were no documented records of him past 2005, according to the sheriff’s office, so they believed he had taken on another identity. 

Facial recognition technology traced him to Bullhead City, Arizona, where he had been living under the name Vincent Reynolds. KTVU reports he had also lived in Washington and Oregon under assumed names and investigators are trying to determine whether he was involved in any other crimes.

The Desert Sun reports that according to Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo, Lawhead was arrested on a weapons charge in 2005. He allegedly told a friend that he would be going to prison for the rest of his life and was going to disappear.

Lawhead was arrested and booked into jail on April 24 to awaits extradition to California to face charges. In the meantime, a search warrant was executed at his residence, where law enforcement gathered additional evidence. The Desert Sun reports that in Lawhead’s home, police found loaded firearms and a bag with clothing, a burner phone, and $15,000 in cash.

The day after his arrest, his sister, 71-year-old Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory after a search warrant was executed at her home; she had also allegedly lied to authorities about being in communication with Lawhead and had let him live in her Arizona home despite telling authorities she had not talked with him in 20 years.

According to the sheriff’s office, Lawhead was 30 at the time of Wanner’s disappearance and death. He had recently been released from prison where he had served time for a sex crime involving a child; he had been sentenced to 19 years and was released after 11. 

The Desert Sun reports that the crime occurred in 1980 when Lawhead broke into a woman’s house, beat her until she was unconscious, and then sexually assaulted her granddaughter. Wanner was killed less than a year after he was released.

Sheriff Woo said, “This is one of the most notorious and heinous cold cases we have here in Placer County. We’ve never given up pursuing justice for Cindy and her family. We hope this is a small step in the healing process.”

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