A U.S. Army veteran has admitted to killing a kindergartner on her walk to school, a crime that shocked the quiet Monterey County town of Seaside. Robert John Lanoue, 72, who pleaded guilty this week, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Five-year-old Anne Pham was one of 10 siblings living at 1520 Sonoma Ave. On the morning of Jan. 21, 1982, she begged her parents to let her walk to school and, because it was just three blocks away, they agreed. She never made it there.
Two days after Anne was reported missing, military police at Fort Ord responded to a tip about a possible illegal marijuana grow on the U.S. Army post. While searching, they discovered Anne's body. She had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled. Police had no suspects for decades.
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In 2020, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office Cold Case Task Force and the Seaside Police Department reopened the case. Items were sent for DNA testing, which the district attorney's office said returned a hit to Lanoue. Investigators learned Lanoue, who was then living in Reno, was in the Army at the time of Anne's killing and was stationed at Fort Ord. Their case was further strengthened by the fact Lanoue lived a tenth of a mile away from the Phams; he even had a child who attended the same school, although the DA's office said "there is no indication that the families knew each other."
In July 2022, an investigator interviewed Lanoue. He said he picked Anne up in his car that day, but claimed he couldn't remember committing the killing, the district attorney's office said. "He acknowledged that he may have blocked it out of his memory to protect himself," the DA's office wrote in a Thursday press release. "He admitted that he had a history of sexually assaulting young girls."
Records show Lanoue is a registered sex offender in Nevada for a 1998 conviction for crimes against a minor in Las Vegas.
This week, Lanoue pleaded guilty to a number of felonies, including first-degree murder, kidnapping and sex crimes against a child. He will be sentenced to 25 years to life, plus 31 more years, the DA's office said. His formal sentencing is scheduled to take place on March 20.
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