Man gets life in prison sentence for 1982 rape, murder of Monterey Co. kindergartener Anne Pham

MONTEREY, Calif. -- A Nevada man pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and murder of a Seaside child in 1982 and will serve life in prison, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

Robert Lanoue, 72, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, committing a forcible lewd act on a child under 14, and other sexual assault crimes for the Jan. 21, 1982 abduction and murder of 5-year-old Anne Pham.

Lanoue will receive a sentence of 25 years to life in prison plus 31 additional years, prosecutors said.

Pham disappeared after leaving for school in Seaside, according to prosecutors.

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Pham's remains were found on Jan. 23, 1982 at the site of the former Fort Ord. She had been strangled to death, prosecutors said.

The case sat cold for 40 years, but in 2020 a county task force with the District Attorney's Office and Seaside police reopened the case and submitted evidence for DNA analysis. A piece of pubic hair found on Pham was enough to create a DNA profile that could be matched to genealogical databases and Lanoue's name came up as a possible suspect.

At the time of the crime, Lanoue was 29 and in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Ord. He also lived a tenth of a mile away from the Pham family and one of his children went to school with Anne, prosecutors said.

According to the District Attorney's Office, Lanoue, who was living in Reno, was interviewed in 2022 and admitted to picking Pham up on her way to school, but said he had no memory of killing her.

"He acknowledged that he may have blocked it out of his memory to protect himself," said prosecutors. "He admitted that he had a history of sexually assaulting young girls."