{"id":291392,"date":"2026-04-29T11:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291392\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:55:26","slug":"cold-case-arrest-in-placer-county-murder-of-kidnapped-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291392\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold case arrest in Placer County murder of kidnapped mother"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cinthia \u201cCindi\u201d Wanner was cleaning her sister\u2019s Placer County home 34 years ago when someone kidnapped her, taking the 35-year-old mother and leaving behind her 11-month-old daughter in a high chair where she was found later crying and alone.<\/p>\n

Wanner was sexually assaulted and left to die among trees in the Foresthill area, where her body was found more than two weeks later.<\/p>\n

The investigation into her murder went unsolved without any arrests for more than three decades until earlier this year, when authorities used DNA to identify a suspect. Last week, a crime analyst in Arizona used facial recognition technology to help investigators find the man believed to have killed Wanner.<\/p>\n

James Lawhead Jr., 64, was arrested on suspicion of homicide in Wanner\u2019s November 1991 disappearance and subsequent death, Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo announced Monday at a news conference in Auburn. He said investigators arrested Lawhead in the driveway of his home in Bullhead, Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cArguably, this is one of the most heinous and notorious cold cases we have here in Placer County,\u201d Woo told reporters. \u201cWe hope that this arrest will help bring some justice and closure to Cindi Wanner\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Placer County sheriff\u2019s detectives, the county\u2019s Cold Case Investigations team and local police officers arrested Lawhead, \u201cthe monster responsible for this crime,\u201d in the driveway of his home in Bullhead, Arizona.<\/p>\n

\"Placer Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo and officials announce the arrest of James Lawhead in a more than 30-year-old homicide investigation into the death of Cindi Wanner on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Auburn. Lawhead was arrested in Arizona after DNA evidence helped identify him in the cold case. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com Suspect in Arizona jail<\/p>\n

Lawhead on Monday remained in custody at the Mohave County Jail, where he awaited extradition to California to face charges in the homicide case.<\/p>\n

Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said his office would file a charge of murder against Lawhead, along with two special circumstance allegations for killing Wanner during the commission of rape and kidnapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because the passage of time doesn\u2019t mean justice diminishes in importance,\u201d Gire said at Monday\u2019s news conference. \u201cThis family has suffered in anguish for 35 years, and they deserve some accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff said Lawhead was a convicted sex offender and had been released from prison 10 months before Wanner was killed.<\/p>\n

\"The The Placer County Sheriff\u2019s Office announce the arrest of James Lawhead in a more than 30-year-old homicide investigation into the death of Cindi Wanner on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Auburn. His sister was also arrested on suspicion of harboring him. Lawhead was arrested in Arizona after DNA evidence helped identify him in the cold case. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Woo said Lawhead had been sentenced to spend 19 years in prison for brutally attacking a 71-year-old grandmother and raping her 11-year-old granddaughter in 1980 in Sacramento County. He said Lawhead had broken into the home and beat the grandmother \u201cnearly to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff told reporters that Lawhead was released from prison after serving 11 years of his sentence, despite a state psychiatrist classifying Lawhead \u201cas a mentally disordered sex offender who was not amenable to treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rancho Cordova mother kidnapped<\/p>\n

Wanner was cleaning her sister\u2019s Granite Bay home on Nov. 25, 1991, when she was kidnapped.<\/p>\n

About 12:30 p.m. that day, Susan Rye and her husband, Phil, had left their home just off Auburn-Folsom Road and headed for a luncheon meeting in Roseville, according to a February 1998 news story published in The Sacramento Bee. Wanner, Rye\u2019s younger sister, stayed behind to clean the house. Ashley, Wanner\u2019s 11-month-old daughter, was with her. Wanner had already dropped off her then 4-year-old daughter, Carlie, at a childcare center.<\/p>\n

\"Cinthia Cinthia Wanner is seen in an undated photo before her 1991 slaying. She was 35 when she was kidnapped and killed in Placer County, leaving behind two young daughters. Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n

Robert Wanner, the slain mother\u2019s husband, arrived at the Granite Bay home with Carlie and found Ashley sobbing, strapped into a high chair with an unfinished supply of dry Cheerios in front of her. His wife was missing.<\/p>\n

Investigators searched the area and passed out Wanner\u2018s picture to news media. On Dec. 14, 1991, 19 days later, a quail hunter on a logging road about three miles from Foresthill discovered the missing Rancho Cordova woman lying face down in the woods, according to The Bee\u2019s 1998 news story.<\/p>\n

\"Placer Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo and officials announce the arrest of James Lawhead in a more than 30-year-old homicide investigation into the death of Cindi Wanner on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Auburn. Lawhead was arrested in Arizona after DNA evidence helped identify him in the cold case. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

The murder suspect remained unidentified until earlier this year, when analysts at a forensics lab in Contra Costa County identified Lawhead as the suspect using DNA evidence collected from the 1991 homicide.<\/p>\n

The sheriff said his investigators searched for Lawhead, but the wanted suspect seemed to have \u201cjust disappeared\u201d in 2005. They couldn\u2019t find any records for Lawhead, and Woo said investigators assumed he was living under a false name.<\/p>\n

Facial recognition technology<\/p>\n

The Placer County investigators contacted law enforcement agencies in other states who have permission to use facial recognition technology, Woo said.<\/p>\n

A crime analyst from the Scottsdale Police Department in Arizona used the technology and found a match on a state Department of Transportation database. Woo said that information led investigators to the Bullhead home.<\/p>\n

Lawhead had been living, investigators believe under a false name, at the Arizona home owned by his sister, Terry Lawhead, 71, of San Clemente in Southern California.<\/p>\n

Woo said Terry Lawhead was arrested on Saturday in Lancaster County in South Carolina on suspicion of being an accessory to a crime, helping her brother avoid authorities. He said investigators believe she had been communicating with her brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last contact we had with her was in March where we explained to her exactly what her brother was wanted for and explained to her the circumstances in Cindi Wanner\u2019s case,\u201d the sheriff said about Terry Lawhead. \u201cShe still denied any knowledge, said she hadn\u2019t seen or heard from her brother in over 20 years and that he may have possibly been dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 3:32 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Rosalio Ahumada<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cinthia \u201cCindi\u201d Wanner was cleaning her sister\u2019s Placer County home 34 years ago when someone kidnapped her, taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-291392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}