Nevada man charged with 1982 killing of five-year-old girl using DNA evidence

A 70-year-old Nevada man has been charged in the 1982 killing of a five-year-old girl who disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class in California after detectives solved the case using DNA evidence, authorities said.

Robert John Lanoue, of Reno, Nevada, was charged last week in the killing of Anne Pham.

Pham disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland elementary school in Seaside, California, on 21 January 1982. Her body was found two days later in the former Fort Ord.

The child had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled, California authorities said.

According to court records, Lanoue has waived extradition to Monterey county in California. As of Monday he was still in the Washoe county jail.

Lanoue was charged with one count of first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations that he murdered Pham while committing kidnapping and a lewd act on a child under the age of 14, said Pacioni.

Lanoue was already in the Washoe county jail, where he was booked on 8 June for a parole violation, records showed.