Overview
- James Lawhead Jr., 64, was taken into custody in Bullhead City, Arizona on Friday after years living under the alias Vincent Reynolds, and he awaits extradition to California.
- Advanced testing at the Contra Costa County forensic lab produced a DNA hit that identified Lawhead, and a Scottsdale Police analyst used Arizona motor‑vehicle photos with facial recognition to confirm his alias and location.
- Cindy Wanner, 35, vanished from a Granite Bay home on Nov. 25, 1991, leaving her 11‑month‑old crying in a high chair, and a hunter found her strangled about three weeks later near Foresthill.
- Lawhead is a previously convicted violent sex offender who served 11 of a 19‑year sentence and was released in early 1991, months before Wanner was abducted and killed.
- Detectives are retracing Lawhead’s movements across Arizona, Oregon and Washington to see if he is linked to other unsolved crimes, and they have asked other agencies to review similar cases.