A 5-year-old California girl was abducted while walking to school in 1982. A man in Nevada has just been charged with her murder.

A 70-year-old Nevada man has been charged in the 1982 killing of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class in California after detectives solved the case utilizing DNA proof, authorities stated.

Robert John Lanoue, of Reno, Nevada, was charged final week in the killing of Anne Pham and was due in court docket Monday in Washoe County for a listening to about his extradition to Monterey County in California.

Pham disappeared while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School in Seaside, California, on Jan. 21, 1982. Her physique was discovered two days later in the previous Fort Ord, an Army put up on Monterey Bay.

The baby had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled, California authorities stated.

“It’s a very strong case. DNA has a large part, genealogy has a large part and circumstantial evidence, in this case, is extremely powerful,” Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges told KION 46. “The suspect lived about a block and a half away from Anne Pham.”

Lanoue, who’s a registered intercourse offender in Nevada, was 29 years outdated on the time of the girl’s killing and lived close to her residence in Seaside, stated Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni.

“The guy is a complete monster,” Borges told People journal.

The case was reopened in 2020 when investigators with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force labored with the Seaside Police Department to submit proof from the case for DNA testing after receiving a grant to reopen chilly circumstances.

“A new type of DNA testing not previously available to earlier investigators identified Lanoue as the suspect in Pham’s murder,” the district legal professional’s workplace stated in a press release.

Lanoue was charged with one rely of first-degree homicide, with particular circumstance allegations that he murdered Pham while committing kidnapping and a lewd act on a toddler below the age of 14, stated Pacioni.

It was not instantly identified if Lanoue has an legal professional who can communicate on his behalf.

On July 6, California investigators obtained a warrant for Lanoue’s arrest, Pacioni stated. Lanoue was already in the Washoe County jail the place he was booked on June 8 for a parole violation, information confirmed.