Cindy Wanner with her children. Credit: PCSO
Advanced DNA testing—funded by the community—and facial recognition technology have combined to identify a suspect in the 1991 kidnapping and murder of a mother of two. After years of searching, James Lawhead Jr., was finally arrested on Friday, April 24, 2026 for the kidnapping and murder of Cindy Wanner.
On Nov. 25, 1991, Wanner was feeding her 11-month-old baby at her sister’s home in the quaint neighborhood of Granite Bay, California, when she suddenly vanished. The baby was found crying in the highchair hours later, while Wanner’s shoes, coat and car were all left behind. Her disappearance in broad daylight sparked a massive investigation and shook the normally safe community.
Three weeks later, Wanner was found strangled to death in a remote area approximately 40 miles from where she was kidnapped. Pathologists believe she was kept alive for some time after she was kidnapped. There was no attempt to hide the body in the wooded area.
Investigators took samples from the body and collected numerous evidence, but no hits or leads were uncovered in the immediate aftermath of the crime.
Prior record
Over the years, the Placer County (California) Sheriff’s Office has submitted numerous items for testing and re-testing, all yielding no results. Earlier this year, detectives submitted a final piece of evidence to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Lab, where advanced DNA analysis identified Lawhead as the suspect.
Once identified, investigators began working to locate Lawhead but he had seemingly disappeared. There was no record of him since 2005, although he had a lengthy record before that.
In 1980, Lawhead broke into a home and beat a 71-year-old grandmother nearly to death before raping her 11-year-old granddaughter who was also in the house.
At his sentencing, a state psychiatrist described Lawhead as a “mentally disordered sex offender who is not amenable to treatment.” However, he was still released in early 1991 after 11 years of his 19-year sentence. The kidnapping and murder of Wanner occurred just months after Lawhead’s early release.
“That 1980 case where he was convicted is one of the most heinous crimes you'll read about,” said Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo during the press conference announcing Lawhead’s arrest.
In 2002, Lawhead was arrested again in Placer County for failing to register as a sex offender. In 2005, he was arrested in nearby Lincoln on an outstanding weapons charge. At this point, Lawhead reportedly told an acquittance he thought he was going to go back to prison for the rest of his life. This, police have deduced, is when he assumed another identity and disappeared.
“This man has been on the run for a long time. he has taken great steps to avoid responsibility, to get away with the crimes he committed,” said Anne Marie Schubert, investigator with the PCSO Cold Case Unit.
A new identity
Once investigators concluded Lawhead was living under an assumed name, they consulted with other law enforcement agencies in areas where they believed he may have been living.
On Friday, April 25, 2026, an analyst from the Scottsdale (Arizona) Police Department called with a lead. Using facial recognition technology and the Department of Transportation database, the analysts got a match on a photo of Lawhead—now known as Vincent Reynolds. He was arrested without incident that same day, and will be extradited to Placer County to face charges.
Following Lawhead’s arrest, detectives interviewed him and served a search warrant at his Arizona residence, where additional evidence was collected.
The next day, Lawhead’s 71-year-old sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested in South Carolina on an accessory charge. Steele had spoken with law enforcement officials several times over the years—including Placer County detectives just weeks ago—and always claimed she had not heard from her brother. But, Lawhead had been living in a home she owned at the time of his arrest. Subsequent evidence also shows the two had remained in communication since 2005.
Detectives are now exploring the possibility that Lawhead could be responsible for additional crimes, especially across the West Coast.