Suspected Cindy Wanner killer could face death penalty in cold-case case
A DNA breakthrough led to James Lawhead Jr.'s arrest in Cindy Wanner's 1991 killing, and prosecutors may now seek death in the 34-year-old case.
James Lawhead Jr.’s arrest in Cindy Wanner’s killing has now crossed into the county’s most severe legal territory: prosecutors could pursue the death penalty in a case that sat cold for more than three decades.
Placer County arrested the 64-year-old in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Friday, April 24, 2026, after investigators said a DNA breakthrough tied him to the 1991 kidnapping and murder. The sheriff’s office said its Cold Case Unit had spent years testing numerous items without getting a match before a final piece of evidence was sent to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Lab and advanced analysis identified Lawhead as the suspect.
Wanner was 35 when she vanished from a Granite Bay home on Nov. 25, 1991. Her 11-month-old baby was left crying in a high chair as her shoes, coats and car were left behind. About three weeks later, investigators found her body in a remote area outside Foresthill, roughly 40 miles from the home where she was abducted. KCRA reported that Wanner had been strangled to death there.
The new death-penalty question matters because California law allows a sentence of death or life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder when special circumstances are proven. Kidnapping and rape are among the kinds of allegations that can make a murder case death-eligible, and that raises the stakes for Lawhead as the case moves forward. For Wanner’s family, the arrest already reopened a terrible chapter; the penalty discussion makes clear that the legal fight is only getting started.
Placer County has said it is still juggling more than 80 cold cases, and the work is expensive. Complex forensic testing can run upward of $50,000 per case, which is part of why the breakthrough in Wanner’s case stands out. After 34 years, the mystery did not end with an arrest. It ended with a new question about how far prosecutors will go once a baby left in a high chair, a body in the woods, and one final lab test finally brought Cindy Wanner’s case back to life.
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