Terrifying new update after Anne Pham, 5, is abducted, sexually assaulted & killed on her way to kindergarten

A SUSPECT has been arrested for the murder of a 5-year-old girl who was abducted on her way to school.

Anne Pham was walking to her kindergarten class in the 1980s when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed.

Robert John Lanoue, a 70-year-old former Fort Ord soldier, was arrested and charged this week with one count of first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations for murder, kidnapping, and a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.

The alleged crime happened on Jan. 21, 1982, in Seaside, California.

Lanoue, who has been held in custody in Nevada, hasn't entered a plea and is awaiting extradition back to California.

"The guy is a complete monster," Seaside Police Chief Nicholas Borges told . "He's every person's nightmare. The world is a safer place with this guy off the streets."

Pham was the youngest of 10 children. She convinced her mom, who usually walked with her to kindergarten, to let her walk alone on the day that she was snatched.

Pham never made it to class.

People Magazine reported that her body was found two days later at the Fort Ord Army base by Army investigators. The base is about one mile away from the elementary school.

Police found that Pham had been suffocated and sexually assaulted.

Lanoue, then 29, wasn't a suspect during the initial investigation even though he lived around the corner from Pham and her family at the time.

"You could throw a rock from his house to hers, no problem," Borges said.

"He had to go and drive by her house every day when he left his home. Every day in this man's life, he had to drive by her home. And there's no way you don't see 10 children about a property every day. He just saw prey when he drove by.

For the next two decades, Lanoue was in prison for sexual assault offenses. He was on probation when he was arrested for his connection to Pham's case on July 7.

DNA testing led to the reopening of Pham's case when new evidence was submitted in 2020.

The new evidence led to Lanoue's arrest.

"I wish he would've been caught earlier because this guy went on with his life to create havoc and horror wherever he went," Borges said.

"She was a five-year-old little girl in this country to start her life, to make her family proud, and to live the American dream, and that in and of itself is just heartbreaking. This family fled from Vietnam. They fled from war. The United States of America was paradise for the family."

Anyone who knows information about this case is encouraged to contact DA Investigator Justin Bell at 831-755-5070.