Man arrested in 35-year-old cold case extradited to Placer County

The Placer County Sheriff's Office confirmed James Lawhead Jr., 64, was extradited to Placer County on Thursday. Lawhead was arrested April 24 in the driveway of his Bullhead, Arizona, home in connection to the kidnapping and murder of Cindy Wanner, who was kidnapped from a Granite Bay home in the middle of the day on Nov. 25, 1991. Her remains were found three weeks later in a remote area of Foresthill. The Sheriff's Office reported Lawhead was identified as the suspect after a DNA match made earlier this year. Lawhead disappeared after a 2005 arrest for a weapons charge, but an analyst with the Scottsdale Police Department in Arizona matched Lawhead's photo with the Department of Transportation database, leading to his arrest. The Sheriff's Office confirmed deputies and a detective traveled to Kingman, Arizona, to take custody of Lawhead and he was flown back to Placer. Lawhead will be held at the Auburn Jail pending court proceedings. According to the online in-custody report, Lawhead was booked into the Auburn Jail at 4:09 p.m. and is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. May 4. "This marks another significant step forward in a case that remained unsolved for more than three decades," the Sheriff's Office said. The Sheriff's Office shared the below video of Lawhead's extradition to Placer County: