A Pompano Beach jury found Ian Lanning, 58, guilty of murder on Tuesday in the death of his wife, Irene, who was reported missing in May 2022. The panel took less than two hours to reach the verdict.
Lanning asked to be sentenced right away, and the judge imposed life in prison, the sentence the law requires for the conviction.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Heather Henricksen told jurors that evidence showed Irene Lanning was killed and dismembered by her husband. Broward Sheriff’s Office investigators said they found her DNA and pieces of her body throughout the couple’s Pompano Beach home, as well as on saws and tools used to conceal her remains.
Investigators said Lanning placed his wife’s body parts into 18 garbage bags and threw them into the Hillsboro Inlet. Her body has never been recovered.
Lanning represented himself and maintained his innocence, arguing that his wife remains a missing person and questioning how her body could have left the house without being seen on camera. He declined the judge’s repeated offers of an attorney and called only one witness, a BSO employee who was on the state’s witness list.
