Pompano Beach man found guilty in gruesome murder of wife who vanished in 2022

A Pompano Beach man has been found guilty of murdering his wife and disposing of her body in a gruesome manner back in 2022.

It took a jury less than two hours to convict 58-year-old Ian Lanning on Tuesday of murder in the killing of his wife, Irene, who was reported missing in May of 2022.

Moments after the verdict, Lanning said he wanted to be sentenced immediately and the judge gave him what the law requires, which is life in prison.

Broward Sheriff’s Office

Ian Lanning

Earlier Tuesday, in fiery closing arguments, prosecutor Heather Henricksen recounted the gruesome and disturbing evidence she said proved Irene Lanning was murdered and dismembered by her husband.

Weeks after she went missing, Broward Sheriff’s Office officials said they found her DNA and pieces of her body all over the couple’s Pompano Beach home, and on saws and tools used to conceal her.

“You saw that saw blown up and her flesh and blood and bone is on that saw. Why? Because he took it and he handled it and he cut her up with it,” Henricksen said. “That’s why.”

Investigators said Ian Lanning put his wife’s body parts into 18 garbage bags and threw them into the Hillsboro Inlet. Her body has never been recovered.

Ian Lanning called BSO’s claims into question as he represented himself in his own defense as he insisted he was innocent and that his wife remains a missing person.

“Their hypothesis of how this body was magically disposed of and walked out of the house without being seen by any camera, not using any vehicle by a man that’s 100 pounds overweight who couldn’t do a push-up on the ground,” he said.

Throughout the trial and again on Tuesday the judge offered Ian Lanning the opportunity to be represented by an attorney but he turned it down.

During his presentation to jurors he only called one witness, a BSO employee who was on the state’s witness list.