Where is Jonelle Matthew’s killer now?

For over 30 years, Jonelle MatthewsDisappearance remained a mystery.

The 12-year-old disappeared from her Greeley, Colo., Home 1984, without trace until her residues were discovered during a pipe installation in 2019.

Although suspicions had long been surrounded Steven Pankey – A local man with ties to his church who later ran twice for the governor of Idaho – he was not arrested until 2020. After two trials he was convicted of crime and kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison.

“Over those decades, generations of Greeley police have never forgotten Jonelle, many who live in torment on the possibilities of what may have occurred on the gloomy evening in 1984, and what can be done to solve this mystery,” said Greeley Police Department said in a statement After Pankey arresting.

The statement also shared that detective began a “renewed investigation” in the girl’s case in 2015.

For several years, Pankey had continuously entered the investigation and shown odd behavior in Jonelle’s disappearance. Even his ex-wife, Angela Hicks, said in Oxygen’s 2024 Docuseries The girl at the milk carton that she began to gather evidence against him years before his arrest.

So where is Jonelle Matthew’s killer now? Here’s everything to know about what happened to Steven Pankey and how he avoids the police for over 30 years.

Who was Jonelle Matthews?

Jonelle was a 12-year-old student in high school who lived in Greeley with his parents, Jim Matthews and Gloria Matthews, and her older sister, Jennifer Mogensen. Her family told NBC’s Data line 2023 that she was athletic and loved to sing and cross -stitches gifts to her friends.

According to Denver PostShe had been adopted from Los Angeles when she was 1 month old. Her birth mom was only 13 when she had Jonelle.

What happened to Jonelle Matthews?

On December 20, 1984, Jonelle disappeared from his home shortly after a friend’s father released her after a school Christmas concert. Middle School eleven was alone for just over an hour before her father returned from Jennifer Basketball to find her missing.

Her mother was out of the state and took care of a sick relative.

“You could say Jonelle had been there,” Jim said in a section from November 2024 48 hours. “I screamed ‘Hi Jonelle,’ ‘Jonelle, are you there?’ No answer. ”

After Jim called the police, investigators found footprints in the snow near the windows in Matthew’s home. He told me 48 hours That it looked like someone had tried to crush prints with a garden rake.

The young girl was never seen again.

Jonelle’s case caught national attention after she became one of the first children in the Missing Children Milk Carton program. President Ronald Reagan also discussed her disappearance During a meeting in 1985 with the National Newspaper Association.

On the tenth anniversary of her disappearance in 1994, her family Jonelle had declared legal death, Denver Post reported.

Her case got cold until July 2019, when a group of oil and gas workers discovered her leftovers when they dug a pipeline in an unin-placed area less than 20 miles from Matthew’s home in Greeley.

Jonelle’s death was ruled as a murder, and her autopsy report revealed that she had been shot in the head.

Who is Steven Pankey?

Pankey was a colleague Greeley -Bosatt, lives only two miles away From Matthew’s home. Although he was a stranger to Jonelle and her family, they participated in the same church, where he served as Minister of Youth.

In 1977, Pankey left the church after being accused of sexual abuse by a woman he saw. Prosecutor later lost the accusation, and he told Idaho Statesman 2019 that the police have been suspicious of him ever since.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Pankey had been outfit after the incident, which also cost him his job there as a caretaker. He also worked as a used car salesman and a security guard, according to The girl at the milk carton.

His ex-wife later claimed during the trial that Pankey held a nag against the church and his former manager, a congregation named Russel Ross, who also happened to be the father of Jonelle’s best friend and the same father who dropped her at home that night she disappeared.

After Jonelle disappeared, Hicks said that her ex -husband began to act “suspect.” He got them to leave the city, spent hours digging a hole in their garden and was fixed on the news coverage around her case. She began gathering evidence against Pankey in 1999.

Pankey also got into the police search for Jonelle and repeatedly suggested to the investigators that he had knowledge of what was happening. When his son was shot and killed by his girlfriend in 2008, Hicks claimed that she heard him say: “I hope God did not allow this to happen because of Jonelle Matthews.”

In his interview with Idaho StatesmanHe denied that he had some commitment to Jonelle’s case and told the outlet that he was preparing for a trip with his wife that night the girl disappeared.

“I never met Jonelle, I never met her family, I didn’t know she was there or disappeared until Wednesday, December 26 (1984),” Pankey said, noting that he was not told about the case until he returned from his trip.

Former caretaker and government candidate later moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, where he ran without success for governor twice in 2014 and 2018. Two months after Jonelle’s body was found, the police served a keyword for his home.

What was Steven Pankey accused of?

Pankey was is charged by a grand jury In October 2020 on charges of murder, kidnapping and violent crime.

According to 48 hoursThe prosecution claimed that he took Jonelle from her family home and shot her at some point “during the kidnapping.” The document also claimed that Pankey was aware of the rake used to blur footprints.

He was first tried in October 2021, but it ended in a trial after the jury failed to reach a judgment on murder and kidnappings. But he was found guilty of false reporting.

Two years later, he was tested again and was guilty of crime and kidnapping second degrees. Pankey was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of Parole, Per Greleley Tribune. After the verdict, Gloria told reporters She just wanted to “cry.”

“I can’t forgive him for how he killed Jonelle,” she said as she kept a picture of her late daughter. “God is the only one who can forgive evil, and I feel this is evil.”

Pankey made only a brief statement in court, maintained his innocence and claimed that his conviction was “not justice to Jonelle.”

Where is Steven Pankey now?

Pankey is currently serving its sentence on Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway, Colo. Colorado Department of CorrectionsHe will be eligible for trial by 2040, when he is 89 years old.

“He’s an evil person,” Jonelle’s sister told The Independent. “I think he can’t release things and hold against and don’t like people in authority over him … I have no complete understanding of what he did that night, but if you are so driven by anger towards another sector, like a church or people in the church, that you are willing to commit a crime … it says something about you.”

But she added, “I’m not fixed by him. I won’t have just anger at him, because I won’t give him another victim.”