The last time 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was seen alive was on Dec. 20, 1984. She sang Christmas carols at her middle school that night, before her friend’s father drove her home. When they pulled up the garage door was partially open, but no one thought anything was amiss. Jonelle was never seen again. Thirty-five years later, after an extensive and long-running investigation, her skeletal remains were found in an oil field
At the time of her disappearance, Jonelle’s mom was visiting her sick dad in California. Jonelle was home alone and wrote down a message for Jim, her father after someone called, so she was abducted between 8:30 p.m. and the time her father came home that night at 10 p.m. When he arrived he found her stockings on the floor, and the heater by her chair still running.
Jim told The Colorado Sun that he was home for about 30 minutes before he started worrying. “I just had a really strange feeling because our girls were very good about letting us know if they were gonna change their plans, leaving a note or calling,” he said.
When police came over to the house there wasn’t a lot of evidence to go on except some footprints in the snow. Those prints would prove consequential because someone had used a rake to try and erase them, a detail that would prove crucial at her killer’s trial.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had just been established, and her face was plastered on milk cartons all over the country. President Ronald Reagan even mentioned her by name in a speech, but to no avail. Despite all the attention, it would take 30 years for anyone to get the answers they were looking for. The case would’ve probably stayed cold if not for the pestering of one man: neighbor Steve Pankey.
Enter Steve Pankey
Steve Pankey always seemed extra curious about Jonelle’s disappearance and, over the years, he would appear to taunt law enforcement, per retired lead detective Robert Cash.
“He was a monster who tapped on the shoulder of law enforcement … But when we put the pieces of the puzzle together, it became clear. His behaviors and his writings – pretty much everything about his character – gave us an indication that his taunting us gave him fuel. It gave him satisfaction to think he had duped law enforcement.”
Cash said it was the “constant rehashing” and the leaving of “hints” that “kept the case alive.” If authorities suspected Pankey though, they didn’t have any evidence to bring him in. In fact, he wasn’t even a suspect until decades later.
On July 23, 2019, a crew was digging for a pipeline in a rural area of Weld County in Colorado and made a grisly discovery: a skull and some tattered remains of clothing, per 9News. Former Detective Robert Cash said he had an “electric feeling” when the remains were found.
“… for whatever reason, this felt very unique. I made the trip down to where the remains were. Braces were still affixed to the teeth on the skull. Jonelle had braces when she disappeared. Then we could still see and make out the colors of the different pieces of clothing. It was a whirlwind of emotion and excitement. I was trembling. All hands were on deck.”
Authorities identified the missing girl’s remains through DNA testing and ruled her death a homicide from a single gunshot wound to her head. The investigation once again focused on Pankey. In September of 2019, Pankey gave an interview to KTVB arguing he was being wrongly investigated for the crime.
He said his home had been searched and that he voluntarily gave authorities a DNA sample. “You hear these people all the time their place has been searched, the police say well they’re a person of interest… the person of interest says no comment, no nothing, won’t talk to you, they look guilty okay,” Pankey said.
He said he was talking to the media to ensure everyone knew he was innocent of the crime. “I would like to have my name cleared,” Pankey said. “I’d be willing to take a lie detector test, I’d be willing to take a voice stress test.” His ploy didn’t work, and cops arrested him for the murder. He was tried but a jury couldn’t reach a consensus. Prosecutors then tried again. Two things sunk him in court: one was his knowledge of those rake marks outside the house, and the other was testimony from his ex-wife.
Pankey’s Ex-Wife Speaks on the Stand
There was no physical evidence against Pankey, so prosecutors had to use other means to nail him. Angela painted Pankey as a controlling man who wouldn’t let her watch TV or listen to the radio. Around the time of Jonelle’s disappearance, Hicks said she wanted the family to go visit her father, but Pankey said no. Then he changed his mind.
On the day after Jonelle went missing, he told his then-wife they were going after all. Hicks said she was worried about what they would do with their dogs, but Pankey told her “I dumped the dogs,” which she found strange and troubling.
In California, Pankey fought with Hicks’ father and cut the trip short, she said. On the way back, he shocked her by asking her to turn on the radio.
“In my flipping around I came to a portion of a news report that indicated that a girl had gone missing from Greeley, Colorado, and he wanted to hear that,” she said. “And then he wanted to hear that and then he wanted me to keep flipping the channels to see if he could hear anything more about that.”
He would also ask her to read him articles about the disappearance from the local newspaper, “each one at least three times.” About a month after the disappearance, Pankey was escorted out of his church after yelling “false prophet,” when the pastor said Jonelle would be found alive.
In 1999, he was late on rent and told his wife that the money went to legal fees because police were after him, because he wouldn’t tell them what happened to Jonelle. She was confused because no one had talked about Jonelle for years.
“Do you really think I would hurt her when she looked so much like you?” he told his wife. She said that made her blood run cold. In 2008, the couple’s son was murdered in Phoenix. Before the funeral service, Hicks said her husband went up to his son’s urn crying.
“It’s the only time I ever saw that much emotion from him,” she said. “Very choked up. He bent and he kissed the urn, and he said ‘I hope God didn’t allow this to happen because of Jonelle Matthews.'”
So why did he do it? Former Detective Cash thinks it was “retribution of people who in his mind had wronged him.” He said Pankey was playing a game with police and that “If Steve Pankey had said nothing and not inserted himself into the case, then we probably would still be investigating the disappearance of Jonelle Matthews.”
Pankey was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2040. He still denies he is the killer.
“I am a Christian, I will be in heaven,” Pankey said during his sentencing. “I am innocent, and this is not justice for Jonelle.”