Found Deceased PA - Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster County, 21 June 2020 *arrest*

[MissTilly]

I couldn’t agree more. I make my stand and die in the road rather than be taken somewhere else for torture and then probably die anyway without my family finding my body. But, I would never judge anyone else for their choice.

Not disagreeing, but until it happens to you you really don’t know how you will react. In my case I was lucky, my brain said “if he gets you in the van, you are dead”, so I chose to run and fortunately was unscathed. I did not, could not, make a sound - I was too scared. I literally ran past people I knew, who would have helped me, until I reached the safety of my home. Some people, sadly, are so frightened they are compliant or become fixed to the spot. It affects people differently.
Moo

 

[Niner]

Okay - I have this link for Lancaster court site:

https://courtcal.co.lancaster.pa.us/CourtAdmin.Public/?selectedDate=07/17/2020 00:00:00

I've looked thru to Friday, July 17th - and he is not on there.

If this is the INcorrect site to look for him - please let me! I "might" need help with hearings on this one!
TIA!

 

[Niner]

and here's what I have for now. I'm going to shorten this up a bit after posting it here.


Saturday, July 11th:

*Initial Appearance (@ am ET) - PA – Linda Stoltzfoos (18) (last seen June 21, 2020, Bird-In-Hand, Lancaster County) – *Justo Roberto Smoker (34) arrested (7/10/20 at work at Dutchland, Inc.), charged (7/11/20) with felony kidnapping to inflict injury/terror & misdemeanor false imprisonment. Denied bail. Held without bond.
Stoltzfoos was last seen around noon Sunday, 6/21/19 walking from a religious service on a farm on Stumptown Road in Bird-in-Hand in Upper Leacock Township in Lancaster County wearing a tan dress, white apron & white cape (says 1 article) another says tan dress, white apron & black head covering. She was supposed to go to a meeting with her youth group, but never made it there. Her home is a mile from the church.
Investigators said they found Stotzfoos' clothes buried about 6 to 8 inches underground behind a business on Harvest Drive in Ronks. Police used surveillance video enhanced by FBI forensic technicians to see what they believe is the abduction of Stoltzfoos near Beechdale Road.
Smoker (21 @ the time) was sentenced to 12 to 30 years in prison Monday (5/21/07) for holding up clerks at Lancaster County businesses & farm markets at gunpoint, between 8/8 – 8/13/06. Additional counts of burglary, conspiracy & receiving stolen property were included in the sentence. Smoker was charged with committing four robberies with a BB gun, with his younger brother, Victor. In addition to the prison sentence, Smoker was ordered to pay $7,286 restitution. Smoker had pleaded guilty in February, 2007. He was released from prison last year, 8/28/19. So – 12 years & 3 months in prison for robberies.
7/11/20 Update: Initial appearance before Magisterial District Judge B. Denise Commins. Charged with felony kidnapping to inflict injury/terror & misdemeanor false imprisonment. Denied bail. Bail Action Reason: Due to the nature of the charges & ongoing investigation into the status of the victim.

 

[tmar]

Not disagreeing, but until it happens to you you really don’t know how you will react. In my case I was lucky, my brain said “if he gets you in the van, you are dead”, so I chose to run and fortunately was unscathed. I did not, could not, make a sound - I was too scared. I literally ran past people I knew, who would have helped me, until I reached the safety of my home. Some people, sadly, are so frightened they are compliant or become fixed to the spot. It affects people differently.
Moo

I attended an advanced 'self defence course' run by Police.
For the finals, we were informed, we would be attacked on a certain day.
The attacker, would be padded, and we must use, all the skills we had been taught.
I FROZE.

Others did well.

 

[ReaderRabbit]

Is his name for real? Justo Smoker

His name is a Hispanic one and it means ‘just’ or ‘fair’ in Spanish

 

[ReaderRabbit]

there's a lot of good info there, stuff I wasn't aware of prior.

here specially: Paradise Twp. man charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos, an Amish teen who is still missing [update]

Thank you for the article. If I am understanding correctly, the article says that LS was wearing a black head covering which is not typical for their church-does this mean that LS had possibly already gone home to change her clothing? If so, why didn’t she take the lemon bars? Was she on her way to youth group when she was abducted? Or was LS walking home from church when she was abducted?

 

[iFish]

Thank you for the article. If I am understanding correctly, the article says that LS was wearing a black head covering which is not typical for their church-does this mean that LS had possibly already gone home to change her clothing? If so, why didn’t she take the lemon bars? Was she on her way to youth group when she was abducted? Or was LS walking home from church when she was abducted?

Don't remember where I read it, but I seem to recall LS never officially made it to her youth group even. So she never would've left to go home if she never arrived. but.... I don't remember where I read this

 

[PixieStix]

Sadly, I am not surprised at the new information coming out in this case so far. I think a lot of us here knew this was the most probable scenario.

After so many weeks past, I was starting to get nervous that this case might go cold like so many others because there seemed to be hardly any information coming out. I always think it's a blessing in disguise for families and friends of victims to get any sort of closure when so many missing person cases go years and years with no indication or evidence of what happened to their loved ones.

Hopefully, JS will cooperate with LE and spill the beans on what happened.

Thanks, @Niner as usual for collecting the hearing information for us!

 

[NervousNellie]

Thank you for the article. If I am understanding correctly, the article says that LS was wearing a black head covering which is not typical for their church-does this mean that LS had possibly already gone home to change her clothing? If so, why didn’t she take the lemon bars? Was she on her way to youth group when she was abducted? Or was LS walking home from church when she was abducted?

I understood it differently - that the black covering was not worn at the church of the woman who saw Linda in the car. Not that it was not worn at Linda’s church.

 

[ReaderRabbit]

I understood it differently - that the black covering was not worn at the church of the woman who saw Linda in the car. Not that it was not worn at Linda’s church.

Thank you maybe the way you understood it is the way that it was intended

I understood it differently - that the black covering was not worn at the church of the woman who saw Linda in the car. Not that it was not worn at Linda’s church.

 

[realanastasia]

I understood it differently - that the black covering was not worn at the church of the woman who saw Linda in the car. Not that it was not worn at Linda’s church.

"Amish churches in that area don't wear black head coverings" is the exact quote from the article that I think you're referring to (BBM, link to original article at bottom).

It appears, however, that in other areas it IS quite common for single/unmarried women to wear black bonnets (which they change to white bonnets upon their marriage). The diversity of bonnet-based practices is quite remarkable, particularly in a faith tradition and culture that most "English" outsiders view as monolithic--see, for example all the variations on head coverings here: https://amishamerica.com/amish-womens-head-coverings/


Paradise Twp. man charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos, an Amish teen who is still missing [update]

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Didn't they say he was arrested at work or I

This goes to show the FBI and Police often have much more information than we see in the news.
Security camera footage, eyewitness accounts of her riding in a red car, and other information yet to be released has been quietly gathered behind the scenes. As much as we would like to know every detail, withholding this information from the public and even the family is essential to the investigative process.
Please remember this the next time posters are saying the police aren’t working on anything, or aren’t doing their jobs.
My prayers tonight are for Linda and her family, and the community.

Thank you.

I'm one to never question what LE is doing or not doing about any case.

All along investigators are working very hard to solve every crime. That is always their goal

I knew this case wouldn't be any different.

I knew LE wouldn't release anything until they had something to report nor should they.

I've never understood why many even think LE isn't working hard to solve cases when time after time it's proved they were always working very hard doing their jobs.

Maybe it's because many think that LE should tell the public everything or want instant results? Either way, imo, it's not realistic nor the way real life cases work.

Missing person cases aren't resolved instantly. Imo, they are far harder to solve, and to trackdown a suspect.

In this case LE has done a masterful job in such a short time especially with Linda's body still not found.

I don't think they will make a deal at this juncture. Most predators who have murdered their victim rarely gives up the body location.

I've seen many of them even plea NG when there is overwhelming evidence against them.

But even if they never are able to locate Linda, they will file charges of first degree murder at some point.

Missing body cases are being successfully won by DAs now, and have been for over 15 years or more now. No longer do juries fall for the defense nonsense that the victim may be alive.

However I do believe they will be able to locate where he put her, without him telling them.

Its takes time to do a complete detail deep dive into all of his GPS data, and cell phone data. They have to serve SWs to the provider before they have a complete listing of all of his movements.

Imo, they are going to be able to locate the site. It's just a matter of time, and good police work.

The investigation is just beginning to kick into high gear which usually happens after they have arrested the suspect

Jmho

 

[sds71]

Search crews looking for missing Amish teen in East Earl Township

 

[HailedSunSea]

In this article it seems to bring up an issue on June 23, and another confusing issue from June 29. A business in Ronks on Harvest rd. had JS pull up behind this establishment, and was looking in windows, and checking doorways. This location is where investigators recovered the articles of clothing, buried approx. 8 inches under the surface.

Man Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos; Linda Still Missing

 

[Hereshecomes75]

In this article it seems to bring up an issue on June 23, and another confusing issue from June 29. A business in Ronks on Harvest rd. had JS pull up behind this establishment, and was looking in windows, and checking doorways. This location is where investigators recovered the articles of clothing, buried approx. 8 inches under the surface.

Man Arrested & Charged With Kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos; Linda Still Missing

I was trying to figure out what business it could have been, but there’s not much to go on. That road has a lot of small businesses along it. I wonder what he was looking for.

 

[HailedSunSea]

I was trying to figure out what business it could have been, but there’s not much to go on. That road has a lot of small businesses along it. I wonder what he was looking for.

Well me here with google satellite, took two passes along the extent of Harvest rd. I cant say I have any conclusions. As far as JS poking about, sneaking around, while pulled up behind the business, I'd say he was acting paranoid in the least. It was just JS's personality shining through.

 

[24Roses]

I was trying to figure out what business it could have been, but there’s not much to go on. That road has a lot of small businesses along it. I wonder what he was looking for.

I noticed in that article it said he was parked in a spot near the tracks. IMO this would be near 3104 Harvest Drive. It's an Amish business that builds sheds. The other businesses have addresses on different roads. They seem to all intersect. خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏
IMO-while he was disposing of Linda's clothes maybe he was also looking for a business to rob.
ETA-here is another view of Harvest Drive and the area that gives the name of the business IMO I think is the one in the article.خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

 

[Izmack]

In the day or two after she disappeared, I read an article that said the scent dogs lost her scent by a local bridge. There's clearly a bridge on the 500 block of Beechdale. Once the FBI got involved, that detail was eliminated.

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

I don't think this was planned at all. I think this was random, unless he knew her schedule, and if it was planned, he did a terrible job. I would think he would have removed the hair covering or had her lay down in the seat so others wouldn't have spotted her in his car, if that was the case. My guess is there's evidence on his phone that will put him in the area where she was abducted, because he didn't think that part out. As far as video cameras...... I didn't know Amish used them, and it appears he didn't either.

Jumping off your post....
You are probably correct he was a novice...
And/or hardened planned this out very much in advance...

But...
I still wonder if there have been other assaults connected to him perhaps of less degrees...
(as this could have been his FIRST murder... And had escalated to this level at this time...)
Or perhaps HAS assaulted AND murdered before?...

Just some thoughts...

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

I don't think this was planned at all. I think this was random, unless he knew her schedule, and if it was planned, he did a terrible job. I would think he would have removed the hair covering or had her lay down in the seat so others wouldn't have spotted her in his car, if that was the case. My guess is there's evidence on his phone that will put him in the area where she was abducted, because he didn't think that part out. As far as video cameras...... I didn't know Amish used them, and it appears he didn't either.

Jumping off your post....
You are probably correct he was a novice...
And/or hadn't planned this out very much in advance...

But...
I still wonder if there have been other assaults connected to him perhaps of less degrees...
(as this could have been his FIRST murder... And had escalated to this level at this time...)
Or perhaps HAS assaulted AND murdered before?...

Just some thoughts...