Found Deceased CO - Jonelle Matthews, 12, Greeley, 20 Dec 1984 *arrest 2020*

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Roni - God bless you for searching for this child. I take it you are from that area?

Is there any other information that you know that wasn't mentioned in the article? Did the locals have any theories as to what happened?

I go back and forth as to if it was an aquaintance of the family's...someone right under their noses, as is often the case. Or a random stranger abduction....but that seems so random.

I wonder if there was any DNA taken from the scalp found?
 
This case is so strange. Who would know that this girl would be home alone for an hour after being dropped off from a concert? Almost nobody. Someone would have to know that she was arriving home at 8:30 and that her father was not due home until 9:30. Was someone hiding in the bushes watching the house? In the middle of winter? Seems unlikely. If someone was watching the house, knew no one was home, saw Jonelle arrive home, and decided to attack her, how would the perp know that no one was about to walk in?
It has to be someone in the family's circle that knew her Mom was out of town, Dad was away until later evening, and her sister was at a game. I hope LE interviewed every single person acquainted with her family. Did she ever mention anyone that bothered her? This just doesn't seem random in any way to me.
If she was singing at a nursing home, there wouldn't be a regular type of audience situation, so it doesn't seem plausible that an audience member saw her and followed her home. I sang at nursing homes in Scouts when I was a kid, and we usually split into smaller groups and went room to room, or sang in a dining area with tables, etc. It's not a typical type of concert where parents would come and sit in folding chairs or something.
I hate to say it, but I wondered about her father for a minute, but it seems impossible for him to have carried out a crime/disappearance in the space of an hour.
I wonder if any local gossip or rumors have floated around? This case needs some discussion!
 
Taken from the Unsolved Mysteries Wiki:
At 8:30pm, she received a call from a friend of her father, and by 9:30pm, her father discovered that she was missing. The TV and lights were on and authorities believe she may have been abducted by unknown intruder(s) while watching TV. They discovered the garage door open and footprints were in the garage and back of the house. Investigators believe she was sexually assaulted then murdered somewhere else, but her case remains unsolved.
1. Was it a teacher or a friend of her father's who called? I'm seeing conflicting information here. Is there a definite link that shows this person has been cleared without a doubt, and clarifies exactly who it was?
2. Was the garage door was left open all night, including when Jonelle was at the concert? Why would it be left up? Did the family normally have it closed or was it common for them to leave it open?
3. No neighbors reported anything at all? If you map the street, this is a standard suburban street with houses close to each other. Did LE interview each and every neighbor?
4. Why was LE so quick to dismiss the confession of the truck driver?
A lot of this is not adding up. I'm still suspicious of whoever called the house at 8:30.
 
MysteryMaven said:
Taken from the Unsolved Mysteries Wiki:
At 8:30pm, she received a call from a friend of her father, and by 9:30pm, her father discovered that she was missing. The TV and lights were on and authorities believe she may have been abducted by unknown intruder(s) while watching TV. They discovered the garage door open and footprints were in the garage and back of the house. Investigators believe she was sexually assaulted then murdered somewhere else, but her case remains unsolved.
1. Was it a teacher or a friend of her father's who called? I'm seeing conflicting information here. Is there a definite link that shows this person has been cleared without a doubt, and clarifies exactly who it was?
2. Was the garage door was left open all night, including when Jonelle was at the concert? Why would it be left up? Did the family normally have it closed or was it common for them to leave it open?
3. No neighbors reported anything at all? If you map the street, this is a standard suburban street with houses close to each other. Did LE interview each and every neighbor?
4. Why was LE so quick to dismiss the confession of the truck driver?
A lot of this is not adding up. I'm still suspicious of whoever called the house at 8:30.
Click to expand...

Me too. And what about the parent who dropped her home? Could she have mentioned to anyone that she was dropping Jonelle home to an empty house? Her teachers too, as I'm sure it would have been mentioned that she was getting a lift with another girl's parent as her own parents were both out? Family friends could have put 2 and 2 together as well, if it was know that Jonelle's mum was away and her dad was out with the elder sister. Perhaps even friends of the older sister?

Very strange case, can't be coincidental that an intruder just happened to pick the one hour when Jonelle would be home alone.
 
This is the most comprehensive article I can find about this cold case.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2012/11/02/greeley-kidnapped-vanished-declared-dead/5758/
It was a girl and her father who dropped Jonelle at home, and they noticed the garage door was up. It was a female teacher that called at 8:30 to tell Jonelle's Dad she needed a sub for the next day. Neighbors and teachers were questioned.
All of these roads seem to lead nowhere. A driver of a suspicious car in the neighborhood was even checked out.
I wonder if Jonelle and her Dad accidentally left the garage door up, allowing an intruder to hide in the house. But they would have had to know Jonelle would be returning home alone and would be alone for at least one hour before her Dad got home. And where was a vehicle to exit the scene? I don't see how anyone could get away on foot with her, that makes no sense. Footprints were found, but it doesn't say which direction they went in. No way would a perp just go ahead and park in the open garage. Jonelle would have noticed if a strange car was sitting in her garage!
The only conclusion I can think is that it had to have been a close neighbor, and I'm sure LE has checked them all out. Maybe they need to re check all of them again.
 
There is no ID on these remains yet, but having grown up in Greeley I know this area of town where these skeletal remains were found would have been "out of town" during this time period, yet not very far from Jonelle's home. I thought of her right away when I read this news story. Praying that the remains can be identified and bring closure to someone.

http://www.9news.com/story/news/loc...ains-found-35th-avenue-train-tracks/18889947/

Authorities are investigating after a worker using a backhoe to remove a tree in north Greeley discovered human skeletal remains.

Police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych tells The Greeley Tribune the worker found the remains about a half mile west of 35th Avenue along the train tracks between F and G streets at about noon Tuesday.
 
Locals are already speculating that it may be Jonelle. I am posting another news article because it does talk about her disappearance.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/13756036-113/police-greeley-evidence-sandoval

Though police have no idea on the identity of the skeleton, there is some speculation about who it could be.

Northwest Greeley is the area from which Jonelle Matthews, 12, disappeared on Dec. 20, 1984. And the location where the skeleton was found Tuesday is the specific area where police dogs searched for the scent of Tina Tournai-Sandoval, 23, who disappeared Oct. 19, 1995
 
kai said:
Locals are already speculating that it may be Jonelle. I am posting another news article because it does talk about her disappearance.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/13756036-113/police-greeley-evidence-sandoval

Though police have no idea on the identity of the skeleton, there is some speculation about who it could be.

Northwest Greeley is the area from which Jonelle Matthews, 12, disappeared on Dec. 20, 1984. And the location where the skeleton was found Tuesday is the specific area where police dogs searched for the scent of Tina Tournai-Sandoval, 23, who disappeared Oct. 19, 1995
Click to expand...

We should also post this in Tina's thread. I will go do that right now.
 
Authorities say it's unlikely human skeletal remains found in Greeley belong to either a woman or a girl who disappeared in the area years ago.

The remains were found Tuesday as a worker was using a backhoe to remove a tree along railroad tracks in the northwestern part of the city. Police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych tells The Greeley Tribune (http://bitly.com/1xP4OHPX ) that investigators have determined they don't belong to 23-year-old Tina Tournai-Sandoval or 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews.
Click to expand...
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...ities-work-to-identify-human-skeletal-remains
 
Authorities are saying it's unlikely it's Jonelle:
http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/13765280-113/tymkowych-investigators-remains-scene

My stomach had turned when I saw the news about remains found. Jonelle's case has haunted me since I first read about it. The first time I read about it was in one of those Chicken Soup for the Soul books.....her mom wrote about trusting in God in the years after. I just find this one rather bizarre; not only the small window of time, but you usually don't hear about an abduction from the home.
 
Authorities say skeletal remains found by a worker in north Greeley belong to a 17-year-old boy who went missing in 2011.

The Greeley Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1xpFifw ) Trevor Craven disappeared Nov. 26, 2011. Two days later, his mother reported him to Greeley police as a runaway and told investigators that when she last saw him, he was distraught and possibly suicidal.
Click to expand...
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/e804e52b13374120b767e1c0995c2b85/CO--Human-Remains-Greeley/
 
Thirty years.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/12/...ins-haunted-by-30-year-old-missing-girl-case/

As detectives retire, Garner turns the case over to fresh eyes.

“This one is hard because there haven’t been any details; there hasn’t been anything that would point a smoking gun, so to speak, in any one direction,” Garner said.

Garner is hopeful a renewed call for information will conjure up details witnesses may have once thought unimportant. He suspects someone killed Matthews and may still be roaming free. “It’s bothersome, very bothersome,” Garner said.
Click to expand...
 
I also think it is worth mentioning that Jonelle was big for her age and actually body wise looked closer to 14 or 15, even older. The garage door left open was how the person got into the house. The killer is most likely local. There were some other details not divulged to the press at the time: missing blankets, underwear and tights on the floor, missing gasoline, and missing comforter. The single set of footprints are the key to this, which tells me that Jonelle left that house either dead or incapacitated. Most likely incapacitated because why would they carry a dead body away with them? They would leave it there. Which is why I wonder if it was a neighbor in the area ( back then sexual predators were not profiled) or the government prostitution ring to which Johnny Gosch was involved in. I would think the former is the most viable solution because there are so many more female prostitutes out there available that they would not need to kidnap young girls for this purpose, whereas male young prostitutes were not common at the time. I feel Jonelle was killed the evening she was taken and was burned shortly thereafter in a very abandoned area, probably a garbage can or steel drum, and then he remains were buried, which makes me also think that her remains are long gone and will never be found. This was not a sloppy killer. The fact that NO fingerprints, or any other evidence was left at the scene is also an indicator. The person entering the house most likely said he was a friend of the fathers as well. I'm sorry but who the hell leaves the garage door of their house open when they leave, and then leave a kid alone at night, especially a female?









QUOTE=mistagee;5753553]I knew one of the men who investigated on this case. The caller had nothing to do with the case, and had been investigated. Many many details are left out of the case. The rape theory is from the fact that the stockings and I think the underwear were also found at the scene. There was also a sign of a struggle there. I believe a blanket was also missing from the scene. Jonelle was either killed or incapacitated and then taken from the scene. The investigators knew this because there were only one set of footprints at the scene. The investigative techniques of the police department were good, but they didnt really have the insights they have today. There is a strong possibility that someone who saw her at the concert stalked her and followed her home. That is where I think the suspect came from.

I think gasoline or lighter fluid were missing from the house or spilled around the garage and that is why the investigators felt she had been incinerated. It is kinda hard to burn soemone outside in the middle of winter, so I dont get this whole line of reasoning....

There were many children kidnapped from Colorado, Iowa and other nearby states with no explanation. It may be a serial killer or even a government prostitution ring that Johnny Gosch was forced to be in. Or Jonelle was simply stalked and murdered by someone at the bank concert. That has always been my theory in this case.[/QUOTE]
 
I agree with you MysteryMaven - I think a neighbor watched her (have you seen The Lovely Bones?). However, not sure why someone wanting to be sneaky would leave that open. Maybe the father forgot to shut it when he left for the night?

So a neighbor could have been watching the house and knew no one was home and saw the garage door open. Then they saw Jonelle get dropped off, and minutes later went in through the garage. My theory anyway.

I truly hope no family members or friends were involved. Nothing worse to find out it was a family member or friend in various cases I've heard about.
 
Remembering Jonelle. This is the one case that I wish would be solved. She needs to be found and justice brought!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
 
The Trail Went Cold podcast just featured the Jonelle Matthews case.
http://trailwentcold.com/2017/01/25/the-trail-went-cold-minisode-11-jonelle-matthews/

As for the garage door being opened, it could have one of those sensors on the bottom where it will go back up the track if it senses an object or something in the way. It's a safety feature. So perhaps the dad hit the button to close the garage door as they were leaving and didn't notice that it went back up.

Then he also may have left the door to go into the house unlocked, as many people do that. They assume the closed garage door will provide enough security.
 
Greeley PD to announce renewed efforts in Jonelle Matthews case

Greeley police plans to announce tomorrow it has launched a new investigation into the Jonelle Matthews missing persons case.

Thursday marks the 34th anniversary of Jonelle’s disappearance. She was last seen walking into her home, 320 43rd Avenue Court, about 8 p.m. following a Franklin Middle School Honor Choir concert. She had been dropped off by a friend and her friend’s father.

As part of its renewed investigation, Greeley police will release a video of that concert.

[...]

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