GUILTY CO - Jonelle Matthews, 12, found deceased, Greeley, 20 Dec 1984 *arrest 2020* #2

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www.coloradoan.com

Steve Pankey found guilty of kidnapping, felony murder in Jonelle Matthews case

Monday's verdict marked the end of a nearly monthlong trial for Pankey after almost 38 years of unknowns in the case of Jonelle Matthews.
www.coloradoan.com

On Monday morning, a Weld County jury found Steve Pankey guilty of second-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon; felony murder; and false reporting to authorities. Pankey was found not guilty of first-degree murder after deliberation.

Pankey was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years for second-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon and felony murder. He was credited for time already served in prison for the charge of false reporting to authorities, which Pankey was first found guilty of in his trial last year.

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It looks like SP will be eligible for parole when he's around 91 years old. I hope he never lives to see that day.
 
MissLaura said:
This is stunning to me. No idea whether he actually did it or not, but I don't think there was enough evidence.
Click to expand...
I’m surprised as well actually. I do think he did it however I agree that the evidence didn’t seem to be concrete but of course I wasn’t there and didn’t hear or see it all.
 
NOV 9, 2022
[...]

“This closure, this verdict, and just going home knowing that when we leave Greeley, a big part of our life, our big part of our story, has a conclusion ... that just feels really good,” Jonelle’s sister, Jennifer Mogensen, tells The Independent.

She and her parents now live in Washington state and came back to Greeley for the trial – twice. ...

[...]

... The first time her older sister, Jennifer Mogensen, heard his name was when a reporter called her in 2019 following the identification of Jonelle’s remains - saying: “Tell me your thoughts about Steve Pankey.”

‘And I said, ‘I can’t tell you my thoughts about him, because I have no idea what you’re talking about,’” Ms Mogensen, now 54, tells The Independent.

[...]

“We were not expecting it,” Ms Mogensen says of the 2019 remains discovery. “We closed the chapter of a missing person but then had to process a new set of feelings, knowing that she was murdered. And the fact that we had not just one but two trials within a three-year period” compounded the emotional toll.

Still - even with the revelations about Jonelle’s cause of death - there was “some comfort in knowing and having answers,” Ms Mogensen says. “It’s the not having answers where your mind can just go to places that could drive you crazy ... having closure like this is priceless.”

[...]

“I am grateful for earthly justice,” she says. “But if [conviction and sentencing] did not happen for our family, I could rest and be at peace knowing that he would have to answer some day.”

“I’m not fixated by him,” she adds. “I am not going to harbour just anger towards him, because I will not give him another victim. And I think, when you are saturated with anger towards somebody, you’re giving that person another victim. And I won’t do that.”

1668970946615.png
 
DEC 19, 2022
kdvr.com

What motivated Jonelle Matthews’ killer? Lead detective gives insight

Tuesday marks 38 years since Jonelle Matthews went missing in Greeley. FOX31 sat down with the lead investigator on the case about what led him to the man convicted of her murder.
kdvr.com kdvr.com
... Tuesday marks 38 years since she first went missing.

... FOX31 sat down with the lead investigator to get insight into how police solved the cold case.

When Greeley Police Detective Mike Prill was first asked to look into the Matthews case, he had to bring decades of investigative work into the 21st century.

“There’s really no electronic databases that existed back then,” Prill said. “A 1984 case begins with handwritten police reports.”

It took him a year to compile all the reports — 28,636 pages of discovery — and to build new leads to pursue with his partner.

[...]

When it comes to a motive, Prill said Pankey hated anyone who crossed him and held a vendetta against the local church that excommunicated him — the same church Matthews attended for choir practice.

Prill said Pankey also held racist ideologies in his writings.

“I think he kidnapped and murdered Jonelle because she was Latino going to this church that, when he attended it, they wouldn’t accept,” Prill said. “He did it in a way to frame the church in general.”

[...]
 
PommyMommy said:
DEC 19, 2022
kdvr.com

What motivated Jonelle Matthews’ killer? Lead detective gives insight

Tuesday marks 38 years since Jonelle Matthews went missing in Greeley. FOX31 sat down with the lead investigator on the case about what led him to the man convicted of her murder.
kdvr.com kdvr.com
... Tuesday marks 38 years since she first went missing.

... FOX31 sat down with the lead investigator to get insight into how police solved the cold case.

When Greeley Police Detective Mike Prill was first asked to look into the Matthews case, he had to bring decades of investigative work into the 21st century.

“There’s really no electronic databases that existed back then,” Prill said. “A 1984 case begins with handwritten police reports.”

It took him a year to compile all the reports — 28,636 pages of discovery — and to build new leads to pursue with his partner.

[...]

When it comes to a motive, Prill said Pankey hated anyone who crossed him and held a vendetta against the local church that excommunicated him — the same church Matthews attended for choir practice.

Prill said Pankey also held racist ideologies in his writings.

“I think he kidnapped and murdered Jonelle because she was Latino going to this church that, when he attended it, they wouldn’t accept,” Prill said. “He did it in a way to frame the church in general.”

[...]
Click to expand...

I have no doubt Pankey is a bad man, but this speculation does not make sense. Pankey was ex-communicated in the late 1970's, and decides to get even in 1984 by murdering Jonelle?

I listened to the podcast "Suspect: Vanished in the Snow" on this case hoping to learn more details linking Pankey to Jonelle's murder, but the only thing I learned was that the information about the rake being used to cover up the footprints in the snow outside of the Matthews' home was in fact known by another suspect in the case. It was not quite the secret that the prosecution tried to make it out to be.
 
I’m watching the Dateline on this case right now. Good episode. Did not know about this case.

www.ksl.com

'Dateline NBC' to feature story of girl who vanished in 1984 and the tie to an Idaho politician

The case of a 12-year-old girl who went missing nearly 40 years ago and the former Idaho gubernatorial candidate convicted of her murder will be featured in a new two-hour 'Dateline NBC' Friday night.
www.ksl.com www.ksl.com

www.the-sun.com

Tragic secret signal girl, 12, sent her friend the night she was kidnapped

A FRIEND of a murdered 12-year-old girl has revealed the heartbreaking signal the victim sent before she was abducted and killed. Jonelle Matthews, a middle school student in Greeley, Colorado, was…
www.the-sun.com www.the-sun.com
 
The man does seem to have some kind of mental illness but the only evidence they have is the ex wife's story off odd behavior. Pankey is an odd man and probably the norm for him but I see nothing that points to him being guilty.
I am surprised they got a conviction.
This is just my opinion and observation.
 
There is no physical evidence tying Steve Pankey’s to Jonelle’s death. Instead, his unusual behavior about the murder in the decades that followed led investigators to be suspicious.

He would, unprovoked, contact police about the murder giving them details like saying that a rake had been used to cover his footprints in the snow.

He also said that he knew where Jonelle went to school because he would often watch the children going to and from school.

Steve’s ex-wife Angela Hicks testified against him at the trial, relating how obsessed he was with the case. She said he raised her suspicious because right after the murder he whispered under his breath “False prophet” after a preacher predicted that Jonelle would be okay.

Detective Prill thinks Steve Pankey’s motive for killing Jonelle was because she was a Latino attending his church. Pankey thinks that he then tried to frame other church members for her murder because of their racist viewpoints.

In October 2022 Pankey was found guilty of kidnapping and murder at the end of his second trial. The first trial ended in mistrial.

He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility for parole.
starcasm.net

DATELINE 'Footprints in the Snow' How the cold case of Jonelle Matthews finally solved after three decades * starcasm.net

The 1984 cold case of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was finally solved after three decades. Tonight’s episode of Dateline explores how investigators finally cracked the case. Detective Mike Prill had to scour 28,636 pages of paper reports to unearth the case. One man...
starcasm.net starcasm.net
 
I decided to search this case here in hopes of finding more evidence against Pankey that may not have been mentioned in either the podcast or the Dateline episode, but it seems like there isn't any more. I'm surprised myself that they got a conviction. Based on what I know, Norris Drake seems to have more against him. Am I missing something?
 
imstilla.grandma said:
There is no physical evidence tying Steve Pankey’s to Jonelle’s death. Instead, his unusual behavior about the murder in the decades that followed led investigators to be suspicious.

He would, unprovoked, contact police about the murder giving them details like saying that a rake had been used to cover his footprints in the snow.

He also said that he knew where Jonelle went to school because he would often watch the children going to and from school.

Steve’s ex-wife Angela Hicks testified against him at the trial, relating how obsessed he was with the case. She said he raised her suspicious because right after the murder he whispered under his breath “False prophet” after a preacher predicted that Jonelle would be okay.

Detective Prill thinks Steve Pankey’s motive for killing Jonelle was because she was a Latino attending his church. Pankey thinks that he then tried to frame other church members for her murder because of their racist viewpoints.

In October 2022 Pankey was found guilty of kidnapping and murder at the end of his second trial. The first trial ended in mistrial.

He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility for parole.
starcasm.net

DATELINE 'Footprints in the Snow' How the cold case of Jonelle Matthews finally solved after three decades * starcasm.net

The 1984 cold case of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was finally solved after three decades. Tonight’s episode of Dateline explores how investigators finally cracked the case. Detective Mike Prill had to scour 28,636 pages of paper reports to unearth the case. One man...
starcasm.net starcasm.net
Click to expand...
There have been instances where unstable people become obsessed with a crime and insert themselves into the investigation. Some go as far as a false confession. John Mark Karr for instance.
Watching these crime shows over the years you usually have a sense of who is guilty regardless of evidence but once in awhile there will be one where it is an over zealous sheriff/detective or prosecutor with little to no evidence going after an innocent person and getting a conviction.
This all just my opinion and observation and not fact.
 
cuffem said:
There have been instances where unstable people become obsessed with a crime and insert themselves into the investigation. Some go as far as a false confession. John Mark Karr for instance.
Watching these crime shows over the years you usually have a sense of who is guilty regardless of evidence but once in awhile there will be one where it is an over zealous sheriff/detective or prosecutor with little to no evidence going after an innocent person and getting a conviction.
This all just my opinion and observation and not fact.
Click to expand...

Pankey knew the killer used a rake to cover his tracks in the snow outside Jonelle's house without that info being released to the public. That was the clincher for me. Guilty.
 
Ssschu said:
Pankey knew the killer used a rake to cover his tracks in the snow outside Jonelle's house without that info being released to the public. That was the clincher for me. Guilty.
Click to expand...
That apparently wasn't a secret. Norris Drake knew that too.

Prosecution throw this out with a lot of suspects and it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
 
MissLaura said:
That apparently wasn't a secret. Norris Drake knew that too.

Prosecution throw this out with a lot of suspects and it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...
I just went back and re-listened to an episode with Norris’ interview to make sure I was remembering this right. He does mention it as well, so I agree I don’t think that can be used to show guilt.
 
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