A second trial has began for the person accused of kidnapping and murdering Jonelle Matthews, a 12-year-old Colorado lady whose physique was discovered 35 years after she disappeared.
Final 12 months, a jury failed to achieve a choice on these fees towards Steve Pankey, 71.
These are the fundamentals of the case:
What occurred to Jonelle Matthews?
Jonelle was final seen on the night of Dec. 20, 1984, by a household good friend who dropped her off at her empty residence in Greeley after she had carried out at a Christmas live performance. When her father returned throughout the hour from his older daughter’s basketball recreation, Jonelle was gone, although her sneakers had been there and the tv was on.
In July 2019, pipeline employees digging a trench discovered her stays about 6 miles from the household’s former residence, and it was decided that she had died of a gunshot wound to the top. There is no such thing as a DNA proof within the case.
Who's Steve Pankey?
On the time of Jonelle’s disappearance, Pankey was in his mid-30s, dwelling along with his spouse and their younger son in Greeley, then a metropolis of fifty,000. The Pankeys’ residence was about 2 miles from the Matthewses’.
Pankey, who went to highschool within the Los Angeles suburb of La Puente, took lessons at Goals Group Faculty in Greeley. He labored for a time at a 7-Up distributor in Greeley and in addition offered automobiles from his residence.
Shortly earlier than the Matthews household moved to Greeley in 1978 and joined Sunny View Church of the Nazarene, the church had excommunicated Pankey due to an unspecified interplay with one other church member for which he had been beneath legal investigation. (Costs in that matter had been dismissed, and the main points weren't allowed to be mentioned through the first trial.)
The Matthewses had been lively within the church and shaped shut friendships with different members, however they apparently by no means crossed paths with Pankey.
Pankey reportedly stored updated on developments within the case all through the years. He moved his household to a number of states earlier than settling in Idaho, the place he ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Structure Get together candidate in 2014 and a Republican in 2018.
Why did he come beneath suspicion?
Pankey emerged as particular person of curiosity within the case three months earlier than Jonelle’s physique was present in 2019 after telling investigators that he knew what occurred to her and asking for immunity from prosecution. He had sought out legislation enforcement officers as quickly as a month after Jonelle’s disappearance to assert he had proof concerning the case.
He was arrested in October 2020, after he was indicted by a grand jury. The indictment highlighted Pankey’s suspicious statements regarding Jonelle’s disappearance all through the years, in addition to his data of 1 component of the case that had by no means been made public: the truth that a rake had been used to obliterate shoeprints within the snow outdoors the Matthews residence.
Who is predicted to testify on the trial?
Angela Hicks, Pankey’s spouse on the time of the disappearance, testified on the first trial and is predicted to return to the stand this time.
Amongst her testimony within the first trial, she described the occasions of Dec. 20, 1984. Pankey has mentioned he was residence that night, making ready for a visit to Southern California to see his dad and mom. However Hicks mentioned the journey wasn’t deliberate, that he walked into the home that night time and shocked her with the announcement that they’d be leaving for California the subsequent morning.
When she objected, saying she wanted to seek out somebody to deal with her two canine, he reportedly instructed her, “Don’t fear concerning the canine, they’re gone” — and he or she by no means noticed them once more.
She additionally spoke of her ex-husband’s persevering with obsession with the Matthews case.
Pankey testified in his personal protection on the first trial, saying he pretended to know concerning the case out of bitterness for police and since he wished his former church and former employer investigated.
His lawyer in that trial, Anthony Viorst, portrayed his consumer as a true-crime junkie who instructed lies to get consideration. “Steve Pankey is a busy-body,” Viorst mentioned. “He will get into individuals’s enterprise. I’m not right here to say that’s an important high quality, however that’s who he's.”
What was the result of the primary trial?
A mistrial was declared in November 2021 when the jury couldn't attain a verdict on the kidnapping and homicide fees. They convicted Pankey of false reporting, due to his admission that he had lied to the police about Jonelle’s disappearance.
Viorst eliminated himself from the case after that, saying he didn't have the time to arrange for the retrial.