Body of Missing Colorado Girl Found at Pipeline Site 34 Years After She

2/17/2021 Body of Missing Colorado Girl Found at Pipeline Site After 34 Years | PEOPLE.com

Body of Missing Colorado Girl Found at Pipeline Site 34 Years After She Disappeared DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM Jonelle Matthews went missing shortly before Christmas in 1984, and her case caught national attention at the time By 145

https://people.com/human-interest/body-missing-colorado-girl-found-pipeline-site-34-years-disappearance/ 1/3 2/17/2021 Body of Missing Colorado Girl Found at Pipeline Site After 34 Years | PEOPLE.com

https://people.com/human-interest/body-missing-colorado-girl-found-pipeline-site-34-years-disappearance/ 2/3 2/17/2021 Body of Missing Colorado Girl Found at Pipeline Site After 34 Years | PEOPLE.com

https://people.com/human-interest/body-missing-colorado-girl-found-pipeline-site-34-years-disappearance/ 3/3

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

10/11/95 Rocky Mtn. News 5A 1995 WLNR 650120

October 11, 1995 146

Section: LOCAL

CALIFORNIAN ACCUSED OF ‘93 SLAYING GRANDFATHER OF ALIE BERRELEZ SHOCKS POLICE BY IMPLICATING SAN DIEGO MAN

CHARLIE BRENNAN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER

WESTMINSTER

In a move that stunned police, the grieving grandfather of murder victim Alie Berrelez on Tuesday publicly accused a California man of her murder.

”I personally do charge Nicholas Stofer with the crime that was committed against my granddaughter,” Richard Berrelez said. “I charge him with being a coward, for taking a little girl and murdering a little girl.”

Stofer, 35, of San Diego could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Attorney Kerry Steigerwalt, who has represented Stofer did not return calls. He has consistently maintained Stofer’s innocence.

Berrelez made his remarks at a press conference at the Ranch Country Club, held in conjunction with an annual golf tournament to benefit the ALIE Foundation. The non-profit group was founded by Berrelez and his wife to supply police with tracking dogs and to teach stranger awareness to children.

Berrelez’s 5-year-old granddaughter Alie, was abducted May 18, 1993, from in front of her family’s Englewood apartment building. A bloodhound led investigators four days later to Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County, where searchers found her body in a duffel bag; she had suffocated.

Stofer lived in the same complex as did Alie Berrelez at the time of her disappearance.

Englewood police presented evidence against Stofer to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s office in June 1994, but prosecutors said there wasn’t enough to file charges.

Berrelez said he placed no blame on Englewood police or Arapahoe County prosecutors for the lack of a resolution in Alie’s death. But he also implied he won’t wait forever for them to find one.

”I will not forget, and yes, there will be an end to my patience,” Berrelez said.

”I’m just human. I might lose it. And yes, Stofer will have to pay.”

Berrelez believes Stofer has relatives in Colorado. He’s encouraging Stofer’s family to put pressure on him “to do the right

thing.”

”We can stir the waters. We can shake the trees,” Berrelez said. He didn’t rule out confronting Stofer himself.

Law enforcement personnel involved would not publicly criticize Berrelez for Tuesday’s comments. But privately, they were troubled by his accusations.

”Obviously, we’ve put hundreds and hundreds of man hours into this case,” said Englewood Sgt. Rick Forbes. “And to come up empty, without a successful prosecution, is very frustrating.”

INFOBOX

OTHER UNSOLVED ABDUCTIONS

March 17, 1993: Michael Chandler, 4 1/2, is snatched from a Denver child-care center. He is found the next day wandering in a field.

July 22, 1991: Jakeob McKnight, 10, is found stabbed to death near Bear Creek.

June 12, 1989: The mother of Anthony Moya, 2, wakes up to find her Lakewood apartment door open and the toddler missing from his bed.

July 14, 1986: Christopher Abeyta, 7 months, is abducted from his Colorado Springs home.

Dec. 20, 1984: After a friend drops Jonelle Matthews, 12, off at her house in Greeley, her father arrives home to find the girl gone.

Compiled by News librarians Janet Boss and Carol Kasel

LIB3 LIB3

COLOR PHOTO (3)

Alie Berrelez. FILE: BERRELEZ, ALIE

Richard Berrelez. FILE: BERRELEZ, RICHARD

Nicholas Stofer. FILE: STOFER, NICHOLAS

SEE END OF TEXT FOR INFOBOX

---- Index References ----

News Subject: (Violent Crime (1VI27); Crime (1CR87); Judicial (1JU36); Legal (1LE33); Social Issues (1SO05); Criminal Law (1CR79); Police (1PO98))

Region: (USA (1US73); Americas (1AM92); Colorado (1CO26); North America (1NO39); California (1CA98))

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (ALIE; ALIE FOUNDATION; COLOR; DEER CREEK CANYON; INFOBOX; RANCH COUNTRY CLUB; WESTMINSTER) (Alie; Alie Berrelez; Anthony Moya; Attorney Kerry Steigerwalt; Berrelez; CALIFORNIAN ACCUSED; Carol Kasel; Dec; Englewood; Janet Boss; Jonelle Matthews; Law; Nicholas Stofer; Richard Berrelez; Rick © 2021 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 3

Forbes; Stofer)

Edition: FINAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

12/22/94 Rocky Mtn. News 28A 1994 WLNR 565786

December 22, 1994

Section: LOCAL

TEN YEARS AFTER GIRL’S DISAPPEARANCE, HER FAMILY SAYS GOODBYE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GREELEY

Dozens of people filed through a Greeley church earlier this week to say goodbye to a girl missing for 10 years.

Jonelle Matthews was 12 years old on Dec. 20, 1984, when she apparently was abducted from her family’s west Greeley home.

”Tonight is a time to say goodbye for us,” said Gloria Matthews, the girl’s mother, speaking before a packed Sunny View Church Tuesday night.

Matthews, her husband, Jim, and the girl’s sister, Jennifer Morgensen, were joined by about 250 others in a final farewell.

Police investigators have been baffled by Jonelle’s disappearance.

Her parents wanted to lay to rest their hopes of their daughter being found alive.

”Tonight is like a funeral we never had for Jonelle - it’s a closure,” her mother said.

At the service, family and friends passed a photo display showing Jonelle in her childhood, in school, on reward posters and on a milk carton.

Slides of the missing girl were flashed on a screen in the church.

Jonelle was adopted by the Matthews when she was a month old.

Pastor Jim Christy said time has stood still for Jonelle.

”She lived in another era, just 10 years ago, but we have changed so much. Much of life is so quickly and easily discarded, but we want to keep the lasting memories of Jonelle,” Christy said.

A bloodhound, donated to the Larimer County sheriff’s office in Fort Collins in Jonelle’s name, was presented at the memorial.

The dog was donated by the Allie Berelez Foundation.

LIB2 LIB2

---- Index References ----

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (ALLIE BERELEZ FOUNDATION; GIRL; GREELEY; POLICE; TEN; TONIGHT) (Gloria Matthews; Jennifer Morgensen; Jim; Jonelle; Jonelle Matthews; Matthews; Pastor Jim Christy; Sunny View Church)

Edition: REGIONAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

5/23/93 Rocky Mtn. News 3A 1993 WLNR 512849

May 23, 1993

Section: LOCAL

GIRL’S BODY FOUND IN DUFFEL BAG DUMPED IN DEER CREEK CANYON BLOODHOUND TRACKS GIRL ACROSS TOWN INTO FOOTHILLS; POLICE NOW SEARCH FOR KILLER

JOHN ENSSLIN AND MICHAEL MEHLE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITERS

A bloodhound who helped lead police to the body of 5-year-old Aleszandra “Alie” Berrelez remained hot on the trail of her killer late Saturday night.

A search team found the little girl stuffed inside a dirty khaki-color duffel bag near a creek in Jefferson County’s Deer Creek Canyon around 11:15 a.m.

By 10 p.m. Englewood detectives were following Yogi, an Aurora Police tracking dog, as he sniffed the trail in reverse in southwest metro area.

Police said they still have no firm suspects in the case. However, Saturday’s grisly, hope-dashing discovery gave them the first significant break in the case since Alie vanished from outside her family’s apartment Tuesday night.

”We found exactly what we didn’t want to find,” said Englewood Sgt. Byron Wicks, who led a team of 22 Arapahoe Rescue Squad members and three Jefferson County deputies into the canyon.

”I think everybody felt let down and really bad,” Wicks said, staring down at his boots. “Nobody said much.”

On Friday, the bloodhound followed the scent on Ali’s clothes from her family’s Englewood apartment to the canyon west of Chatfield Reservoir. Law enforcement officials resumed the search on foot Saturday morning.

”I can’t believe someone could do that to someone. She’s just a baby,” said Dana Gonzales, the best friend of Alie’s mother, Marivel Berrelez.

An autopsy was performed Saturday afternoon, but police would not say how the girl died.

She suffered from asthma and required four daily doses of Proventil, a prescription drug.

”She’s with the Lord, and nothing can hurt her again,” said Richard Berrelez, Alie’s grandfather.

”The search for Aleszandra has ended, but another search has begun. This person will be found.”

The family had kept its hope that Alie was still alive. 148

Early Saturday morning, while passing out leaflets at the Cinderella City shopping mall, Richard Berrelez talked about how hard it was to watch a summer lightning storm sweep through the sky Friday night.

”You start to think, ‘Is she cold out there?’ You wonder what she’s drinking or eating.”

Alie’s body was found clothed and stuffed inside the khaki bag, which apparently was dumped from a car at a turnoff alongside Deer Creek Canyon Road about four miles west of C-470.

It rolled down an Aspen and Cottonwood-filled gulch, stopping just 2 feet short of the creek

Teen-agers with the Arapahoe Rescue Squad made the initial discovery around 11:15 a.m., spotting some debris at the bottom of the gulley.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy Steve Stalter scrambled down and undid the drawstring. Investigators immediately recognized the blue denim Oshkosh overalls that Alie had been wearing when she vanished.

Alie’s mother and other relatives returned to their Englewood home. A steady stream of family and friends visited Saturday evening.

Police scoured over the wooded area Saturday and took plaster casts of tire tracks left in the moist, red clay pull-off where they believe Alie’s abductor stopped the car to dump her body.

Englewood police were awed that Yogi, a bloodhound from the Aurora police department, led them to within 2 1/2 miles of the body Friday.

Police had searched a 400-square-block area surrounding Alie’s Englewood apartment at 300 W. Grand Ave. Wednesday before giving up the intensive ground search.

”I was totally dumbfounded that a dog could track a scent left from someone inside a moving car,” said Englewood Police Chief Dave Miller.

Miller said the dog was able to track the scent from Alie’s clothes that wafted from the car like pollen and settled on bushes and grass alongside C-470.

Walking along Englewood streets Friday, the bloodhound tracked the scent from the apartment complex down South Broadway. The dog followed the scent to a Dairy Queen on South Broadway, where police believe Alie and her abductor stopped.

The body was found near the same site where the body of 15-year-old Marilee Burt was discovered in 1970. Her slaying remains unsolved.

Alie’s disappearance came on the heels of an unsolved abduction in southeast Denver and an attempted kidnapping in Cherry Hills Village.

In March, 7-year-old Michael Chandler was taken from the Christ Episcopal Church in southeast Denver. He was dropped off the next day at an abandoned farmhouse north of Denver.

On May 12, a man tried to abduct an 8-year-old girl from a church parking lot in Cherry Hills Village, but she kicked him and got away.

Alie last was seen Tuesday evening sitting on the front steps outside her apartment complex with her 1-year-old brother.

INFOBOX

AUG. 26, 1992: The badly burned body of 12-year-old Mayra Estella Lopez found in a trash dumpster in E.B. Rains Park in Northglenn.

JULY 22, 1991: 10-year-old Jakeob McKnight’s body found near Bear Creek. He had been stabbed 24 times.

SEPT. 17, 1991: Heather Dawn Church, 13, disappears from her eastern El Paso County home.

JUNE 12, 1989: The mother of Anthony Moya, 2, awakes to find her Lakewood apartment door open and the toddler missing from his bed.

JULY 14, 1986: Seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta disappears from his crib at his parents’ home in Colorado Springs.

DEC. 20, 1984: After a friend drops Jonelle Matthews, 12, off at her house in Greeley, her father arrives home and the girl is gone.

AUG. 16, 1983: Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth “Beth” Ann Miller disappears after leaving her home in Idaho Springs to go jogging.

Researched by Janet Boss and Monica Vigil

Rocky Mountain News Librarians

INFOBOX (2) (Infobox ran on P.23A)

CHRONOLOGY OF A KIDNAPPING

TUESDAY:

* About 6 p.m.: Alie Berrelez eats pizza on her apartment doorstep with a neighbor, two younger brothers and other children.

The neighbor takes the pizza box into an apartment. The children, except for Alie’s 1-year-old brother, Benjamin, follow the neighbor.

* 6:05 p.m.: Alie’s mother calls the children. Alie is gone; Benjamin is on the step crying. The mother and her boyfriend search the area. Alie’s 2-year-old brother, Samuel, says he saw her get into a blue truck driven by a man.

* 7 p.m.: The couple calls the police. A door-to-door search begins.

WEDNESDAY:

* 70 police and rescue workers conduct a 400-block search.

* Police appeal to Alie’s abductor to get her the asthmatic medicine she needs.

* Alie’s mother collapses on the living room couch after hours without sleep.

THURSDAY:

* Police eliminate the mother, her boyfriend and Alie’s father as suspects.

* Police call off the hunt after 24 hours of searching.

* Ali’s uncle, Richard Berrelez, distributes 500 fliers asking for help in finding Alie.

FRIDAY:

* Police investigators check known sex offenders in the area.

* South metro businesses open a fund to raise reward money for information leading to Alie’s safe return.

* Aurora police bloodhound, Yogi, tracks Alie’s scent from her apartment to Deer Creek Canyon.

SATURDAY:

* 8 a.m.: Police resume search in the Deer Creek Canyon area.

* 9 a.m.: 700 people gather at Cinderella City to go door-to-door asking for information on the missing girl.

* 11:15 a.m.: Searchers find Alie’s body off Deer Creek Canyon Road down an embankment, 12 1/2 miles from her home.

LIB2 LIB5

PHOTO (8), MAP

Richard Berrelez, grandfather of 5-year-old Aleszandra “Alie” Berrelez, addresses the media in front of the family’s Englewood apartment. By Cyrus McCrimmon / Rocky Mountain News. FILE: BERRELEZ, RICHARD

Mayra Estella Lopez. FILE: LOPEZ, MAYRA ESTELLA

Jakeob McKnight. FILE: MCKNIGHT, JAKEOB

Heather Dawn Church. FILE: CHURCH, HEATHER DAWN

Anthony Moya. FILE: MOYA, ANTHONY

Christopher Abeyta. FILE: ABEYTA, CHRISTOPHER

Jonelle Matthews. FILE: MATTHEWS, JONELLE

Elizabeth Ann Miller. FILE: MILLER, ELIZABETH ANN

Bloodhound tracks child’s body. FILE: KIDNAPPINGS

GREATER DENVER Related color photo (2) p.1A Banner p.1A - DOG HUNTS KILLER / HOUND HELPS FIND GIRL’S BODY TRIES TO SNIFF OUT ABDUCTOR; POLICE HAVE NO SOLID SUSPECTS IN CHILD’S DEATH SEE END OF TEXT FOR INFOBOX (2)

---- Index References ----

Company: ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

News Subject: (Violent Crime (1VI27); Crime (1CR87); Judicial (1JU36); Legal (1LE33); Social Issues (1SO05); Criminal Law (1CR79); Police (1PO98))

Industry: (Residential Real Estate (1RE67); Real Estate (1RE57))

Region: (USA (1US73); Americas (1AM92); Colorado (1CO26); North America (1NO39))

Other Indexing: (ALESZANDRA; ALI; ARAPAHOE RESCUE SQUAD; AUG; AURORA POLICE; AURORA POLICE DEPARTMENT; CHATFIELD RESERVOIR; CHILD; CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH; CHRISTOPHER ABEYTA; CHRONOLOGY; ELIZABETH; ENGLEWOOD POLICE CHIEF DAVE; GIRL; GRAND AVE; HEATHER DAWN CHURCH; INFOBOX; KIDNAPPING; MAYRA ESTELLA LOPEZ; POLICE; ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS; ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS LIBRARIANS; UNSOLVED) (Alie; Alie Berrelez; Anthony Moya; Benjamin; Beth” Ann Miller; Byron Wicks; Creek Canyon; Cyrus McCrimmon; Dana Gonzales; Deer; Deer Creek Canyon; DEER CREEK CANYON BLOODHOUND TRACKS GIRL; Englewood; Jakeob McKnight; Janet Boss; Jonelle Matthews; Law; Marilee Burt; Marivel Berrelez; Michael Chandler; Miller; Monica Vigil; MURDERS DISAPPEARANCES; Oshkosh; Richard Berrelez; Samuel; SOLID SUSPECTS; Steve Stalter; Teen; Walking; Wicks)

Edition: FINAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

12/24/91 Rocky Mtn. News 6 1991 WLNR 440811

December 24, 1991

Section: LOCAL

FAMILIES LOOK TO EASE PAIN OF LOST GIRLS AT CHRISTMAS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GREELEY

Christmas is in many ways a somber time for Jim and Gloria Matthews, whose daughter Jonelle vanished from their Greeley home without a trace seven years ago Friday.

The Matthewses left Greeley four years ago but moved back in October. With the move came difficult memories.

But this Christmas, the couple hopes to help a mother near Colorado Springs whose daughter, Heather Dawn Church, vanished last summer.

The women - Diane Church and Gloria Matthews - said they want to get together. “I hope that we’ll be able to sit down and talk,” Gloria Matthews said.

Gloria Matthews decorated the house, putting up the tree and hanging lights. She wants it to be a happy time, but the memories of seven years ago remain.

”Christmas is still very hard for us,” she said. “It will always be hard.”

On Dec. 20, 1984, 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews walked into her house in a west Greeley subdivision. It was the last time she was seen.

Her father, who was at his other daughter’s basketball game, came home an hour later and found no one home. Jonelle’s shoes were in the living room, near a space heater and in front of the television set, which was still on.

Police said they found no signs of a struggle in the house, although they believe Jonelle was abducted. Despite work by the Greeley police, Weld County sheriff’s office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, plus a $20,000 reward and numerous appearances on television by her family, there has been no trace of Jonelle.

In the more recent disappearance, Heather Church, 13, disappeared from her home northeast of Colorado Springs on Sept. 17.

After three months of searching and anguish, things have quieted at the Church home, just as they did for the Matthews family.

Diane Church said Friday there hasn’t been any progress in the search for her daughter.

”It’s scary to realize that something like this has gone on for so long with the Matthewses,” Church said. “I keep thinking it will be over soon, but then I can’t imagine what they have gone through.”

After seven years, there is still hope that her daughter is alive, Gloria Matthews said, but that hope has diminished.

LIB3 LIB

---- Index References ----

Region: (USA (1US73); Americas (1AM92); Colorado (1CO26); North America (1NO39))

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (COLORADO BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION; FAMILIES; FBI; GREELEY) (Christmas; Church; Diane; Diane Church; Gloria Matthews; Heather Church; Heather Dawn Church; Jim and Gloria Matthews; Jonelle; Jonelle Matthews; Matthews; Matthewses)

Edition: REGIONAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

11/3/91 Rocky Mtn. News 33 1991 WLNR 465185

November 3, 1991

Section: LOCAL

VANISHED CHILD, DIMINISHED HOPE MOTHER OF BETH MILLER RESIGNED TO DAUGHTER’S FATE 8 YEARS AFTER SHE DROPPED OUT OF SIGHT

JOHN C. ENSSLIN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER

On the day the search for Heather Dawn Church began, Ilene Miller had to stifle an urge to call the missing El Paso County girl’s parents.

The Idaho Springs woman’s initial impulse was to call and sympathize and share her own experience.

But then she thought twice about it. It’s been more than eight years since Miller’s 14-year-old daughter, Beth, vanished. There wasn’t much encouragement she could share.

In that time, Miller has resigned herself to the possibility that her daughter no longer may be alive.

”I don’t think I dwell on it as much as I used to,” she said last week. “After eight years, you pretty much give up. I know you’re not supposed to. People say, ‘Oh don’t give up.’ But they don’t know what it’s like.”

Few people know what it’s like to go so many years without a clue as to their missing child’s fate. Not knowing what happened may be the cruelest part of their ordeal.

Statistics show that only a slim fraction of the missing-child reports filed each year in Colorado turn out to be kidnappings by strangers.

Between 1987-91, the Colorado Bureau of Investigations logged 16,091 reports of missing children. Runaway children accounted for nearly 96% of that total. Of the rest, 593 involved suspicious circumstances and another 30 were abductions by strangers.

And out of all the disappearances reported in nearly four years, only 80 still are considered open and active cases.

The Miller case is one of them. It’s passed though several sets of investigators. In fact, the Idaho Springs Police Department has undergone turnover of nearly 100% since Beth Miller disappeared while jogging on Aug. 16, 1983.

Sgt. Dave Wohlers oversees the case now. He stays in touch with Ilene Miller, who lives just four doors away from him in the small mountain community.

On the day Beth disappeared, Wohlers was a Clear Creek deputy sheriff. He remembers helping search the roads and a few mine shafts that day.

Tips still come in. When a suspect in Mississippi started confessing to a string of murders, Wohlers quickly moved to see if there was any connection. There wasn’t.

Twice, Wohlers thought he had a good suspect in the case, only to find out the person was dead. One was murdered. The other died in a car crash.

He hasn’t given up.

”Hardly a day goes by that you don’t think about it,” he said. “It’s kind of a helpless feeling. You wish there was something you could do. It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

Delta County Sheriff Bill Blair knows that feeling. It’s fueled a 10-year search through western Colorado for Roger Ellison, a 17-year-old Eckert student who vanished from his high school on Feb. 10, 1981.

Eckert remembers how for years after the disappearence, Ellison’s father, now deceased, used to stare when the school bus unloaded near his house. He would watch as if waiting for Roger. Then he would weep.

”That’s enough to get anybody,” Blair said. “And that’s what’s kept us motivated for over a decade. We just don’t want to let (Ellison’s mother) down.”

Many investigators tracking a missing child for several years keep the kid’s photo near their desk. Lakewood Detective Dennis Goodwin keeps a photo of 2-year-old Anthony Moya, who vanished from his Lakewood home in June 1989. But it’s not on his desk.

He doesn’t need it there. The missing youngster’s image is etched in his mind.

”It’s really hard, because you carry this case for a long time,” said Goodwin.

”It’s nothing like what the family is going through,” Goodwin added. “But you get an idea of what it’s like.”

Ilene Miller hopes police someday, somehow solve her daughter’s disappearance. But she’s not so eager for justice as much as knowlege of what happened to her blond teen-ager.

”At this point, it’s going to take someone developing a conscience since whoever took her obviously didn’t have one,” she said.

”In a way, I’d like them to catch whoever took her. But more importantly, I’d like to find out if she’s alive or dead. And if she is dead, I’d like to give her a casket and a burial.

”Sure, I’d like whoever killed her to be punished,” she added. “But God will take care of that.”

INFOBOX

RECENT DISAPPEARANCES

Feb. 10, 1981 - Roger Ellison, 17, of Eckert disappeared. He rode the bus to school, spoke with his locker partner before his first class, then, inexplicably, disappeared. There have been many reported sightings of Ellison, but he has never been found.

Aug. 16, 1983 - Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth “Beth” Ann Miller disappeared when she went jogging from her home in Idaho Springs. There have been many reported sightings of Miller, and in 1985 her parents flew to Florida to meet with a girl who claimed to be Miller. The report was bogus.

July 16, 1984 - Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Anne Douglas of Park Hill disappeared after saying she was going on a bicycle ride. The search focused on the Highline Canal trail. © 2021 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 17

Dec. 20, 1984 - Twelve-year-old Jonelle Matthews was dropped off at her house in Greeley by a friend at 8:30 p.m. When her father arrived home an hour later, the girl was gone.

July 14, 1986 - Seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta disappeared from his crib at his parents’ home in Colorado Springs. An unsuccessful search for the boy included draining a nearby lake to look for his body.

June 12, 1989 - Anthony Moya, 2, disappeared. His mother, Jessica, awoke at about 8:45 a.m. to find her apartment door open and the toddler missing from his bed.

Sept. 17, 1991 - Heather Dawn Church, 13, apparently spoke with her mother on the telephone at about 8:30 p.m. When her mother arrived at their eastern El Paso County home, the teen-ager was not there.

Researched by Janet Boss

Rocky Mountain News Librarian

LIB3 LIB9

PHOTO (7)

Jim and Gloria Matthews kneel in prayer in January 1985 with their daughter, Jennifer, at the Sunny View Church of the Nazarene in Greeley. Another Matthews daughter, Jonelle, had disappeared a month earlier, at the age of 12. By Associated Press. FILE: MATTHEWS, JONELLE

Roger Ellison. FILE: ELLISON, ROGER

Elizabeth “Beth” Miller. FILE: MILLER, ELIZABETH “BETH”

Jennifer Anne Douglas. FILE: DOUGLAS, JENNIFER ANNE

Jonelle Matthews. FILE: MATTHEWS, JONELLE

Christopher Abeyta. FILE: ABEYTA, BERNICE

Anthony Moya. FILE: MOYA, ANTHONY

SEE END OF TEXT FOR INFOBOX

---- Index References ----

Region: (Idaho (1ID22); USA (1US73); Americas (1AM92); Colorado (1CO26); North America (1NO39))

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (CHRISTOPHER ABEYTA; COLORADO; COLORADO BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS; ECKERT; EL PASO; ELLISON; HEATHER DAWN CHURCH; HIGHLINE CANAL; IDAHO SPRINGS; IDAHO SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT; INFOBOX; JENNIFER ANNE DOUGLAS; ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS LIBRARIAN; ROGER; ROGER ELLISON; SUNNY VIEW CHURCH) (Anthony Moya; Aug; Beth; Beth Miller; Bill Blair; Blair; Dave Wohlers; Dec; Delta County; Elizabeth “Beth” Miller; Feb; God; Goodwin; Ilene Miller; Janet Boss; Jennifer; Jennifer Anne Douglas; Jessica; Jim and Gloria Matthews; Jonelle; Jonelle Matthews; Lakewood Detective Dennis Goodwin; Matthews; Miller; Moya; Runaway; Sept; Statistics; Tips; VANISHED; Wohlers) © 2021 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 18

Edition: FINAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

12/22/90 Rocky Mtn. News 10 1990 WLNR 420238

December 22, 1990

Section: LOCAL

ALSO . . .

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A computer-generated photo is being circulated showing how Jonelle Matthews would look today if she were alive six years after she disappeared from her Greeley home. . . . Federal wildlife officials say they’ll allow hunters to shoot designated “nuisance” grizzly bears outside of Yellowstone National Park. . . . An investigation is under way into allegations that ARA Leisure Services used an underwater pipeline to dump petroleum and hazardous materials into Lake Powell. LIB2

REGION WATCH

---- Index References ----

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (ARA LEISURE SERVICES; YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK) (Jonelle Matthews)

Edition: FINAL

151

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

12/20/89 Rocky Mtn. News 30 1989 WLNR 334235

December 20, 1989

Section: LOCAL

FAMILY WOULD LIKE DAUGHTER BACK FOR CHRISTMAS

KATIE KERWIN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER

This Christmas, for the fifth year, Jonelle Matthews’ parents will hang a red felt stocking for her with a white angel marked “missing.”

And this Christmas, as always, they will pray for news of their daughter, who vanished five years ago today from her Greeley home.

”The holidays are the roughest times,” said Jonelle’s father, Jim Matthews, now an elementary school principal in Washington state. “She brought excitement to Christmas.”

Jonelle was 12 years old when she disappeared. Police fear she was abducted.

Despite hundreds of leads over the years and hefty national attention, most recently on Geraldo Rivera’s show, Jonelle’s disappearance still stumps investigators.

The last person to see Jonelle was a friend who dropped her off and watched her walk inside her home after they performed in a Christmas concert. Her mother was out of town and her sister, Jennifer, was playing in a basketball game that night.

When Jim Matthews returned home, he found the television and a space heater on. His daughter’s shoes were near the TV, but Jonelle was gone.

For the Matthews, the lack of answers is like a knife that twists in the gut.

”You’re constantly theorizing (about what happened), but you always hit a dead-end,” Jim Matthews said.

The Greeley police haven’t shelved the case. Detective Keith Olson works leads and scours thousands of pages of files developed over the years.

”I just think there was a lot of work done at the beginning,” Olson said. “Within the case are the clues. Eventually we’ll know what happened.”

---- Index References ---- 152

Industry: (Entertainment (1EN08); Live Entertainment (1LI85))

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (FAMILY; TV) (Detective Keith Olson; Eventually; Jennifer; Jim Matthews; Jonelle; Jonelle Matthews; Matthews; Olson)

Edition: FINAL

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM

12/3/89 Rocky Mtn. News 6 1989 WLNR 321454

December 3, 1989

Section: LOCAL

HOPE STILL LINGERS FOR GIRL MISSING FIVE YEARS

MIKE PETERS GREELEY TRIBUNE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GREELEY

Wrapped in tree tape, leafless, struggling to stay upright against a November wind, the chokecherry tree in front of Franklin Middle School hasn’t grown much in five years.

Planted by a school in memory of a friend, the tree is a stark reminder of fear of the unknown, a brittle symbol of the fragility of life in the safe, secure suburbs.

Jonelle Matthews was 12 years old when she walked into her home on Dec. 20, 1984. It was the last time she was seen, and five years of uncertainty have followed for her parents, friends, and the police detective who hasn’t given up on the case.

Police believe she was abducted from the home in Pheasant Run subdivision in west Greeley, and no trace has been found of the girl.

The story, told often locally and nationally, was simple:

Jonelle was in the school choir at Franklin, and performed with the group that night. Her mother was flying east to be with her father, (Jonelle’s grandfather) who was ill, and her sister, Jennifer, was playing basketball for Greeley Central High School. Her father, Kersey elementary school principal Jim Matthews, took Jonelle for a fast-food hamburger that evening, then to the school where she got on the bus to the concert at a local bank. He then went to Jennifer’s basketball game.

About 8:30 that night, Jonelle was brought home by a friend’s parents, who watched her walk into the house. Shortly after that, a teacher at Jim Matthews’ school called, asking him to find a substitute teacher for her. Jonelle wrote the note on a message board near the phone.

When Jim came home at 9:30, he found his daughter’s shoes in front of the television set in the family room. The TV was on, and a space heater was in the middle of the room, where Jonelle usually sat to warm up on cold evenings. She apparently was wearing her mother’s bedroom slippers.

Police said there were no signs of a struggle inside the home that night, although they found signs that the girl may have been forcibly abducted.

Despite thousands of hours of detective work, posters, national television shows about Jonelle and other missing children, a countywide search involving more than 700 volunteers, and even a mention of Jonelle in a speech by then-President Ronald

Reagan, the girl’s disappearance remains a mystery.

It isn’t a hobby for Greeley detective Keith Olson, and he hedges at calling it an obsession; but he can’t forget Jonelle Matthews. On his off-duty time, many times at home at night, he again goes through the 2,000 pages of the report, looking for the missing piece.

”After all this time,” Olson said, “we think the answer is in the investigation - somewhere in that report. Now we’re wondering if we missed something . . . we think maybe it’s something we overlooked.”

On Olson’s desk is a small school photo of Jonelle, her handwriting on the back, a gift to a friend; next to the photo is a fat volume, “National Hotline For Missing Children.” Across the room, a bookshelf holds notebooks: two filled with sightings of Jonelle and other non-productive tips, and two volumes of the actual investigation.

”I believe this is a case that can be solved, because we know so much about it,” Olson said. “We know exactly when it happened and where it happened. We had 12 people working on the case when it first opened, and we collected a tremendous amount of information. I believe we already have the information we need to solve it - we just have to put it together.”

It hasn’t been easy. Officers followed thousands of clues, hundreds of reports from people who claim to have seen Jonelle, several psychics who claim to have had a vision of her.

Olson and other detectives withheld some evidence collected at the scene of the abduction, hoping they have something only the kidnapper might know about. While the case isn’t under constant investigation, Olson said he checks the case file often, and follows any tips he receives.

Last week, someone reported seeing Jonelle at a hair salon in Aurora, wearing a Harley-Davidson leather jacket. Someone else called from Pennsylvania to tell police Jonelle was seen there.

Neither report could be substantiated, although police will try to check them out. Most people involved with the case believe Jonelle is dead.

Deanna Ross is 17 now, and she still misses her friend. About once or twice a month, she’ll take out the scrapbook and look at the photos again, and remember.

It was Deanna and her father, Russell, who took Jonelle from the school to her home that night, stopped in front of the house, where they would see the garage door had been left open.

”It was strange, because I remember saying, ‘See you tomorrow,’ and she just stared at me for a second and didn’t say anything.” Jonelle then turned and walked into the open garage, through the door to the house; it was the last time Deanna would see her best friend.

There have been difficult times since that night, answering police questions, wondering what happened to her friend, spending time with the Matthews family.

”They were like my second family,” Deanna said. “I’d been over there so many times with Jonelle. Her mother and I went through her room one day, looking at her things.”

Like most people, Deanna has a theory. She believes the disappearance is connected with Jonelle’s real parents; she was adopted as an infant when her parents were too young to care for her. Police questioned the original parents and for several weeks after Jonelle’s disappearance, watched the house. Nothing resulted.

”She’s still alive,” Deanna said. “I have to believe that because after all this time, and all the searches, no body was found. I think she’ll come back someday, and I know she’ll be totally different. But I think she’ll come back.”

”Maybe our hope for Jonelle isn’t as strong now as it was five years ago,” said her mother, Gloria Matthews, “but you must have hope to survive something like this.” © 2021 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. 24

The Matthews are survivors. They have kept that hope in their hearts and in their lives for years. At the same time, they recognize what time has done. The girl they once knew no longer exists.

”She may be alive, still, but we’re certain she has changed,” Jim said.

Jonelle would be 17 now, almost 18, and would graduate from high school this year. The Matthews are paying for a computerized photo of their daughter as she would look now. It’s expensive, but the only photos the Matthews’ have of her are five years old.

And she would have changed from a pre-teen girl to a young woman.

---- Index References ----

Company: HARLEY DAVIDSON INC

Language: EN

Other Indexing: (FRANKLIN; FRANKLIN MIDDLE SCHOOL; GREELEY; HARLEY DAVIDSON; LINGERS; NATIONAL HOTLINE FOR MISSING CHILDREN; TV) (Deanna; Deanna Ross; Gloria Matthews; Jennifer; Jim; Jim Matthews; Jonelle; Jonelle Matthews; Keith Olson; Matthews; Nothing; Olson; Ronald Reagan; Russell)

Edition: BULLDOG

2/17/2021 Bond set for Idaho man accused in Jonelle Matthews murder case | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com

https://denvergazette.com/news/local/bond-set-for-idaho-man-accused-in-jonelle-matthews-murder- case/article_1669557a-3660-11eb-a020-ef18454602c1.html Bond set for Idaho manDATE FILED: accused February 24, 2021 3:46 PM in Jonelle Matthews murder case

By CAROL McKINLEY special to The Denver Gazette Dec 4, 2020

Steven Dana Pankey was arrested at his home in Meridian, Idaho, on Oct. 12 and extradited to Colorado in the 36-year-old murder case. Weld County Sheriff’s Office 154 A Weld County judge has set a $5 million cash-only bond for the man accused of murdering 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews in Greeley 36 years ago. https://gazette.com/news/bond-set-for-idaho-man-accused-in-jonelle-matthews-murder-case/article_aad0340a-3669-11eb-805b-3bb07f75fd66.html 1/4 2/17/2021 Bond set for Idaho man accused in Jonelle Matthews murder case | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com Steve Pankey, 69, who ran for governor in Idaho twice and also ran for Twin Falls County Sheriff in the last election, faces five charges in the killing of Matthews, who disappeared after singing in a Christmas concert on Dec. 20, 1984.

Pankey is facing two murder charges, two violent crime charges and one kidnapping charge in connection with Matthews’ disappearance. The girl’s remains were found in a shallow grave in a rural area east of Greeley in the summer of 2019.

Pankey appeared in an orange jail outfit in handcuffs and a white coronavirus face mask.

Jonelle’s sister, Jennifer Mogensen and her parents, Jim and Gloria Matthews, watched the hearing virtually from their home in Washington state.

Pankey was arrested at his home in Meridian, Idaho, on Oct. 12 and extradited to Colorado.

Pankey lived near the Matthews home at the time of the girl’s disappearance, but moved shortly afterward. He has said that he briefly worked as a youth pastor at the Matthews’ church, but he says he left the church shortly before the family joined.

Assistant District Attorney Bob Miller originally asked for a cash-only bond of $10 million, describing Pankey’s strange behavior through the years including at least 2,000 pages that the defendant has written about the case.

Referring to a three-day grand jury investigation, Miller brought up a witness who testified that in 1999, Pankey discussed knowledge of a rake which was used to erase footprints outside of a window in the Matthews’ home that night.

Miller also discussed Pankey’s history of intimidating witnesses, including his obsession over a 1977 rape victim. “He was still calling her; he was calling her father; he was calling her husband; he found out where they were in Oklahoma and continued harassing them even after the case was dismissed,” Miller told District Judge Tim Kerns.

In asking to reduce the bond amount, Pankey’s attorney Tony Viorst told Kerns that Pankey is not a danger to the community and is not a flight risk. https://gazette.com/news/bond-set-for-idaho-man-accused-in-jonelle-matthews-murder-case/article_aad0340a-3669-11eb-805b-3bb07f75fd66.html 2/4 2/17/2021 Bond set for Idaho man accused in Jonelle Matthews murder case | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com “He’s almost 70 years old, your honor. He’s not going anywhere,” Viorst said. “Ten million dollars is just ridiculous.”

Viorst admitted Pankey’s behavior has been bizarre through the years, but, he told The Gazette, his client is not a murderer.

“We believe that Mr. Pankey did not commit this crime and he will be pleading not guilty because he is not guilty,” he said.

Kerns set a status hearing for 2 p.m. Dec. 30.

MORE INFORMATION

Prosecution of double-slaying suspect stalled by coronavirus obstacles

Feds rule out death penalty for Planned Parenthood shooter Dear Juror's symptoms lead to potential mistrial for alleged killer of Colorado Springs teens https://gazette.com/news/bond-set-for-idaho-man-accused-in-jonelle-matthews-murder-case/article_aad0340a-3669-11eb-805b-3bb07f75fd66.html 3/4 2/17/2021 Bond set for Idaho man accused in Jonelle Matthews murder case | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com

Former Idaho Governor candidate charged with murder in connection to Jonelle Matthews One of 3 bodies found in San Luis Valley identified

https://gazette.com/news/bond-set-for-idaho-man-accused-in-jonelle-matthews-murder-case/article_aad0340a-3669-11eb-805b-3bb07f75fd66.html 4/4 2/17/2021 Former Idaho Governor candidate charged with murder in connection to Jonelle Matthews | Colorado Politics | gazette.com

https://denvergazette.com/news/former-idaho-governor-candidate-charged-with-murder-in-connection-to-jonelle- matthews/article_3dbd4b08-0d94-11eb-b224-f3621df1d05c.html Former Idaho GovernorDATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM candidate charged with murder in connection to Jonelle Matthews

By David Mullen The Denver Gazette Oct 13, 2020

Contributed by the Weld County District Attorney's Office 155155

155

https://gazette.com/colorado_politics/former-idaho-governor-candidate-charged-with-murder-in-connection-to-jonelle-matthews/article_f7938339-b70e-… 1/2 2/17/2021 Former Idaho Governor candidate charged with murder in connection to Jonelle Matthews | Colorado Politics | gazette.com A former Idaho governor candidate has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection to the kidnapping and slaying of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews in 1984.

Steve D. Pankey was arrested at his home in the 6000 block of Borgnine Lane in Meridian, Idaho, shortly after 9:30 a.m. Monday, Stephany Galbreaith, the public information officer for the Meridian Police Department told The Denver Gazette.

Pankey has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of crime of violence, and is being held with no bond in Ada County jail in Idaho, according to the indictment.

"Today's press conference is 36 years in the making, for over three decades the disappearance of Jonelle Matthews has left our community with many unanswered questions, and a void that has not been filled," said Greeley Police Chief Mark Jones on the footsteps of the Weld County Courthouse in Greeley.

"With the arrest of Steve Pankey for the murder of Jonelle Matthews, some of these questions are starting to be answered.

"I trust this new development helps the Matthews family, their friends, and our community to receive some closure and healing from this horrific crime."

On Dec. 20, 1984, Jonelle was brought home after performing in a Christmas concert in Greeley. A friend's father took her home at 320 43rd Ave. Court, and left her home alone.

Jim Matthews, Jonelle's father, arrived later that evening and filed a missing persons report after his daughter was nowhere in sight.

In July 2019, an oil worker found Jonelle's remains 10 miles north of Pankey's home at the time of the crime.

Pankey is awaiting extradition to Colorado.

https://gazette.com/colorado_politics/former-idaho-governor-candidate-charged-with-murder-in-connection-to-jonelle-matthews/article_f7938339-b70e-… 2/2 2/17/2021 Remains found of Colorado girl who disappeared in 1984 | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com

https://gazette.com/news/remains-found-of-colorado-girl-who-disappeared-in-1984/article_22064b72-af02-11e9- 85dc-7bf83e9afef3.html Remains found of ColoradoDATE FILED: February 24,girl 2021 3:46 PM who disappeared in 1984

The Associated Press Jul 25, 2019

GREELEY • The disappearance of 12- year-old Jonelle Matthews shortly after singing "Jingle Bells" with classmates at a 1984 Christmas concert stunned this rural town in northern Colorado. Her case attracted the attention of the White House, coming at a time when photographs of Photo via KDVR.com. missing children were placed on milk cartons to heighten awareness.

Thursday, police announced that human remains found by construction workers this week were those of the little girl, who would have been 47 now, answering one question that has haunted police and others for decades but reigniting a gnawing mystery of what led to her demise.

Jonelle, a member of the Franklin Middle School Honor Choir, stood on a garland- adorned staircase during the concert, sporting short, thick dark hair and smiling slightly, perhaps shyly. She was a seventh-grader, active at the Sunny View Church of the Nazarene.

After the concert, Jonelle was taken home by a friend and the friend's father. 156

https://gazette.com/news/remains-found-of-colorado-girl-who-disappeared-in-1984/article_22064b72-af02-11e9-85dc-7bf83e9afef3.html 1/3 2/17/2021 Remains found of Colorado girl who disappeared in 1984 | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com She was last seen at 8 p.m. Dec. 20, entering her family's simple ranch-style home with a detached garage, the front yard blanketed by snow. No one was ever arrested. Jonelle lived with her father, Jim; her mother, Gloria; and a sister, Jennifer.

Months later, the lack of answers in the case of Jonelle and other missing children was taken up by then-President Ronald Reagan, whose administration helped open a national center for missing children that ran a toll-free hotline. More than 1 million children disappeared each year, Reagan said, urging members of the National Newspaper Association to publish pictures of the nation's missing children as a "mission of mercy."

Jonelle, Reagan said, "would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month. But five days before Christmas, Jonelle disappeared from her home."

Three years earlier, a Florida boy, Adam Walsh, vanished and was later found murdered, sparking father John Walsh to become a crusader for missing children.

Tuesday's discovery near Jonelle's hometown was the first significant development since police announced last December — on the 34th anniversary of her disappearance — that they were ramping up their investigation and hoped to use modern technology to solve it, The Greeley Tribune reported.

At the time, police released a video of Jonelle and classmates at the school holiday concert in a plea for more information.

Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych said he could not comment on how authorities identified the remains as those of the young girl so quickly. He also declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

"We're still chasing down leads," Tymkowych told the Tribune.

"This case has weighed heavy on the hearts of the Greeley Police Department and the family and the entire city of Greeley," said police spokeswoman Rebecca Ries.

https://gazette.com/news/remains-found-of-colorado-girl-who-disappeared-in-1984/article_22064b72-af02-11e9-85dc-7bf83e9afef3.html 2/3 2/17/2021 Remains found of Colorado girl who disappeared in 1984 | Colorado Springs News | gazette.com The Tribune reported that workers were building a new pipeline when they discovered bones Tuesday night. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said his deputies are treating the case as a homicide investigation.

The remains were found along a rural route southeast of Greeley, which is about 50 miles north of Denver.

"Parents cry out for help, many through letters to me," Reagan told editors in 1985. "But a president can only do so much."

MORE INFORMATION

Colorado university tests office for carcinogens after 4 employees diagnosed with cancer

Love triangle leaves woman dead, reports say

The Associated Press

https://gazette.com/news/remains-found-of-colorado-girl-who-disappeared-in-1984/article_22064b72-af02-11e9-85dc-7bf83e9afef3.html 3/3 2/3/2021 | NewsBank

Cold case: Former candidate for Idaho governor - Independent, The/The Independent on Sunday: Web Edition Articles (London, England) - October 14, 2020 October 14, 2020 | Independent, The/The Independent on Sunday: Web Edition Articles (London,DATE England) FILED: | Gino February Spocchia 24, 2021 3:46 PM

A former youth minister who stood as a candidate for Idaho governor has been indicted in the murder of a 12-year-old Colorado girl whose 1984 disappearance shocked the nation.

Oﬃcials said 69-year-old Steve Pankey was arrested on Monday at his home outside Boise, Idaho, over the murder of Jonelle Matthews.

She died from a single gunshot wound to her forehead, said Weld County District attorney Michael Rourke, who announced the arrest on Tuesday.

The two-time candidate for Idaho governor now awaits extradition to Colorado to face charges of felony murder, kidnapping and two violent crime sentences.

Matthews disappeared from her family home in Greeley, Colorado, in December 1984, in a case that went unsolved until her remains were discovered last July.

The case had come to the attention of then-president Ronald Reagan as his administration launched a national effort to ﬁnd missing children.

Her picture was printed on milk cartons across the US as part of a project by the National Child Safety Council, but proved to no avail at the time.

“For over three decades, the disappearance of Jonelle Matthews has left our community with many unanswered questions and a void that has not been ﬁlled,” said Greeley police department chief Mark Jones.

“With the arrest of Steve Pankey...some of these questions are starting to be answered”. 157

Pankey, who had once been a neighbour to Matthews, had been a person of interest in the case, and last year contacted the Idaho Statesman to tell his side of the story, fearing a possible arrest.

His ex-wife told prosecutors that she had taken an unexpected trip with Pankey in the week of Matthew’s disappearance, and on the way home, her then-husband had “uncharacteristically listened to the radio, searching for news accounts of Jonelle’s disappearance,” according to an https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&t=&sort=YMD_date%3AD&page=2&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-… 1/2 2/3/2021 | NewsBank indictment.

The indictment also states a 2008 incident in which Pankey’s former wife heard him say at his son’s funeral: “I hope God didn’t allow this to happen because of Jonelle Matthews.”

If he is found guilty of felony murder, Pankey could face life imprisonment, under Colorado state law.

CITATION (HARVARD STYLE)

Spocchia, G 2020, 'Cold case: Former candidate for Idaho governor charged in girl’s 1984 killing - The disappearance of Jonelle Matthews shocked the nation almost 40 years ago', Independent, The/The Independent on Sunday: Web Edition Articles (London, England), 14 Oct, (online NewsBank).

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&t=&sort=YMD_date%3AD&page=2&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-… 2/2 2/19/2021 Man Charged With Murder in 1984 Killing of Jonelle Matthews - The New York Times

Man Charged With Murder in 1984 Killing of Colorado Girl Taken From Home Steven D. Pankey was arrested on Monday in Idaho and charged with ﬁrst-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Jonelle Matthews, whose disappearance drew national attention. DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM By Bryan Pietsch

Oct. 13, 2020

DENVER — For more than three decades, the disappearance of Jonelle Matthews hung over the city of Greeley, Colo., where the 12-year- old was taken from her family’s home days before Christmas in 1984.

“During those decades, generations of Greeley police ofﬁcers have never forgotten Jonelle, many living in torment over the possibilities of what may have occurred that grim evening in 1984, and what could be done to solve this mystery,” the city’s Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

There was a major development in the case on July 23, 2019, when Jonelle’s remains were found in a ﬁeld southeast of Greeley, the police said. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

And this week, the authorities announced that Steven D. Pankey, 69, a former Greeley resident who now lives in Idaho, had been indicted on Friday on charges of ﬁrst-degree murder and kidnapping in Jonelle’s death. He was arrested on Monday in Idaho.

On Dec. 20, 1984, according to a grand jury indictment, Mr. Pankey, armed with a gun, took Jonelle from her family’s home and killed her during the course of the kidnapping.

“This touched our whole community,” Mayor John Gates said of the impact of Jonelle’s disappearance on Greeley, a city of nearly 110,000 about 50 miles north of Denver. He added that the Police Department deserved credit for pursuing the investigation through the years. “They never put this case on the shelf,” he said.

Mr. Gates was working on the city’s police force at the time of Jonelle’s disappearance. He recalled that there was evidence at the scene that showed that she might have been abducted.

“Unfortunately, that came to fruition,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Jonelle Matthews was kidnapped from her family’s home days before Christmas in 1984.

158

He said he hoped that Mr. Pankey’s arrest would bring comfort to the city and to Jonelle’s family.

When Jonelle’s body was found last year, “knowing she was murdered did give us some closure,” said Jennifer Mogensen, 52, Jonelle’s older sister, who now lives in Washington State. Mr. Pankey’s arrest is “again another gift to our family,” she said.

“We live this all over again every time there’s a new step toward justice,” Ms. Mogensen said, adding that her father was “especially excited to see justice” for Jonelle.

Mr. Pankey had long been a person of interest in Jonelle’s disappearance, the police said on Tuesday. He “intentionally inserted himself in the investigation many times over the years claiming to have knowledge of the crime which grew inconsistent and incriminating over time,” the indictment said, adding that he had repeatedly asked for immunity in exchange for information.

Among the details he gave law enforcement personnel was that a rake had been used to cover up tracks in the snow the evening she was taken, according to the indictment. Mr. Pankey had watched children walk home from the middle school that Jonelle attended, it stated. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/us/steven-pankey-murder-kidnapping.html?searchResultPosition=1 1/2 2/19/2021 Man Charged With Murder in 1984 Killing of Jonelle Matthews - The New York Times Jonelle’s disappearance gained national attention at the time. President Ronald Reagan mentioned her case in remarks to reporters in 1985, imploring them to amplify stories of missing children.

An article in The New York Times the same year about the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children quoted someone calling in to the center: “My friend and I suspect seeing Jonelle.”

“Perhaps another dead end,” the story said. “Perhaps not.”

Mr. Pankey, who made a long-shot bid for the Republican nomination for governor of Idaho in 2018, acted erratically in the days following the girl’s disappearance, Angela Hicks, his wife at the time, told investigators, asking her to read him newspaper accounts about the case.

During a church service a few months after her disappearance, when a minister said that Jonelle would be found safe, Mr. Pankey muttered, “False prophet,” his wife told investigators.

It was not clear on Tuesday if Mr. Pankey, who was being held in Idaho without bail before being returned to Colorado, had a lawyer. He told The Times News in Twin Falls, Idaho, last week that he was being framed by the police because of his sexuality as a “celibate homosexual.” He studied criminal justice in Greeley, his 2018 campaign website said.

Mr. Pankey also told the paper that on the day of Jonelle’s disappearance, he and his family had been preparing to take a vacation to Big Bear Lake, Calif., though documents he provided to investigators to support that account “contained false statements and superﬂuous details,” according to the indictment.

Mayor Gates said that the indictment had proved that “cold cases can actually be solved.”

“While it’s not at the forefront of everybody’s mind,” he said, “most people that were in Greeley here in ’84, they’ve always wondered, ʻWhat happened to this little girl?’”

Ms. Mogensen said that the killing had taken away an opportunity for her and her sister to grow closer, as they were both teenagers with a “sibling rivalry” at the time.

“It came to an abrupt end,” she said of their relationship, “when we both probably could have developed something different.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/us/steven-pankey-murder-kidnapping.html?searchResultPosition=1 2/2 2/17/2021 Cold case: Former Idaho candidate under investigation in girl’s slaying

NATION DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM Former Idaho governor candidate under investigation in 1984 slaying Erin Udell Fort Collins Coloradoan 159 Published 10:41 p.m. ET Sep. 13, 2019 Updated 10:42 p.m. ET Sep. 13, 2019

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A former candidate for Idaho governor recently revealed he is under investigation in the 1984 slaying of a Colorado girl.

Steve Pankey, 68, told the Idaho Statesman on Thursday that authorities in Twin Falls, Idaho, served him a search warrant last week saying investigators had probable cause to believe he kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews, who went missing from her Greeley home on Dec. 20, 1984, after a Christmas choir concert.

The Greeley Police Department did not respond to the Coloradoan's requests for comment Friday.

The department said in a prepared statement Friday that law enforcement officers have never made a request to obtain Pankey’s DNA. The department says Pankey remains a person of interest in the investigation.

On July 24, crews digging for a pipeline in a rural Weld County oil field uncovered a set of skeletal remains. The next day, Greeley police confirmed they belonged to Matthews, who had been the subject of a Weld County missing persons case, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Jonelle's sister, Jennifer Mogensen, declined to comment on the investigation Friday.

Pankey and his former wife lived about 2 miles away from the Matthews family in 1984, according to the Statesman. Pankey told the newspaper that investigators had asked to speak with him multiple times about Jonelle after her disappearance, but he refused to do so without an attorney.

Last week, roughly a month after Pankey said he submitted DNA to police in the case, authorities searched his Twin Falls condo and car. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/13/cold-case-former-idaho-candidate-under-investigation-girls-slaying/2318343001/ 1/2 2/17/2021 Cold case: Former Idaho candidate under investigation in girl’s slaying

Pankey was a 2014 Constitution Party candidate for governor in Idaho. He ran for the seat as a Republican in the 2018 primary.

Contributing: The Associated Press

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/13/cold-case-former-idaho-candidate-under-investigation-girls-slaying/2318343001/ 2/2 2/17/2021 Jonelle Matthews found in Colorado: Girl disappeared in 1984

NATION DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM Colorado police say remains found of girl missing since 1984 Associated Press Published 4:30 p.m. ET Jul. 25, 2019

GREELEY, Colo. – The remains of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared in 1984 after performing at a Christmas holiday concert have been found by construction workers in Colorado, police said Thursday.

Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych said the remains were identified as those of Jonelle Matthews, who was last seen being dropped off at her home by a friend and a friend’s father, The Greeley Tribune reported.

No one was ever arrested following her disappearance on Dec. 20, 1984. Jonelle had performed with a middle school honor choir shortly before she disappeared, authorities said.

The Tribune reported Wednesday that workers were constructing a new pipeline in rural Weld County when they discovered bones Tuesday night. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said his deputies were treating the recovery of the remains as a homicide investigation.

3 decades later: Man convicted in 1987 killing of young couple gets life sentence

Tymkowych said Thursday he could not comment on how authorities were able to identify the remains as those of the young girl so quickly. He also declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. “We’re still chasing down leads,” Tymkowych told the Tribune. 160 Greeley is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Denver. The location of the construction site where the remains were found is along a rural route in Weld County.

Police told the Tribune last December that they had reopened the case and were reviewing old interviews and conducting new ones. They appealed to the public for information from anyone who might of seen or spoken with Jonelle in the days or weeks before she disappeared. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/25/jonelle-matthews-found-colorado-girl-disappeared-1984/1829334001/ 1/2 2/17/2021 Jonelle Matthews found in Colorado: Girl disappeared in 1984

Last December, on the 34th anniversary of her disappearance, police released a video of the Franklin Middle School holiday concert. It shows Jonelle standing on a garland-adorned staircase with her 7th-grade classmates singing “Jingle Bells.” She has short, thick dark hair and smiles slightly.

She was last seen at 8 p.m. that night entering her house, authorities said. At the time, Jonelle lived with her father, Jim, her mother, Gloria, and a sister, Jennifer. She was active at the Sunny View Church of the Nazarene.

Employee treatment disagreement: New York City is suing American Airlines

Police also said they would look at new investigative techniques that weren’t available in 1984, but details of that effort weren’t immediately known.

Then-President Ronald Reagan mentioned Jonelle’s disappearance in March 1985 when he addressed a group of newspaper editors in Washington, D.C., and asked them to publish photos of missing children nationwide, calling it a “mission of mercy.”

Reagan said the girl “would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month. But five days before Christmas, Jonelle disappeared from her home.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/25/jonelle-matthews-found-colorado-girl-disappeared-1984/1829334001/ 2/2 Democracy Dies in Darkness

DATE FILED: February 24, 2021 3:46 PM After a girl vanished in 1984, Ronald Reagan pleaded for help. Her body was finally found.

By Tim Elfrink

July 26, 2019 at 3:22 a.m. MDT

The house was silent when a family friend dropped off 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews around 8 p.m. on a winter night.

It was Dec. 20, 1984, and she’d just finished singing Christmas carols at her Greeley, Col., school. Her father, Jim, was still out watching her 16-year-old sister, Jennifer, play a varsity basketball game. Her mother, Gloria, was headed to the airport to care for a sick parent in California, according to a story the next year in the Windsor Beacon.

When her father got home later that evening, he found the TV on and Jonelle’s shoes and shawl lying near a space heater. But Jonelle was gone. 161 Her father quickly called the police to begin searching for the “strong, independent, opinionated” seventh-grader, as her sister recently described her. Fueled in part by a personal appeal from President Ronald Reagan, the case soon became a flash point amid spiking worry about childhood abductions.

It would take more than 34 years to find her. On Thursday, the Greeley Police Department announced that human remains discovered earlier in the week by workers digging for a pipeline had been positively identified as Jonelle’s.

The news brings some closure to one of Colorado’s most famous abductions, but police are still far from solving the mystery. Decades of investigation and hundreds of tips have never led to any arrests.

“This investigation remains active,” noted Greeley police, who told reporters they’re treating Jonelle’s death as a homicide.

Soon after returning home to an empty house, Jim Matthews knew something was wrong. Police quickly realized it was unlikely Jonelle would have run away into their snow-blanketed Greeley suburb about 60 miles north of Denver, although they did find footprints outside, the Denver Post reported.

Hundreds of volunteers helped police launch a massive search. A coalition of local churches organized a 24-hour prayer session. Tips poured in, but none panned out.

Jonelle happened to disappear at a time of rising national concern over kidnappings. Just six months before she vanished, the Justice Department set up the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a clearinghouse for leads with a toll-free hotline. As Jonelle’s parents made the television talk-show rounds, the center’s phones were peppered with tips. / In March 1985 Reagan spoke to a group of editors at the White House urging them to “enlist your newspapers in this In March 1985, Reagan spoke to a group of editors at the White House, urging them to enlist your newspapers in this mission of mercy” to help find abducted children through regular stories and photos. He singled out Jonelle’s case, noting that she “would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month.”

As the days stretched into months and then years, tantalizing leads appeared and then evaporated. There was the South Dakota man found hoarding newspaper clippings about Jonelle, the Post reported, whose alibi checked out. The body in Florida that police soon realized had tattoos. A neighborhood truck driver bragging that he was a suspect, quickly determined to be mentally ill.

In 1994, after a decade of futility, the Matthews family declared Jonelle dead. They held a memorial service, and Jim acknowledged to reporters that his daughter was “not coming back.” But still, her family hoped for clarity.

“We had 10 years without a reason, 10 years without a motive, 10 years with no answers,” Gloria told reporters in 1994, the Post reported. “In all this time, don’t you think the person who took her has said anything to anyone? At least someone could give us evidence that would prove she is dead, or tell us where her body is, so we can bury her.”

Two years later, the story took another tragic twist. The Matthews family had adopted Jonelle, and her birth mother, a California woman named Terri Vierra-Martinez, had hired a consultant to help track her down. In late 1996, she sent a letter to Jim and Gloria Matthews, asking for a “reunion” with Jonelle.

“I was thrilled that Jonelle’s mother wanted to contact her, because Jonelle had always wanted that,” Gloria told the Greeley Tribune in January 1997. “But then I had to tell Terri that the little girl she entrusted to us is gone. . . . I had to ask myself, ‘Could I have taken better care of her?’”

The families ended up meeting, and Jonelle’s birth mother said she was grateful to know the truth. “This has put some closure in my life,” she told the Tribune. “Jonelle has always been part of my prayers, ever since she was born, and now — not knowing where she is — I’ll continue to pray for her.”

The local police periodically issued new pleas for help. Jonelle’s DNA was uploaded to a national database, and in 2013, police released an age-progressed photo of how an older Jonelle might look.

More leads came and went. In 2014, skeletal remains were found near the train tracks in Greeley. They were quickly ruled to not belong to Jonelle.

Then, on Tuesday, a crew digging in the rural land south of Greeley found human remains, Greeley police said. The Weld County Coroner’s Office later determined that it was Jonelle.

Although the Matthews family is still waiting for justice — and police are still asking anyone with information on the case to call a tip line — Jonelle’s loved ones said finding her remains was a long-awaited relief.

“I’m grateful for this closure after 34 years,” Jennifer, her sister, told the Post. “It does bring up some old wounds and some more questions, maybe, of what happened. But we’ve received so much love and support already.”