Steve Pankey was convicted on Monday in the 1984 murder of 12-year-old Colorado girl Jonelle Matthews. Pankey, who attempted to run for governor of Idaho in 2014 and 2018, was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping. Jonelle went missing from her Greeley home after a Christmas concert in December 1984 and was one of the first missing kids to be featured on the back of a milk carton. Her remains were found in July 2019 by oil workers in Weld County. Her cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head. Monday’s verdict comes after a 2021 mistrial was declared over a hung jury, who couldn’t come to a consensus on Pankey’s various charges. The trial against him relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and incriminating statements Pankey made to his ex-wife and police officers over the years, since Matthews’ remains, buried for three decades, carried no DNA linking him to the crime.
Thread: Today a hung jury brought an end to a murder trial 37 years in the making
12-yr-old Jonelle Matthews disappeared in 1984 after a choir concert
