Jonelle Matthews’ killing: Idaho man found guilty in second trial

An Idaho man who twice ran for governor of that state was convicted Monday of the murder of 12-year-old Colorado girl Jonelle Matthews.

Hours after the jury announced its verdict, Steve Pankey, 71, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Jonelle had disappeared from her home in Greeley, Colo., a few days before Christmas in 1984. It was almost 35 years later that her remains were discovered buried in a field. Pankey was arrested in 2020.

Pankey maintained his innocence after Monday’s verdict, declaring in court: “I am a Christian. I will be in heaven. I am innocent, and this is not justice for Jonelle.”

He was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and false reporting, and was found not guilty of another murder charge, first-degree murder after deliberation.

It was his second trial on the charges. Last year, a jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.

These are the basics of the case:

What happened to Jonelle Matthews?

Jennifer Matthews, 16, points to a photo of her missing sister, Jonelle, in 1985. (Ed Bailey/ASSOCIATED PRESS) 

Jonelle was last seen on the evening of Dec. 20, 1984, by a family friend who dropped her off at her empty home in Greeley after she had performed at a Christmas concert. When her father returned within the hour from his older daughter’s basketball game, Jonelle was gone, though her shoes were there and the television was on.

In July 2019, pipeline workers digging a trench found her remains about 6 miles from the family’s former home, and it was determined that she had died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Who is Steve Pankey?

At the time of Jonelle’s disappearance, Pankey was in his mid-30s, living with his wife and their young son in Greeley, then a city of 50,000. The Pankeys’ home was about 2 miles from the Matthewses’.

Pankey, who went to high school in the Los Angeles suburb of La Puente,  took classes at Aims Community College in Greeley. He worked for a time at a 7-Up distributor in Greeley and also sold cars from his home.

Shortly before the Matthews family moved to Greeley in 1978 and joined Sunny View Church of the Nazarene, the church excommunicated Pankey because of an unspecified interaction with another church member for which he had been under criminal investigation. (Charges in that matter were dismissed, and the details were not allowed to be discussed at trial.)

The Matthewses were active in the church and formed close friendships with other members, but they apparently never crossed paths with Pankey.

In the years following Jonelle’s disappearance, Pankey reportedly kept up to date on developments in the case. During that time, he moved his family to several states before settling in Idaho, where he ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Constitution Party candidate in 2014 and a Republican in 2018.

Why did he come under suspicion?

Pankey emerged as person of interest in the case three months before Jonelle’s body was found in 2019; he had told investigators that he knew what happened to her and asked for immunity from prosecution. It was not the first time he had made such claims: As early as a month after the disappearance, he sought out law enforcement officials and said he had information about the case.

He was arrested in October 2020, after he was indicted by a grand jury. The indictment highlighted Pankey’s suspicious statements concerning Jonelle’s disappearance throughout the years, as well as his knowledge of one element of the case that had never been made public: the fact that a rake had been used to obliterate shoeprints in the snow outside the Matthews home.

Who were the key witnesses?

Angela Hicks, Pankey’s wife at the time of the disappearance, testified at both trials.

On the stand, she described the events of Dec. 20, 1984. Pankey has said he was home that evening, preparing for a trip to Southern California to see his parents. But Hicks said the trip wasn’t planned, that he walked into the house that night and surprised her with the announcement that they’d be leaving for California the next morning.

When she objected, saying she needed to find someone to take care of her two dogs, he reportedly told her, “Don’t worry about the dogs, they’re gone” — and she never saw them again.

She also spoke of her ex-husband’s continuing obsession with the Matthews case.

Pankey testified in his own defense, saying he pretended to know about the case out of bitterness for police and because he wanted his former church and former employer investigated.

His lawyer in the first trial, Anthony Viorst, portrayed his client as a true-crime junkie who told lies to get attention. “Steve Pankey is a busy-body,” Viorst said. “He gets into people’s business. I’m not here to say that’s a great quality, but that’s who he is.”

What was the outcome of the first trial?

A mistrial was declared in November 2021 when the jury could not reach a verdict on the kidnapping and murder charges. They convicted Pankey of false reporting, because of his admission that he falsely told police he had information about Jonelle’s disappearance.