Where is Steven Pankey now? ‘Dateline NBC’ dives into Jonelle Matthews' disappearance, her reason behind demise, and what happened when her body was once discovered.
In 1984, a 12-year-old lady named Jonelle Matthews went missing in Greeley, Colo. Her disappearance became the debate of local and nationwide information when in 1985, then-President Ronald Reagan even referenced the tragic case. Now, the case has been put to relaxation thanks to the indictment of Steven Pankey, an Idaho resident.
Pankey maintains that he’s innocent within the kidnapping and murder of Matthews, but a 2021 jury discovered in a different way. Even nonetheless, Dateline NBC is diving into what precisely happened to Matthews and the way Pankey is hooked up to her disappearance. But the place is Steven Pankey now?
Now, Steven Pankey is in jail with a sentence of two decades to life.
In 2018, Pankey made a long-shot bid for the Republican nomination for governor of Idaho, but that will be the starting of his downfall. Over the years, he has been haunted by the disappearance of Matthews, to the purpose of obsession. When she first went lacking, Pankey took his family on an unplanned trip out of the city, and after they returned, he compelled his now ex-wife to learn bits of the newspaper to him about Matthews’ disappearance.
Various different incidents through the years incriminated Pankey in Matthews’ kidnapping and murder. Although no bodily evidence may just attach him to the case, he was the prime suspect in 2019. In 2020, a jury went to mistrial as a result of they couldn't agree on if Pankey was once in charge. But in 2021, the jury convicted Pankey, and he now sits in the back of bars for at least two decades, until he’s ninety one years old.
Steven Pankey used to be arrested when Jonelle Matthews’ frame was discovered.
Although she were missing for over three a long time, Matthews’ frame was once found in July 2019 in Weld County. A group was excavating the area to set up a pipeline and discovered the human stays about 15 miles southeast of Matthews’ former home. Using DNA proof, the Weld County Coroner’s Office used to be able to ascertain that the stays did belong to Matthews, and this discovery reignited public pastime within the case.
In September 2019, police acquired a warrant to search Pankey’s Twin Falls, Idaho home. He was once first held with out bail on the Ada County Jail in Boise, Idaho sooner than he was extradited to Colorado for court proceedings. At the time of Matthews’ disappearance, Pankey lived just three miles from her circle of relatives’s house and allegedly was once a formative years pastor on the Matthews’ church.
Jonelle Matthews’ reason for death used to be a “gunshot wound to the top.”
According to the forensic report, Matthews’ reason behind dying was a “gunshot wound to the top.” This was a tragic end to her story, and was only found out when her body was once found decades after her disappearance. In 1994, Matthews used to be legally declared dead even supposing the police knew very little at the time.
Now, we would possibly know the whole story — or so it sort of feels — but Pankey maintains that he's blameless. Despite this, he's going to most likely spend the remainder of his life behind bars for kidnapping and murdering a defenseless younger girl who by no means had the danger to grow up.
Tune into Dateline on Feb. 17 at nine p.m. EST on NBC for the total story.
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