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What Happened To Jonelle Matthews, the 12-Year-Old Missing for 35 Years Before Her Remains Were Found?
The case of the missing Greeley, Colorado girl went unsolved for more than three decades until construction workers made a grisly discovery.
The case of a missing Colorado girl went unsolved for more than three decades until construction workers made a grisly discovery.
Jonelle Matthews’ head-scratching 1984 disappearance, just five days before Christmas, both captivated and haunted the nation when she became one of the first missing children to be featured on a milk carton. The years between when the 12-year-old vanished from her living room in Greeley, Colorado — about 60 miles north of Denver — and the 2020 arrest of her shocking killer are the subject of a two-part true crime special, The Girl on the Milk Carton, premiering Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Here's what to know about Jonelle and what happened to her.
Who was Jonelle Matthews?
Jonelle was the adopted daughter of Jim and Gloria Matthews and the younger sister of the Matthews’ biological daughter, Jennifer. Gloria told the Fort Collins Coloradoan in 2019 that Jonelle was “strong in everything.”
“She was strong physically; she was strong-willed,” Jonelle's mom said. “All throughout her life, even when she was a little girl, she knew what she wanted... and she let you know.”
The parents moved frequently for work, but at the time of Jonelle’s disappearance, Jim — who’d previously worked an administrative job at a Christian school — was the principal at Platte Valley Elementary School in Kersey, about 10 miles east of Greeley.
The Matthews clan were described as a tight-knit family who regularly attended church, Jonelle enjoyed the typical things that kids did in the 1980s like riding bikes, having sleepovers, and fawning over boy bands like Menudo, her childhood friend Deanna Ross told the Coloradoan.
“She was very funny and just very loud,” Ross added. “She was really theatrical and dramatic and just the center of the room.”
The night Jonelle Matthews disappeared
On December 20, 1984, the night of Jonelle’s disappearance, she and her friend Deanna performed in their middle school’s honor choir, singing Christmas carols in an event that was televised for a local cable network. Jonelle’s father had attended a basketball game at her sister Jennifer’s high school, and his wife was visiting her ailing father in California. Deanna’s father agreed to drive Jonelle to her Greeley split-level home at around 8 p.m., and didn't think much of the fact that the garage door at the Matthews house was partially open.
About half an hour later, Jonelle answered the phone at her home and took a message for her father, which placed her abduction sometime between 8:30 p.m. and when her father Jim came home to an empty house just one hour later.
Jim had no cause for alarm until his older daughter returned home from the basketball game around 10 p.m. with no information about Jonelle’s whereabouts. According to The Colorado Sun, Jim found the TV and the heater near Jonelle’s chair still turned on. A pair of the 12-year-old’s stockings had been left on the couch, and she had taken her shoes off.
“After being home for about a half an hour, I just had a really strange feeling because our girls were very good about letting us know if they were gonna change their plans, leaving a note or calling,” Jim said, according to The Colorado Sun.
Police in Greeley responded to the scene, though there was little to work with besides the strange footprints in the snow outside one of the home’s windows. As later revealed at trial, it appeared that someone attempted to cover their tracks with a rake, according to The Denver Gazette.
Before Amber Alerts existed, the mid-1980s saw photos of missing kids plastered on milk cartons around the U.S. The wide-reaching publicity came at a time when the separate cases of Etan Patz, Adam Walsh, and Johnny Gosch raised awareness and prompted legislation to help missing kids and those searching for them. The year Jonelle disappeared was the same year that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was established.
The nationally coordinated Missing Children Milk Carton Program, initiated by the National Child Safety Council, came to life in December of 1984, the same month Jonelle disappeared.
Despite Jonelle’s tragic distinction as a milk carton kid, and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioning her by name in a 1985 speech, the publicity didn’t help bring her loved ones any closer to the truth at the time. What happened to the girl would remain a mystery for more than three decades to come.
Jonelle Matthews' remains found 35 years after she went missing
On July 23, 2019, an oil crew digging for a pipeline in “a desolate field southeast of Greeley,” about 20 miles from the Matthews’ home, discovered skeletal remains, including a skull with orthodontic braces, Oxygen.com previously reported. Pieces of fabric also matched the plaid skirt, blouse, and sweater vest Jonelle wore on the night of her Christmas choir concert.
Police confirmed two days later that the remains belonged to Jonelle, and evidence proved she was shot in the head.
On October 9, 2020, a grand jury indicted Steven Dana Pankey, a person of interest identified early in the investigation, on charges of kidnapping and murder. Pankey, authorities stated, was a neighbor to the Matthews family and attended the same church.
Pankey was a gubernatorial candidate in Idaho who ran two failed campaigns (once in 2014 and once in 2018) and was overly invested in Jonelle’s missing persons case. In an indictment obtained by Oxygen.com, Pankey’s electronic devices proved he looked up the case thousands of times.
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Of the many details outlined in the affidavit for Pankey’s arrest, Pankey had mentioned the rake used to cover the footprints in the snow outside the Matthews' house, information police deliberately kept out of the press. Pankey also wrote a letter in 2013 stating: “About a week after the fact, I realized a blanket, or comforter, or quilt, also disappeared from the Matthews’ house... some experiences are hard to forget.”
Pankey’s former wife gives more details about her ex in The Girl on the Milk Carton, debuting Sunday, August 25, 2024, on Oxygen.
“Pankey’s ex-wife, a key witness in the case against him, bravely comes forward to exclusively share her experience of living with a deluded fantasist and sadistic murderer and reveals the crucial evidence that led to his prosecution," the special's synopsis reads.
