Idaho
‘Dateline NBC’ to feature story of girl who vanished in 1984 and the tie to an Idaho politician
Estimated learn time: 3-4
minutes
IDAHO FALLS — The case of a 12-year-old who went lacking almost 40 years in the past and the previous Idaho gubernatorial candidate convicted of her homicide can be featured in a brand new two-hour “Dateline NBC” Friday evening.
Jonelle Matthews vanished in December 1984 after being dropped off at her empty residence by a household pal following a Christmas live performance in Greeley, Colorado. When her father returned residence an hour later, Jonelle was gone.
“She walked off the face of the earth and it stayed that means for the subsequent 35 years,” Dennis Murphy, “Dateline NBC” correspondent, tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Everybody was asking – the place is Jonelle Matthews?”
The one suspects within the case have been Jonelle’s father and the pal who dropped her off at residence. They have been by no means arrested and the case appeared to go chilly. However in July 2019, the woman’s physique was discovered by staff digging a pipeline in a rural space close to Greeley. She was carrying the identical outfit because the day she disappeared and dental data confirmed it was Jonelle.
Murphy visited the positioning the place Jonelle was discovered with Greely Police Division detectives Robert Money and Mike Prill.
“I used to be out on this crusty, snowy prairie plain with the 2 cops. They mentioned that is it – we’re standing proper right here the place she was discovered. She had been kidnapped from the sanctity of her residence with out her sneakers and in some unspecified time in the future alongside the best way, she was ditched right into a shallow grave proper right here within the snow,” Murphy remembers. “I informed them I felt like we have been on sacred floor. They’d been in search of this baby for 30 years. She was 12 years previous, carrying braces, and once they dug her physique up, she nonetheless had the braces on.”
With the invention of Jonelle’s physique, detectives started poring over proof gathered within the case a long time in the past. There have been previous VHS and reel-to-reel tapes together with 20,000 pages of affidavits and different paperwork.
“They’d all of it digitized and so they discover there’s one title who’s talked about means again then solely two occasions. It is a man named Steve Pankey from Idaho and so they begin to surprise what this man’s story is,” Murphy says.
Shortly after she disappeared, Pankey went to the police station and mentioned he had details about Jonelle however requested for immunity from prosecution. He acted “odd” and informed officers he had secrets and techniques they’d be eager about listening to however wouldn’t reveal them until they promised to not cost Pankey.
“He did that time and again and so they thought this man was an actual goofball,” Murphy explains.
Pankey saved updated on the case all through the years whilst he moved his household to a number of states earlier than settling in Idaho. He ran unsuccessfully as a Structure Occasion candidate for Idaho governor in 2014 and within the Republican gubernatorial main in 2018, the 12 months authorities named him as an individual of curiosity within the woman’s dying.
Pankey was finally charged and a trial was held however a jury couldn’t attain a consensus on a verdict so a mistrial was declared in 2021. Final October, he was discovered responsible of felony homicide, second-degree kidnapping and false reporting within the disappearance and dying of Jonelle. He was sentenced to life in jail with the potential for parole.
Along with interviewing the detectives, Murphy additionally spoke with Jonelle’s mother and father, Jim and Gloria Matthews, Weld County D.A. Michael Rourke and others for the episode entitled “Footprints within the Snow.”
“I used to be shocked at how a lot this story affected me. It simply screamed out for justice,” Murphy says.
“Dateline NBC” airs Friday at 8 p.m. on KPVI Channel 6. Watch your entire interview with Murphy on EastIdahoNews.com