Murder of Jonelle Matthews

Jonelle Matthews was born on February 9, 1972, to 13-year-old Terri Vierra at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California.

The infant was adopted six weeks later by James "Jim" and Gloria Matthews.

Matthews would join an older sister at the family home.

Several years later, the family moved from California to Greeley, Colorado.

Her father would later become principal of Platte Valley Elementary School in Kersey, Colorado.

Jonelle Matthews was a 12-year-old American girl who disappeared near Greeley, Colorado, on December 20, 1984.

On the evening of December 20, 1984, Matthews was performing in a Christmas concert at IntraWest Bank of Denver as a member of Greeley's Franklin Middle School Choir.

Her father was at her sister's basketball game and her mother was temporarily out of state caring for an ill family member.

After getting a ride home from friend DeeAnna Ross and DeeAnna's father, Matthews arrived at her house in Greeley at 8:15 PM.

Shortly after 8:30 PM, Matthews answered a phone call and took a message for her father.

The phone call was the last time anyone was known to have spoken with her.

Matthews' father arrived home at 9:30 PM and found the garage door open, but no one was in the house.

Matthews' shoes and shawl were near a heater in the family room, a place she often sat.

Matthews' older sister, Jennifer, arrived home at 10:00 PM, but had not seen her.

Their father began to worry and called police.

The police arrived at 10:15 PM and found footprints in the snow, indicating that someone had been looking in the windows.

There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry.

With snow on the ground, Jim Matthews thought it unlikely his daughter would go far without wearing her shoes.

For several weeks after the disappearance, law enforcement placed Matthews' birth mother, Terri Vierra-Martinez, under surveillance without telling her that Matthews was missing.

President Ronald Reagan mentioned Matthews in a speech on March 7, 1985, from Room 450 of the Old Executive Office Building.

She was mentioned in the Congressional Record for the United States House of Representatives on April 2, 1985, page 7224.

In 1994, a decade after her disappearance, Jonelle Matthews was declared legally dead.

In 1997, Gloria Matthews received a letter from Vierra requesting permission to visit.

Vierra had used a search consultant to help locate the child she had given up for adoption.

The Matthews' notified Vierra about what happened; the families later became friends.

Years after Matthews' disappearance, her parents moved to the Philippines as missionaries, later relocating after retirement to Costa Rica.

Matthews' sister married and moved out of Colorado.

The disappearance attracted interest from the public.

One of the first "milk carton kids", Matthews' picture, and date of disappearance was printed on the side of milk cartons for a period of time as part of a nationwide effort to find missing children.

In 2010, the Greeley Tribune published another summary of the case.

As recently as 2018, Greeley Police had been re-contacting witnesses and applying the latest forensic advances in their investigation.

She appears in the International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons' database.

A chokecherry tree was planted in front of Franklin Middle School in memory of Matthews.

The tree died after a few years and a plaque inscribed with Matthews' name disappeared.

Her remains were discovered on July 24, 2019, by construction workers putting in a new pipeline 15 miles from her home.

Steven Pankey was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 31, 2022, after his arrest and trial for Matthews' murder.

Excavators installing a pipeline discovered human remains at 4:50 PM on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, near the intersection of County Roads 34.5 and 49 at coordinates 40.23985°N, -104.60251°W, about 15 mi southeast of the Matthews family's former home.

Based on DNA evidence, the Weld County Coroner's Office positively identified the remains as being those of Jonelle Matthews.

The forensic report listed Jonelle's cause of death as "a gunshot wound to the head".

On September 13, 2019, the Greeley Police Department announced that Steven Dana Pankey, a former Greeley resident who ran for governor in Idaho in 2014 and 2018 and for lieutenant governor in 2010, was a person of interest in Matthews' abduction and death.