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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jonelle Matthews · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
1:14
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
1:17
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:30
Speaker 2: On December twentieth, nineteen eighty four, twelve year old Janelle
1:34
Speaker 2: Matthews spent the evening singing her heart out at a
1:37
Speaker 2: Christmas choir concert in her hometown of Greeley, Colorado, a
1:42
Speaker 2: residential suburb about fifty miles away from Denver. The concert
1:46
Speaker 2: was held at Intro West Bank of Denver, and Janelle,
1:50
Speaker 2: who was in the seventh grade, was part of the
1:52
Speaker 2: Franklin Middle School choir. Janelle was outspoken and opinionated. Friends
1:57
Speaker 2: and families say that she loved performing. After the concert,
2:02
Speaker 2: Janelle caught a ride home with her friend Deanna and
2:05
Speaker 2: Diana's father. They arrived back at Janelle's house, where she
2:09
Speaker 2: lived with her father, Jim, her mother Gloria, and her
2:12
Speaker 2: sixteen year old sister Jennifer, shortly after.
2:15
Speaker 3: Eight fifteen pm.
2:17
Speaker 2: It was already dark outside, and Janelle had a routine.
2:22
Speaker 2: The garage door had been left half open for her
2:24
Speaker 2: to walk into, and then once she got in, she
2:27
Speaker 2: would flick the light twice to let Diana and her
2:30
Speaker 2: dad Russell know that she'd gotten home safely. So Janelle
2:34
Speaker 2: went into the garage, and then Deanna and her dad
2:37
Speaker 2: saw the light come on, so they drove away. Janelle's father,
2:42
Speaker 2: Jim Matthews, who was the principal at Platte Valley Elementary School,
2:46
Speaker 2: got home about an hour later, around nine thirty pm.
2:50
Speaker 2: He had been at Janelle's sister Jennifer's basketball game at
2:53
Speaker 2: her high school. He and Jennifer rode home separately. Janelle's mother, Gloria,
2:59
Speaker 2: had gone to visit her sick father in Los Angeles,
3:02
Speaker 2: so she was out of.
3:02
Speaker 3: Town that night.
3:04
Speaker 2: When Jim got home, he saw Janelle's clothes were scattered
3:08
Speaker 2: around the pantyhose that she'd warned to the concert were
3:11
Speaker 2: draped over a couch, her shoes were on the floor
3:14
Speaker 2: of the living room, and the space heater was pulled
3:16
Speaker 2: close to where she normally sat, near an easy chair
3:20
Speaker 2: that was close to the TV. Her family later told
3:23
Speaker 2: police this was Janelle's routine after she got home. She
3:26
Speaker 2: would pull the space heater close to the chair and
3:29
Speaker 2: watch TV, and the TV was turned on. All signs
3:34
Speaker 2: pointed to Janelle's settling in for a cozy night, but
3:37
Speaker 2: Jim couldn't find her.
3:39
Speaker 3: It looked like she had come home.
3:42
Speaker 2: Nothing appeared to be out of place, There were no
3:44
Speaker 2: signs of forced entry or a struggle, and nothing had
3:47
Speaker 2: been taken from the house.
3:50
Speaker 3: There were more.
3:50
Speaker 2: Clues in the kitchen that seemed to point to Janelle's timeline.
3:54
Speaker 2: Shortly after eight thirty pm, Janelle answered the phone, and
3:59
Speaker 2: a note on the blackboard in the kitchen that was
4:01
Speaker 2: used for phone messages showed that a substitute teacher at
4:05
Speaker 2: the school had called with a message for Janelle's dad.
4:08
Speaker 2: Janelle wrote that message on the board, so at first,
4:13
Speaker 2: given all this, Jim thought maybe Janelle had run out
4:16
Speaker 2: to do something else or see a friend. Jennifer, Janelle's sister,
4:20
Speaker 2: came home at around ten pm from her game. There
4:23
Speaker 2: was still no sign of Janelle. Concern Jim called his pastor,
4:27
Speaker 2: who suggested that he call the police. So he did,
4:30
Speaker 2: and he said Janelle was missing. Janelle was in the
4:34
Speaker 2: seventh grade. She disappeared just days before her thirteenth birthday.
4:39
Speaker 2: Her parents described her as a loving child. She was
4:42
Speaker 2: super in balld in school and sports, including basketball. Deanna
4:48
Speaker 2: later told Dateline that Janelle was in a great mood
4:51
Speaker 2: that night on the ride home. She was looking forward
4:53
Speaker 2: to the last day of school the next day, Friday,
4:56
Speaker 2: and to exchanging gifts with her friends. She was also
4:59
Speaker 2: looking forward to the upcoming two week Christmas holiday. There
5:03
Speaker 2: was zero's sign that night that she would leave her
5:05
Speaker 2: house for any reason or go away voluntarily. Police showed
5:11
Speaker 2: up at the Matthews house at.
5:13
Speaker 3: Ten fifteen pm.
5:15
Speaker 2: They immediately started canvassing the neighborhood, and they immediately announced
5:19
Speaker 2: to the community they believed that Janelle had been kidnapped
5:23
Speaker 2: from her home. Her parents left her presence unwrapped and
5:28
Speaker 2: under the tree in case she came home, but she
5:31
Speaker 2: never came home to open them. Janelle vanished and there
5:37
Speaker 2: was no sign of her until thirty years later. I'm
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Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making my
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Speaker 2: true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no
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Speaker 2: such thing as a small town where murder never happens.
5:54
Speaker 2: I have received hundreds of messages from people all around
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Speaker 2: the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's
6:00
Speaker 2: affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have
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Speaker 2: a case you'd like me and my team to look into,
6:07
Speaker 2: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
6:09
Speaker 2: Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six
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Speaker 2: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
6:17
Speaker 2: six one four five, or you can send us a
6:20
Speaker 2: message on Instagram at.
6:22
Speaker 3: Helen Gone Pod.
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Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. When police got to
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Speaker 2: the Matthews house and searched it, they had very little
7:13
Speaker 2: to go on. There were no fingerprints found and no
7:17
Speaker 2: stranger DNA. Of course, DNA testing possibilities in nineteen eighty
7:22
Speaker 2: four were very different than they are today, and no
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Speaker 2: one in the quiet, safe neighborhood had heard anything out
7:28
Speaker 2: of the ordinary. Again, there was no obvious sign of
7:31
Speaker 2: a struggle in the home, but police did notice a
7:35
Speaker 2: few small things that seemed out of place. First of all,
7:39
Speaker 2: the garage door was open, which Janelle's father, Jim, said
7:43
Speaker 2: should not have been. Janelle should have shut it after
7:46
Speaker 2: she came into the house. That was part of her routine.
7:50
Speaker 2: Then there were the footprints in the snow in the
7:53
Speaker 2: front of the house that led police to believe that
7:56
Speaker 2: someone might be looking through the windows. Over the years,
8:00
Speaker 2: there has been a lot of discussion about those footprints.
8:03
Speaker 2: The Dateline episode about this case is actually called Footprints
8:07
Speaker 2: in the Snow. The footprints were too big to be
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Speaker 2: Janelle's and they were recent. It had snowed several hours earlier.
8:15
Speaker 2: This was the time of year where it was snowing
8:17
Speaker 2: pretty much every day, so these were fresh prints. Police
8:22
Speaker 2: later determined that the footprints were a single set from
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Speaker 2: one person, a mail with an estimated foot size of
8:29
Speaker 2: nine to eleven. There was something else that was odd
8:32
Speaker 2: about the footprints. Jim had a rake in his garage
8:36
Speaker 2: and it looked like someone had raked over the prince,
8:39
Speaker 2: presumably to try to get rid of them. Police did
8:43
Speaker 2: not share it with the public immediately, but it's a
8:45
Speaker 2: detail that will become very important later. Police of course
8:50
Speaker 2: turned their attention to those closest to Janelle, and naturally
8:54
Speaker 2: to relationships between family members, including between Janelle and Jim Matthews.
9:00
Speaker 2: They gave Janelle's father a light detector test and questioned
9:03
Speaker 2: him thoroughly. Jim later told Dateline he understood that police
9:08
Speaker 2: had to question him, but he admitted the whole ordeal
9:11
Speaker 2: was painful and that he eventually became frustrated with the
9:14
Speaker 2: process because he had been completely forthcoming. Jim Matthews was
9:19
Speaker 2: cleared by police. Janelle was adopted, since she had been
9:26
Speaker 2: adopted when she was six weeks old by Gloria and Jim.
9:29
Speaker 2: Police also secretly put her birth mother, who was at
9:33
Speaker 2: the time living in Los Angeles, under surveillance for a
9:35
Speaker 2: period of time. They had to consider all possibilities, including
9:40
Speaker 2: parental kidnapping, but Janelle's mother was quickly cleared as well.
9:47
Speaker 2: There was a massive man hunt, first by law enforcement
9:50
Speaker 2: and later by six hundred volunteers who scoured all parts
9:55
Speaker 2: of Well County, but they found no sign of Janelle.
9:59
Speaker 2: According to the Greenwood's Commonwealth, Janelle's picture was featured on
10:03
Speaker 2: a milk carton and she was mentioned in news stories
10:05
Speaker 2: with other kidnap victims. Including Adam Walsh and Florida and
10:09
Speaker 2: Aton Pates in New York City. But Janelle's case was
10:12
Speaker 2: a little bit different because she had been home getting
10:15
Speaker 2: comfortable when she was taken. Who would have been bold
10:19
Speaker 2: enough to take her out of her home like that?
10:22
Speaker 2: Since there were no signs of forest entry, police did
10:25
Speaker 2: wonder did Janelle know her abductor or maybe could she
10:29
Speaker 2: have been familiar with them? Was there a reason why
10:33
Speaker 2: she let them in or were they already inside the
10:37
Speaker 2: garage when she came home, lying there in wait? Was
10:41
Speaker 2: this a crime of opportunity or could someone have been
10:44
Speaker 2: stalking the twelve year old. The case quickly garnered a
10:48
Speaker 2: lot of media attention. CBS News reported that one of
10:52
Speaker 2: the first investigators on the scene was a twenty seven
10:54
Speaker 2: year old police officer named John Gates. He was one
10:58
Speaker 2: of the first officers to canvass the neighborhood. Later, John
11:03
Speaker 2: Gates became mayor of Greeley. Janelle's bizarre abduction touched the
11:08
Speaker 2: whole town. In twenty nineteen, he told the Colorado Sun quote,
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Speaker 2: it was all hands on deck the minute I walked
11:15
Speaker 2: into their home. I thought that this was probably not
11:18
Speaker 2: a runaway. We walked around the neighborhood.
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Speaker 3: It was dark. Nobody in that neighborhood saw anything.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't long before we started thinking this was probably
11:28
Speaker 2: not going to end well, end quote. For a long time,
11:33
Speaker 2: the case went cold, months and then years went by.
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Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety four, ten years after Janelle vanished, she
11:41
Speaker 2: was declared legally dead. Then another heartbreaking twist in the
11:46
Speaker 2: case happened. In nineteen ninety seven, Janelle's mother, Gloria Matthews,
11:51
Speaker 2: received a letter from Janelle's birth mother, who had used
11:54
Speaker 2: a search consultant to track her biological daughter down. Janelle's
11:58
Speaker 2: birth mother had no idea that Janelle was missing or
12:02
Speaker 2: that she had been put under surveillance by police years earlier,
12:06
Speaker 2: so now Gloria had to break the news to Janelle's
12:09
Speaker 2: birth mother about what had happened to her. Jim and
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Speaker 2: Gloria eventually moved away from the area. They were missionaries
12:17
Speaker 2: in the Philippines for a while, then they moved to Seattle.
12:21
Speaker 2: Eventually they retired in Costa Rica. But people in Greeley
12:25
Speaker 2: never forgot Janelle's case and the strange circumstances, the footprints
12:30
Speaker 2: in the snow, the open garage, the lack of evidence,
12:33
Speaker 2: but other than a cherry tree being planted in front
12:36
Speaker 2: of Janelle's middle school in her honor and local news
12:39
Speaker 2: covering the case on big anniversaries, there just.
12:42
Speaker 3: Wasn't much movement.
12:44
Speaker 2: But then in twenty nineteen, over thirty years after Janelle's disappearance,
12:49
Speaker 2: seemingly out of nowhere, there was a massive break in
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Speaker 2: the case. On July twenty third, twenty eighteen, a crew
13:06
Speaker 2: working on.
13:07
Speaker 3: An oil pipeline in a rural.
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Speaker 2: Area southeast of Greeley, about fifteen miles from the Matthew's
13:12
Speaker 2: former family home, found human remains, including a skull with
13:17
Speaker 2: braces on its teeth and part of a jawbone. Police
13:21
Speaker 2: stated a few days later that the Weld County Corner's
13:24
Speaker 2: Office had identified the remains as being Janelle Matthews. Police
13:28
Speaker 2: also announced they found traces of red and blue fabric
13:31
Speaker 2: near the remains, so it appeared as.
13:33
Speaker 3: Though Janelle was still wearing the same thing that she.
13:36
Speaker 2: Had been wearing the night of the Christmas concert, a
13:39
Speaker 2: dark gray skirt, red blouse, and graceweater. The evidence pointed
13:43
Speaker 2: to Janelle being abducted and killed the same night she
13:47
Speaker 2: was taken. I cannot begin to imagine how her family
13:51
Speaker 2: must have felt. But often family members say it's a
13:54
Speaker 2: bag of mixed emotions. There's the part of you hoping
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Speaker 2: your family member could still be out there and may
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Speaker 2: one day return, but then also the horrific reality kicks in.
14:05
Speaker 2: Janelle's sister, Jennifer, talked to the Associated Press in twenty nineteen.
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Speaker 2: She described finding her sister's body after all that time
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Speaker 2: as a miracle. Back in the day in the eighties,
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Speaker 2: the area where the pipeline was dug was just a
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Speaker 2: big deserted field in the middle of nowhere. The land
14:23
Speaker 2: was bought in nineteen seventy four, but was there for
14:25
Speaker 2: years totally undeveloped. Jennifer told the Associated Press quote, if
14:31
Speaker 2: it would have been Doug one foot to.
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Speaker 3: The left or to the right, she would not have
14:35
Speaker 3: been found. End quote.
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Speaker 2: Police confirmed very few details at the time, and when
14:41
Speaker 2: they did release the autopsy report to LOFE local news channels,
14:44
Speaker 2: it was heavily redacted, but they did state that the
14:48
Speaker 2: fabric match the plaid skirt, blouse and sweater vest Janelle
14:52
Speaker 2: wore on the night of the Christmas concert. Eventually, they
14:55
Speaker 2: stated Janelle's cause of death was a gunshot wound to
14:59
Speaker 2: the head.
15:00
Speaker 3: Manner of death was homicide.
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Speaker 2: Janelle's family finally had an answer. They knew that she
15:07
Speaker 2: had been murdered. She had been killed almost certainly on
15:10
Speaker 2: the same night that she was taken from her home.
15:13
Speaker 2: Now they needed to find Janelle's killer, and it didn't
15:17
Speaker 2: take long for police to focus on a suspect, a
15:20
Speaker 2: man named Steve Panky. Steve Panky's name had apparently come
15:24
Speaker 2: up early in the investigation. He had written a series
15:28
Speaker 2: of bizarre letters to the District Attorney's office. In those letters,
15:32
Speaker 2: he claimed to have information about Janelle's case. Eventually, the
15:36
Speaker 2: DA's office started returning the letters to him unopened. Steve
15:41
Speaker 2: Pankey appeared to be kind of a strange character. By
15:44
Speaker 2: his own admission, he lied a lot. He later testified
15:48
Speaker 2: that he made a lot of stuff up, and the
15:50
Speaker 2: Matthews family said back in twenty nineteen, they had never
15:54
Speaker 2: heard that name before. They had no idea who this
15:56
Speaker 2: guy was. On September fourth, twenty nineteen, police traveled to
16:01
Speaker 2: Twin Falls, Idaho, to where Steve Panky was living. They
16:05
Speaker 2: executed a search warrant on his condominium. It was reported
16:09
Speaker 2: early on that Steve Panky had a tenuous connection to
16:12
Speaker 2: the Matthews family, that he was a neighbor of theirs,
16:14
Speaker 2: and that at some point he was a youth pastor
16:17
Speaker 2: at their church, and he had inserted himself into the
16:20
Speaker 2: investigation multiple times. Greeley Police Commander Roy Smith announced that
16:26
Speaker 2: Steve Panky had made repeated attempts to speak to detectives
16:30
Speaker 2: about Janelle's abduction, but then when police traveled to Idaho
16:34
Speaker 2: and tried to question Steve, he refused to answer their questions.
16:40
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, Steve Panky lived in Greeley. At
16:44
Speaker 2: that time, he was thirty three years old. He was
16:46
Speaker 2: married with a five year old son. He and his
16:50
Speaker 2: wife lived about two miles away from Janelle and her family.
16:53
Speaker 2: At one point. Steve actually ran for governor unsuccessfully twice
16:58
Speaker 2: in Idaho as a writing candidate in the twenty fourteen
17:02
Speaker 2: and twenty eighteen elections. Both times he lost by a
17:06
Speaker 2: large margin. He only ever got slightly over one percent.
17:10
Speaker 3: Of the vote.
17:12
Speaker 2: Steve Pankey was in the Army. He moved to Greeley
17:15
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three. Steve was a very religious man.
17:20
Speaker 2: He was a member of the Sunnyview Church of the Nazarene.
17:24
Speaker 2: This was the same church that Janelle and her family
17:28
Speaker 2: were members of, but Steve and Janelle's family did not
17:32
Speaker 2: attend that church at the same time. He testified later
17:36
Speaker 2: that he served some of the functions of the youth pastor,
17:39
Speaker 2: like teaching Sunday school, but church officials told police Steve
17:43
Speaker 2: was more like a janitor at the church.
17:46
Speaker 3: Steve always seemed.
17:47
Speaker 2: To have an answer for why his stories didn't match.
17:50
Speaker 2: He clarified in court that even though he wasn't the
17:53
Speaker 2: official youth pastor, he did do janitorial work. He was
17:57
Speaker 2: performing a lot of those functions. Later, Steve testified he
18:01
Speaker 2: was asked to lead the church. He admitted he developed
18:04
Speaker 2: a hatred for that church and some of the church officials,
18:07
Speaker 2: and he testified that that hatred was kind of the
18:11
Speaker 2: reason he became fixated on Janelle's case in the first place.
18:14
Speaker 2: He believed that there was some kind of a link
18:16
Speaker 2: between Janelle's disappearance and that church. Steve Pankey did have
18:21
Speaker 2: a criminal record. In nineteen seventy seven, he told the
18:25
Speaker 2: Sun newspaper that he was accused of date raping a
18:28
Speaker 2: piano player at the church, but he said that he
18:31
Speaker 2: was cleared after he took a polygraph test. Steve said
18:34
Speaker 2: that after that he was asked to lead the church,
18:37
Speaker 2: the Suny Viewed Church of the Nazarene, the same church
18:41
Speaker 2: that Janelle's family later attended. So a lot of the
18:44
Speaker 2: rumors about Steve being the Matthew's neighbor and attending the same.
18:48
Speaker 3: Church really weren't true.
18:50
Speaker 2: He lived a couple of miles away and they did
18:53
Speaker 2: not attend the same church at the same time. Steve
18:56
Speaker 2: married his wife Angela in nineteen seventy eight. Their son,
18:59
Speaker 2: Mark was born in nineteen seventy nine. Over the years,
19:03
Speaker 2: Steve Panky was also hit with a lot of lawsuits,
19:06
Speaker 2: both civil and criminal. He seemed to get into conflicts
19:10
Speaker 2: with a lot of different people, and he also made
19:12
Speaker 2: a lot of contradictory statements. So when you listen to
19:15
Speaker 2: Steve Panky talk, it's hard to separate fantasy from reality
19:19
Speaker 2: at times. The case against Steve Pankey seems to be
19:24
Speaker 2: largely based on statements he made about Janelle's case and
19:27
Speaker 2: his alleged obsession with it. Steve Panky also told police
19:32
Speaker 2: that he had a connection to Russell Ross, Diana's dad,
19:35
Speaker 2: the person who dropped Janelle off at her home on
19:38
Speaker 2: the last.
19:39
Speaker 3: Night that she was alive.
19:40
Speaker 2: Steve said that in the seventies they worked at the
19:42
Speaker 2: same seven Up Boss company. Steve was trying to start
19:46
Speaker 2: a union at the company, and he claimed that he
19:48
Speaker 2: and Russell got into an argument over that and that
19:51
Speaker 2: Russell physically assaulted him. In addition to sending letters to
19:55
Speaker 2: the DA over the years, Steve Panky also talked to
19:58
Speaker 2: the press. He did an interview with the Idaho Statesman
20:02
Speaker 2: in September of twenty nineteen, and by that time he
20:05
Speaker 2: had completely changed his story.
20:08
Speaker 3: In that interview, he claimed that he did not know
20:11
Speaker 3: Janelle or her family.
20:13
Speaker 2: When he talked to detectives in twenty nineteen, he told
20:17
Speaker 2: them that he had a lawyer and would not talk
20:19
Speaker 2: to them without making a deal. So a big question
20:23
Speaker 2: that came out during this investigation was what did Steve
20:27
Speaker 2: Panky know and when did he know it. His ex wife, Angela,
20:31
Speaker 2: told police that Steve was obsessed with Janelle's case ever
20:35
Speaker 2: since she disappeared. Law enforcement stated they did not believe
20:40
Speaker 2: that Steve Panky owned a gun at the time of
20:42
Speaker 2: Janelle's abduction, and on the night of the abduction, he
20:45
Speaker 2: had an alibi. He told police that he was at
20:48
Speaker 2: home with his wife and children, but Steve and his
20:52
Speaker 2: family did leave town on the morning of December twenty first,
20:55
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four, the morning after Janelle was abducted. Steve
20:59
Speaker 2: told investigators that on that day, he, his wife, and
21:02
Speaker 2: his child took a family Christmas trip to Big Bear
21:05
Speaker 2: Lake in California, and that they stayed there with his
21:08
Speaker 2: family until December twenty sixth. Steve's ex wife, Angela Hicks,
21:13
Speaker 2: ended up becoming a star witness in the case against him.
21:17
Speaker 2: Angela told investigators that over the years, Steve had made
21:20
Speaker 2: a lot of statements implying that he had inside information
21:24
Speaker 2: about Janelle's kidnapping. In two thousand and eight, Steve Panky's
21:29
Speaker 2: son was murdered. After that, Angela told police that at
21:34
Speaker 2: their son's funeral, she heard him say, quote, I hope
21:38
Speaker 2: God didn't allow this to happen because of Janelle Matthews
21:42
Speaker 2: end quote. According to the criminal indictment, police believed that
21:47
Speaker 2: Steve quote intentionally inserted himself in the investigation many times
21:51
Speaker 2: over the years, claiming to have knowledge of the crime,
21:55
Speaker 2: which grew inconsistent and incriminating overtime end quote. Police also
22:00
Speaker 2: pointed out Steve knew about the rake, which they found suspicious.
22:05
Speaker 2: Angela said when she and Steve were driving home from
22:08
Speaker 2: that trip to the lake on December twenty sixth, that Steve,
22:11
Speaker 2: who didn't normally allow radio or TV inside their home,
22:15
Speaker 2: suddenly turned on the news and was listening obsessively to
22:18
Speaker 2: the coverage of Janelle's disappearance, and according to the indictment,
22:23
Speaker 2: Angela claimed that after they got home from that trip,
22:26
Speaker 2: Steve started digging in their yard. Over the years, Steve
22:30
Speaker 2: gave many interviews about the case.
22:32
Speaker 3: Including one with The Times.
22:34
Speaker 2: In that interview, he said he believed he was being
22:37
Speaker 2: framed because he was a celibate homosexual. The evidence against
22:43
Speaker 2: Steve was entirely circumstantial. Police had no physical evidence. Steve
22:49
Speaker 2: Pankey told local reporters that he had given police a
22:53
Speaker 2: DNA sample, but the Greeley Police told Fox thirty one
22:56
Speaker 2: that they never even made a request to obtain Steve's DNA,
23:00
Speaker 2: so they said that statement was false. With Steve Panky,
23:04
Speaker 2: it's hard to tell which parts of the story are true.
23:07
Speaker 2: He said in court that Angela was simply bitter and
23:11
Speaker 2: making up a lot of lies. According to an indictment,
23:15
Speaker 2: Steve Panky looked up the details of Janelle's case electronically
23:19
Speaker 2: hundreds of times, but it's really hard to say. Was
23:23
Speaker 2: that because he had a role in Janelle's disappearance or
23:26
Speaker 2: because he was a true crime fan. Later it was
23:29
Speaker 2: reported Steve followed several true crime podcasts, So could he
23:34
Speaker 2: have gotten the details about the case from online reports
23:38
Speaker 2: or did he definitely know information only known to police.
23:43
Speaker 2: Another thing that made police believe Steve Panky might have
23:46
Speaker 2: had a role in Janelle's death was the rake. Apparently
23:50
Speaker 2: he had mentioned the rape, the one that was used
23:52
Speaker 2: to cover the footprints in the snow outside of.
23:54
Speaker 3: The Matthews House.
23:56
Speaker 2: Now, police state that no one knew about the rake
23:59
Speaker 2: at the time when Steve mentioned it. Police also pointed
24:03
Speaker 2: to details of a letter that Steve wrote to law
24:05
Speaker 2: enforcement in twenty thirteen. It read, quote, about a week
24:10
Speaker 2: after the fact, I realized a blanket or comforter or
24:13
Speaker 2: a quilt also disappeared from the Matthews house. Some experiences
24:18
Speaker 2: are hard to forget end quote. Apparently, police believe this
24:25
Speaker 2: could refer to the fact that Janelle's remains were found
24:28
Speaker 2: wrapped in a bedsheet. On October ninth, twenty twenty, a
24:34
Speaker 2: grand jury indicted Steve Panky on charges of kidnapping and murder.
24:46
Speaker 2: Steve's trial started in October of twenty twenty one. He
24:50
Speaker 2: took the stand in his own defense. At times, he
24:53
Speaker 2: rambled for a long time to answer the questions. Steve
24:56
Speaker 2: described himself as a fantasist and a liar. He admitted that,
25:01
Speaker 2: but again he completely denied any involvement in Janelle's kidnapping
25:05
Speaker 2: and murder. Steve's ex wife, Angela Hicks, was a major
25:09
Speaker 2: part of the prosecution's case. She talked about that trip
25:12
Speaker 2: that their family took on December first, nineteen eighty four,
25:15
Speaker 2: to Big Bear.
25:16
Speaker 3: She testified the trip was unplanned.
25:19
Speaker 2: She said Steve basically rushed in and told her on
25:22
Speaker 2: December twentieth they were packing up and leaving for Big
25:25
Speaker 2: Bear for Christmas and they needed to leave pretty much immediately.
25:29
Speaker 2: Steve completely denied this. He said the trip was planned
25:32
Speaker 2: well in advance. It was not last minute or spontaneous.
25:36
Speaker 2: Steve said that Angela was lying about him because she
25:39
Speaker 2: was angry and bitter. He talked about their relationship, how
25:43
Speaker 2: Angela was virgin when they met. He said he had
25:46
Speaker 2: basically been pressured by a youth group pastor to marry her,
25:49
Speaker 2: to do what he thought was the right thing at
25:51
Speaker 2: the time. He said he and Angela had never had
25:54
Speaker 2: a good relationship. Steve said he believed that Angela was
25:58
Speaker 2: lying after all this time in order to get some
26:01
Speaker 2: kind of revenge against him. Steve gave details that ran
26:05
Speaker 2: contrary to Angela's testimony about that Christmas trip. He testified
26:10
Speaker 2: that three weeks or a month before the trip, he
26:13
Speaker 2: worked out with his parents that he would drive to
26:16
Speaker 2: California to where they lived. Steve testified he and his
26:20
Speaker 2: family were having serious financial.
26:21
Speaker 3: Issues at that time.
26:23
Speaker 2: He said they couldn't even afford to feed their dogs
26:25
Speaker 2: they had to leave them at the pound. So before
26:28
Speaker 2: the trip, he said, he arranged to have his dad
26:31
Speaker 2: mail them to credit cards so that he could finance
26:34
Speaker 2: the trip. He pointed out all of this planning took time.
26:39
Speaker 2: Steve stated he got the gas credit card in the
26:41
Speaker 2: mail on December twentieth. He said to use the car
26:44
Speaker 2: to put gas in his car at a local gas station.
26:47
Speaker 2: He bought a six pack of pepsi so he would
26:49
Speaker 2: have something to drink on the road. Steve said that
26:52
Speaker 2: on the night of December twentieth, he and Angela put
26:55
Speaker 2: their son to bed early because they planned on getting
26:58
Speaker 2: up at dawn to drive to Big Bear. Steve said
27:01
Speaker 2: he remembered looking out for weather conditions. He was worried
27:04
Speaker 2: about snow falling through the evening. He wasn't worried about
27:07
Speaker 2: the highways, but he was worried they might get blocked
27:10
Speaker 2: into their driveway. Steve said Angela had already packed the car.
27:15
Speaker 2: They got up at around four or five am. They
27:17
Speaker 2: drove to Big Bear. He said they drove straight through
27:20
Speaker 2: on the twenty first, stayed at his parents' house, and
27:23
Speaker 2: then came home on December twenty sixth. Steve Panky said
27:27
Speaker 2: he never went to Janelle Matthews's home. In fact, he
27:31
Speaker 2: said he had no idea where she even lived. He
27:34
Speaker 2: said he had never laid a hand on her. When
27:38
Speaker 2: he was asked about being obsessed with Janelle's case, he
27:41
Speaker 2: admitted he did listen to and fall details of the
27:44
Speaker 2: case like a lot of other people. Steve said he
27:47
Speaker 2: did remember listening to the radio on the car ride
27:50
Speaker 2: back to Greeley, but he said that was just a coincidence.
27:53
Speaker 2: When they drove into Colorado. The news report came on
27:56
Speaker 2: about a missing thirteen year old girl in their area.
27:59
Speaker 2: Of course he was interested. Steve was asked about Angela's testimony,
28:04
Speaker 2: the part where she said that after they got back
28:06
Speaker 2: home from the Big Bear trip, he started digging in
28:09
Speaker 2: their yard. Steve denied ever digging in the yard. He
28:13
Speaker 2: said they got home late at night, it was around
28:15
Speaker 2: eleven pm. He said, they put their son to bed
28:18
Speaker 2: and went to bed themselves. Steve admitted that he had
28:23
Speaker 2: started what he called a series of lies.
28:26
Speaker 3: He talked about.
28:27
Speaker 2: Some of the information being tied to the people who
28:30
Speaker 2: worked at the Sony of you Nazarene church.
28:32
Speaker 3: He said he hated them, and he admitted he.
28:34
Speaker 2: Had a personal grudge against Russell Ross, Deirdre's father, but
28:38
Speaker 2: he never really gave a satisfactory explanation for why he
28:41
Speaker 2: started all these lies. Finally, he was asked how he
28:46
Speaker 2: knew about the footprints in the snow.
28:49
Speaker 3: Steve Pankey stated.
28:50
Speaker 2: That it was Detective Lockwood, an investigator on the case,
28:53
Speaker 2: who told him in nineteen ninety two or nineteen ninety
28:56
Speaker 2: three that there were footprints in the snow, footprints that
29:00
Speaker 2: had been raped.
29:01
Speaker 3: He testified that.
29:02
Speaker 2: He did later sometime in the nineties, tell his wife
29:07
Speaker 2: about the footprints in the rake, but he emphasized he
29:10
Speaker 2: heard it from the police, not the other way around.
29:14
Speaker 2: So you had two very different descriptions of Steve Pankey
29:18
Speaker 2: being presented in court. Prosecutors called him a master manipulator.
29:23
Speaker 2: His attorney claimed he was a mentally ill fantasist. Steve's
29:27
Speaker 2: lawyers also pointed to an alternative suspect, a man named
29:31
Speaker 2: Norris Drake. Noris Drake had been questioned by police. His
29:37
Speaker 2: mother and sister lived right across the street from the
29:39
Speaker 2: Matthews home, and he was there at his mom's house
29:43
Speaker 2: on the night when Janelle went missing. According to court testimony,
29:48
Speaker 2: his mother said that he was in the house the
29:50
Speaker 2: whole time that night. She was his alibi. But according
29:53
Speaker 2: to what Steve's attorney said, there was evidence that Norris
29:57
Speaker 2: allegedly went missing for several hours on the night Janelle
30:01
Speaker 2: went missing, but and it's not clear why from what
30:04
Speaker 2: came out in court, police didn't take the lead any further.
30:08
Speaker 2: Police also talked to Norris's girlfriend. She told police that
30:13
Speaker 2: Norris had an interest in young women who had just
30:15
Speaker 2: reached puberty. Steve's attorney stated in court that Norris made
30:21
Speaker 2: statements about how Janelle had matured and talked about how
30:25
Speaker 2: Norris's ex girlfriend had said Norris had an unusual interest
30:29
Speaker 2: in young girls. Norris also had a criminal record involving
30:34
Speaker 2: theft and drug charges. Apparently he had stolen some personal
30:37
Speaker 2: property from his roommate, so the defense's theory was that
30:41
Speaker 2: Norris could have either gone in through the open garage
30:43
Speaker 2: door or possibly all the way into the house. The
30:47
Speaker 2: attorneys said the motives could have been theft or sexual assault,
30:51
Speaker 2: and that it's possible that things got out of control.
30:55
Speaker 2: Steve's attorney stated Steve wasn't the only one who knew
30:58
Speaker 2: about that rake in those footprints. He said Norris Drake
31:02
Speaker 2: also mentioned the knowledge of a rake to police. Well
31:05
Speaker 2: District attorney Michael Rohrer said that the statements by Noris
31:09
Speaker 2: Drake were taken out of context. He said Norris had
31:12
Speaker 2: found out about the rake because he lived across the
31:14
Speaker 2: street and his mom had been talking about it, and
31:17
Speaker 2: the DA also said Norris had made statements about the
31:20
Speaker 2: rake that weren't accurate, including that the rake was used
31:24
Speaker 2: to hide multiple sets of footprints from juveniles. Again, there
31:28
Speaker 2: was only one set of footprints found, with a shoe
31:32
Speaker 2: size of nine to eleven. Police never found a match
31:36
Speaker 2: to those prints. Steve Pankey's murder trial started on October thirteenth,
31:41
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. On November four, twenty twenty one, the
31:45
Speaker 2: jury announced they could not reach a verdict on the
31:47
Speaker 2: murder and kidnapping charges.
31:50
Speaker 3: They did vote to convict.
31:51
Speaker 2: Steve on one misdemeanor count of making false statements to police.
31:55
Speaker 2: The defense argued that Steve displayed signs of mental illness
31:59
Speaker 2: and that his obsessive interest in the case happened because,
32:02
Speaker 2: according to his attorney, he had Asperger's syndrome. Steve's second
32:07
Speaker 2: trial started in October of twenty twenty two. At the
32:10
Speaker 2: end of the second trial, Steve Pankey was found guilty
32:13
Speaker 2: of felony murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life
32:17
Speaker 2: in prison with the possibility of parole after twenty years.
32:21
Speaker 2: But Steve Panky was seventy one years old at the
32:23
Speaker 2: time of conviction, so for him this is almost certainly
32:27
Speaker 2: a life sentence. Janelle Matthew's family has said they are
32:32
Speaker 2: relieved to have finally found some kind of closure. According
32:36
Speaker 2: to The New York Times once the trial was over,
32:38
Speaker 2: Janelle's mom, Gloria said, quote, I just want to cry.
32:42
Speaker 2: I cannot forgive him for how he killed Janelle. God
32:46
Speaker 2: is the only one who can forgive evil, and this
32:48
Speaker 2: is evil.
32:49
Speaker 3: End quote.
32:51
Speaker 2: Steve Panky stated for the record that he was innocent
32:54
Speaker 2: and that this was not justice for Janelle. So Janelle's
32:58
Speaker 2: case is officially closed, but a lot of people still
33:03
Speaker 2: wonder did Steve Pankey really kidnap and kill Janelle? Yes,
33:08
Speaker 2: his behavior was suspicious, but it's also totally circumstantial, and
33:12
Speaker 2: there's not even any evidence that he ever met anyone
33:15
Speaker 2: in the Matthews family, including Janelle. A lot of the
33:18
Speaker 2: early headlines about potential connections are, in my opinion, a
33:22
Speaker 2: little misleading. They talk about the fact that Janelle and
33:25
Speaker 2: Steve were neighbors and that Steve was a youth pastor
33:28
Speaker 2: at the family church. Of course, when I dug deeper,
33:31
Speaker 2: I found out the neighbors meant miles away, and that
33:33
Speaker 2: they didn't even attend the same church at the same time.
33:37
Speaker 2: And it's still never really explained how or why Steve
33:41
Speaker 2: Panky would be at Janelle's house that night and be
33:44
Speaker 2: able to kidnap her, drive the body miles away and
33:48
Speaker 2: dispose of it. There's no DNA and no evidence that
33:51
Speaker 2: police even ever asked for it. And as for the
33:54
Speaker 2: other potential suspect mentioned in court, Noris Drake died in
33:58
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven. But among everything else, all the
34:02
Speaker 2: strange facts of this case, I keep going.
34:05
Speaker 3: Back to the beginning.
34:06
Speaker 2: I keep thinking about the open garage door. Deanna and
34:10
Speaker 2: her dad said that the garage door was open when
34:13
Speaker 2: Janelle got home. All evidence points to Janelle coming into
34:16
Speaker 2: her house, taking off her stockings, pulling up that space heater,
34:20
Speaker 2: and getting comfortable, snuggling in for a night at TV.
34:23
Speaker 2: At some point she answered the phone, she took the
34:25
Speaker 2: message for her dad, and then presumably between around eight
34:29
Speaker 2: thirty when she took the call and nine thirty pm
34:32
Speaker 2: when her dad got home, someone.
34:34
Speaker 3: Came into that house.
34:36
Speaker 2: Could the intruder have been Norris or someone else who
34:39
Speaker 2: was waiting in the garage when she got home. Was
34:42
Speaker 2: it someone who looked at her through the windows of
34:44
Speaker 2: that house and saw an opportunity to attack? And then
34:49
Speaker 2: there are those footprints in the snow, footprints that police
34:53
Speaker 2: say were partially raked away by the rake that was
34:56
Speaker 2: in the family garage. In my opinion, that points to
35:00
Speaker 2: someone spending some time in that garage, at least long
35:03
Speaker 2: enough to see the rake there and grab it. This,
35:06
Speaker 2: in my opinion, points to a crime of opportunity rather
35:09
Speaker 2: than something that was pre planned. So I find myself
35:13
Speaker 2: wondering who crept into that dark garage and will we
35:18
Speaker 2: ever know for sure? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen
35:23
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of.
35:29
Speaker 3: School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
35:31
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
35:34
Speaker 2: by Etily's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tuggs for her
35:38
Speaker 2: research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camera
35:43
Speaker 2: mixed in score this episode. Our theme song is by
35:46
Speaker 2: Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and
35:50
Speaker 2: LC Crowley.
35:52
Speaker 3: Listen to Helen.
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