Former gubernatorial candidate convicted of killing 12-year-old Colorado girl who vanished in 1984

A former longshot Idaho gubernatorial candidate was convicted Monday of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old Colorado girl who went missing nearly 40 years ago.

Jurors found Steve Pankey, 71, guilty of felony murder, second-degree kidnapping and false reporting in the disappearance and death of Jonelle Matthews in 1984, the office of district attorney Michael Rourke said. A judge then sentenced him to life prison with the possibility of parole, CBS Colorado reported. 

It was Pankey’s second trial in the case, CBS Colorado reported. In November of last year, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the two counts of murder (murder in the first degree after deliberation and murder in the first-degree felony murder) and the kidnapping charge but did convict him of false reporting to authorities. Prosecutors decided to put him on trial again.

Pankey was a neighbor of Jonelle and her family when she vanished after being dropped off at her empty home by a family friend after performing at a Christmas concert in Greeley, Colorado, a city about 50 miles north of Denver. He emerged as a person of interest in the case three decades later – shortly before Jonelle’s body was found in 2019 – after claiming to have information about what happened to her and asking for immunity from prosecution.

Pankey’s lawyers said his behavior may have seemed unusual but they argued police did not secure hard evidence against him and failed to clear an alternate suspect who died in 2007, the Greeley Tribune reported. 

Prosecutors said Pankey kept up to date on the case throughout the years even as he moved his family to several states before settling in Idaho where he ran unsuccessfully as a Constitution Party candidate for Idaho governor in 2014 and in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018, the year that authorities said he was named as a person of interest in the girl’s death.

Jonelle’s case came to the attention of then-President Ronald Reagan as his administration launched a national effort to find missing children. Her picture was printed on milk cartons across the United States as part of a project by the National Child Safety Council.

She was considered missing until workers digging a pipeline in a rural area near Greeley in July 2019 discovered human remains matching her dental records.

Her death was then ruled a homicide. She died from a single gunshot wound to the head, prosecutors said.

Pankey was not a family friend of the Matthews family, CBS Colorado reported. However, he did attend the same church and was part of the same social circles as the family.

Anthony Viorst, Pankey’s former attorney, said Pankey craves attention but is not a murderer.

“[T]here’s no indication that he committed this murder, no indication that he had anything to do with burying the body. Mr. Pankey wanted to be a person of interest. … Mr. Pankey loves the limelight … all of the statements that he has made about his culpability have been, ‘I didn’t do it,'” Viorst told “48 hours” correspondent Richard Schlesinger as he prepped for the trial.