Into the Killing Episode 85: Jonelle Matthews

hello and thanks for joining us for this episode of into the killing if you have listened to other episodes you probably know that we're looking for cases to cover on into the killing specifically we're looking for cold cases that were eventually solved we'd also like to hear from you if you know about some crazy true crime stories for our YouTube channel primly listed we're also looking for stories about the Supernatural and the Paranormal for our other YouTube channel paranormally listed to suggest the case please visit our website crimin listed.com and then go to the suggested case page for this week's episode we're going back to December 1984 on December 4th 1984 Dr John Rock died at age 94 Rock and Dr Gregory pinkis co-developed the combined oral contraceptive pill which is commonly known just as the pill Rock didn't seem like the ideal candidate to help pinkis with a contraceptive according to PBS's American Experience ience quote the highly regarded obstetrician in gy colleges was a devout Roman Catholic and a groundbreaking infertility specialist who devoted much of his career to helping women with fertility problems to conceive but during Rock's time as a doctor he also saw the damage of unwanted pregnancy the pill was introduced in 1950 but it took 10 years before the FDA approved it Rock then advocated for the Catholic Church to approve the pill but the Pope chose to condemn It Rock felt defeated he used to go to Mass daily but in his later years he lost his faith and stopped attending church today the pill is still a very popular form of contraception with over 100 million women using it in December 1984 The Finnish hair metal band Hanoi Rocks was going to play two shows with monley crew in Los Angeles California at the time many people believed that Hanoi Rocks was on the verge of becoming internationally famous well at the time Molly Crew was one of the biggest bands on the planet Molly Crew was as famous for their music as they were for their partying on December 8th 1984 Hanoi Rocks arrived in Los Angeles California most of the band went to the home of modley Crews lead singer Vince Neil to party after several hours of drinking Neil and Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas dingley who in by the stage name rasle decided to go to a local liquor store Neil was drunk when he got behind the wheel he lost control of his car and slammed into another vehicle the people in the other car were severely injured and suffered brain damage 24-year-old Nicholas dingley was killed Neil was sentenced to 30 days in jail and pared after 15 days after the death of their drummer Hanoi Rocks never recovered they broke up in 1985 meanwhile Miley Crew continued to have success into the early 1990s Vince NE didn't stop his excessive partying led to him being kicked out of the band in 1992 in 1996 the band reunited and Neil has played with them ever since on December 10th 1984 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Prize he was the bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape toown from 1986 to 1996 he was the first black person to hold those positions he was a strong opponent of the apartheid and wanted universal suffrage to get universal suffrage he promoted foreign economic pressure and peaceful protest apartheid finally ended in the early 1990s and in 1994 South Africa had Democratic elections Archbishop tutu remained an important figure in South Africa after the election he died in 2021 at the age of 90 on December 20th 1984 the number one song was Like a Virgin by Madonna the number one movie in America was Beverly Hills Cop starring Eddie Murphy Jan Matthews was born in February 1972 in Santa Barbara California her mother Terry Vieira was 13 years old she immediately gave Janelle out for adoption 6 weeks later she was adopted by Jim and Gloria Matthews the couple had a 4-year-old daughter Jennifer about 6 years later the family relocated to gy Colorado at the time gy had a population of about 50,000 people for 6 years the family lived in a grey suburb in the winter of 1984 Jim Matthews worked as the school principal at plat Valley Elementary School in nearby Kirsty Colorado Gloria was working at a restaurant Jennifer was 16 and she was attending gy Central High School 12-year-old Janelle was in the seventh grade at Franklin Middle School in gy the family was close-knit and they were heavily involved in their Church the family thought despite being adopted Janelle looked like Gloria they believe that unless someone was told there would be no way to know that she wasn't their biological child Janelle knew that she was adopted where her family treated her like she had been chosen to be in their family however Janelle did hope that one day her birth mother would reach out to her Janelle loved performing and was a member of her school's choir December 20th 1984 was the second last day of school before the Christmas holidays that day Janelle gave out gifts to her friends at school on the night of December 20th Gloria was flying out to Los Angeles to surprise her parents her father was Ill at the time she would return home on December 26th and the family would celebrate Christmas that day that night Jennifer had a basketball game at her school Janelle was singing in a choir concert at local bank there would be no audience at the bank instead it was couldn't be broadcast on a local cable channel the plan was for Janelle to go to the concert and then come to the high school for the basketball game however over the past few days Janelle had not felt well so it was decided that she would go home after the concert Jim chopped Jennifer off at the high school then he and Janelle went for dinner at McDonalds he then dropped her off at her middle school and he went to the high school to watch Jennifer's game Janelle boarded a bus that took the choir to the bank they performed on the staircase when the concert ended Janelle got a ride with her best friend and her father they arrived at the Matthews home at around 8:15 p.m. Janelle's friend and her father watched her as she entered her home and turned on a light just after 8:30 a teacher at Jim school called the house and talked to Janelle she couldn't attend school the next day and she wanted Jim to find her a substitute Janelle wrote down the message on a message board near the phone at about 9:30 p.m. Jim returned home Janelle was not there the TV was on and Shaw was on a chair near a space heater Janelle's shoes were close to the chair Janelle often sat in the chair when she watched TV about half an hour later Jennifer arrived home she had no idea where Janelle was so Jim called the police about 15 minutes later officers arrived and they started the search for Janelle soon friends and family were also searching for the 12-year-old girl but no trace of Janelle Matthews was found Gloria called from Los Angeles around 1:00 a.m. to tell Jim she had arrived safely he told her that Janelle was missing she came back to gy as quickly as she could which was the next night Janelle had still not been found the police did not find any trace of for Century or a Breakin they discovered that Janelle's mother's slippers were missing it's believed that Janelle was wearing them when she went missing Janelle's friends family and teachers were all interviewed they said there was no chance that she had run away the police did not find any evidence in the house the only evidence were footprints in the snow that someone had tried to cover up with a rig that was in the family's garage the footprints were in the front and backyard it appeared that someone had been looking and scoping out the house the ray came from the family's garage the fact that Ray found the family's garage was used to cover up the footprints was now made public the investigators quickly concluded that Janelle was kidnapped one of the first suspects was Janelle's adoptive father Jim however he was eventually ruled out as a suspect Jim thinks that someone may have lured Janelle out of the house he said that she was naive the police police located Janelle's birth mother Terry Vieira who was living in Los Angeles California the police in Los Angeles put surveillance on Vieira after 6 weeks it was determined that she was not involved in the kidnapping they did not inform her that Janelle was [Music] missing Christmas came and went and the Matthews were still looking for their daughter February 8th 198 5 would have been Janelle's 13th birthday on that day over 600 volunteers were searching for her but again no new evidence was found Chanelle's disappearance caught the attention of a very important person on March 7th 1985 at a white house meeting with members of the national newspaper Association President Ronald Reagan talked about missing children in America he then made the the following remarks well over a million American children disappear from their homes or neighborhoods every year causing as we can all understand heartbreaking anguish parents cry out for help many through letters to me for example I learned about jonell Matthews of gy Colorado who would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month but five days before Christmas jonell disappeared from her home letters like these touch us deeply and we've tried our best to help on September 11th 1985 Janelle's parents appeared with Executives from do Foods at a press conference they were doing a promotion that would bring attention to missing children that involved putting coupon inserts in the newspapers Nationwide that included information about missing kids they would donate 5 cents for from each redeemed coupon to the National Center for missing and exploited children if 5 million coupons weren't used they would donate up to A4 million dollar that same month a mill company in Iowa put photos and stats of two missing boys 12-year-old Johnny goshh and 13-year-old Eugene Martin on the side of their ma cardens within months National Dairy Brands started putting photos and stats of missing children on the side of their mail cardens one of the first children to be featured was Janelle Matthews however it did not generate any leads and the case remain [Music] cold in 1994 had been 10 years since Janelle when missing her family had her legally declared dead on December 20th 1994 the 10th anniversary of Janelle's disappearance the family held a memorial service for Janelle 3 years later in 1997 Jimma Gloria received a shocking letter in the mail it reads my name is Terry Vieira Martinez on February 9th 1972 I gave birth to a girl at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara California a search consultant recently helped me locate the baby I gave up for adoption after extensive efforts it was found that her name is Janelle Matthews I hope that your hearts will be open for a possible re Union sometime in the future the letter was heartbreaking for Jim and Gloria they reached out to Terry and told her what happened eventually Terry and Matthews became friends more than 12 years passed and very little progress was made in the case in 2013 the case was assigned to a new detective he Enlisted the help of another Detective and they examine all the evidence and notes on the case the best type of evidence for solving cold cases is DNA evidence however there was no DNA evidence in this case they couldn't even prove that Janelle was dead an age progress photo was released as to what Janelle could have looked like in 2013 when she would have been 42 much to the dismay of Janelle's family it did not generate a lead it seemed like Janelle's case would never be solved and Matthews would never know what happened to her then something remarkable happened in July 2019 nearly 34 and 1/2 years after Janelle went missing 1984 the three biggest movies at the worldwide box office were Beverly Hills Cop Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 2019 at the worldwide box office the three three top movies were Avengers endgame The Lion King and Frozen 2 1984's bestselling albums were born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen legend by Bob Marley and the Whalers and the Purple Rain soundtrack by Prince in 2019 the three bestselling albums were when we all fall asleep where do we go by Billy eish map of the Soul seven by BTS and Hollywood's bleeding by post Malone in 1984 the top rid TV shows in the US were Dynasty Dallas and The Cosby Show in 2019 the most watched shows on network television rfl Sunday Night Football NCIS and NFL Thursday night football products released in 1984 include Tandy 1000 personal computers Nike's Air Jordan sneakers and Sony's Discman in 2019 for the first time you could buy the Oculus Quest VR system apples airpod pros and pumpkin spice ham [Music] in July 2018 a crew of Oil Workers were digging to lay some new pipes in a rural area about 50 Mi southeast of Janelle's home they called the police because they had found some human remains under 3 or 4 ft of dirt they initially thought it was a bag of garbage but then they saw that was clothes and Bones there were braces on the teeth the clothes were the same ones Janelle was wearing when she went missing the police knew what she was wearing because there was a video recording of her singing with a choir just a few hours before she went missing DNA testing confirmed it was the remains of 12-year-old Janelle Matthews she had been shot once in the forehead because of the state of the remains it was impossible to tell if she had been sexually assaulted on August 11th 2019 just a few weeks after her remains were found her family had another memorial service afterward her remains were buried in the cemetery in gy it turned out that the police had a person of interest in the case his name was Steve Panky and he lived in grey at the time of the murder Panky put himself on the police's radar in January 1985 nearly month after Janelle went missing the Matthews didn't know pinky but they had attended the same church but at different times Panky had been a janitor at the church and lived in a small building on the property in 1977 Panky was charged with sexually assaulting a member of the church in June 1978 he was excommunicated from the church later that summer the Matthews started attending the church pky supposedly hated the church and held a grudge against the members the woman who accused him of sexual assault later asked for the charges to be dropped at the time of the murder pinky lived less than 2 miles from the Matthews family panky's cousin said that several times he got Panky watching kids coming and going from Franklin Middle School which was Janelle's School Pinky's aun live near the school years before the kidnapping in 1980 pinky lived about 10 miles from the spot where Janelle's body was buried Panky had not been a suspect back then the police had no reason to suspect him but on January 19th 1985 py called the lead detective on the case he requested information on the case he claimed he was a pastor and someone had given him information about Janelle's kidnapping and possible murder he also slammed his former church and hinted they were responsible for The Disappearance the detective took notes on the call but wrot Panky off is just another whack job there's no record of Panky being a pastor several people had called The Grey police on Panky besides the woman who accused him of sexual assault and un related to Janelle's disappearance most cases he was accused of creating nuisance and harassment one example was that he caused a scene in the bank and the police were called the charges were always dismissed pinky also had another connection with Janelle's case between 1978 and 1980 Panky worked at the 7Up Distribution Center as a delivery driver pinky claimed he was fired for trying to start a union when he was fired he also said he was beating up one man held him while the other hid him he said that the person who fired him and held him was Russell Ross Ross was the father of Janelle's best friend who dropped her off on the night she disappeared Ross worked at the Distribution Center as a sales manager he later said he had nothing to do with panky's firing because he wasn't his supervisor and he had nothing to do with him being assaulted if he really was assaulted did when Janelle was murdered Steve Panky was 33 years old he was married and he had a son 2 years after the murder they moved away from gy while his wife was pregnant with her second child they bounced around a while before ending up in Idaho over the years Panky continued to have problems with the law and he continued to make odd statements about Janelle for example in an appeal filed to the Idaho court of appeals he said he had information about Janelle's murder but he couldn't reveal it because he learned about it in a confession as his role as a pastor in 1999 he filed another appeal it was regarding a conviction for again causing a scene in the bank the conviction was later dismissed in the appeal he said that if he revealed the location of jonelle's body he would be given the death penalty also in the appeal he revealed he had intimate knowledge of Janelle's neighborhood because he wrote that two police officers lived in the neighborhood then in 2013 out of nowhere he wrote a letter to the district attorney in grey claiming he had an alibi for the time of the murder he gave a lot of detail about what he was supposedly doing that night he wrote that he was at home with his family the investigators thought was odd because why would someone have a vivid memory of that exact night if they had nothing to do with the murder especially 29 years later the Cold Case investigators thought that this was incredibly unusual behavior for an innocent person they decided to check out what Panky had been up to over the past few years he was divorced and he had been living in Twin Falls Idaho in 2004 and 2008 he ran for Sheriff of Lincoln County idah he lost both times in 2008 he ran to be the lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket he lost that too in 2014 he ran to be the Constitution Party's candidate in the election for governor according to the spokesman review he described himself as quote celibate a born- again Christian and Idaho first openly gay gubernatorial candidate his own party didn't support him because he supported gay marriage in 2018 he ran to be the Republican candidate for governor he got crushed in the voting in April 2019 months before the body of Janelle was found one of the investigators called Panky in Twin Falls and told him he was calling about Janelle's case py immediately clammed up and said he wouldn't talk to him without a lawyer the investigators decided to go to Twin Falls to talk to him but before they did Janelle's body was found weeks later in August 2019 py called the police and volunteered to give a sample of his DNA he wanted to prove that he was innocent the police went to his home and immediately said that he wanted immunity the investigators thought that this was as good as a confession because if he did nothing wrong why on would he need immunity he refused to talk to the [Music] investigators the police track down panky's ex-wife Angela Hicks Hicks was married to Panky at the time of the Murder She said she had visited the Twin Falls Police several times to tell them about her suspicions about her ex-husband she had been told that the information would be passed on to the investigators and Greely but the investigators really never got the information she told the investigators some bizarre and disturbing things about pinky for example he had been physically abusive to her he also cut her off from her family she had a good relationship with her father but Panky forbade her from talking to him anymore he was also incredibly strange when it came to Janelle's murder the day after Janelle's disappearance Panky unexpectedly took her and their son on a vacation for 5 days to California before they left pinky got rid of their two dogs and she never saw them again they drove to panky's parents house in Big Bear California the parents were surprised when they arrived because they weren't expecting them they had mail their gifts to gy when they drove back when they got close to Colorado he made her scan the radio for news about Janelle's disappearance when they returned to gy he made her go into a grocery store and by all the copies the gy Tribune and The Denver Post from the past few days he then had to read all the articles about Janelle's Disappearance in the car after they got home Panky started digging in the yard he said that there was a problem with the septic tank Hicks thought that this was odd because they had just replaced the septic tank the previous year 2 Days Later Hicks Smell Smoke and went outside to find the sores she found Panky standing beside a burning car he told her to mind her own business and return to the house he then took the remains of the car to a salvage yard in early 1985 they were at a church and the minister said that Janelle would be found alive py said false prophet under his breath then he stood up and repeated it he then went to the back of the church and kept saying false prophet he was finally asked to leave the church service sometime later he rambled about snow being raked to the Matthews home Hicks also found a piece of paper in the trash where he wrote about red over snow this was important to the police because the rake over snow was never made public on July 4th 2008 hick and panky's youngest son Carl was shot to death by his girlfriend in Phoenix Arizona Hicks told the investigators that the memorial service Panky walked up to the ear and said I hope God didn't allow this to happen because of Janelle Matthews Hicks also confirmed that Panky owned a gun at the time of the murder in September 2018 the police searched Pinky's house in Twin Falls and confiscated his devices from the data on the devices they learned he had frequently looked up information on Janelle he did it nearly every day his activity increased after the body was found two days before he offered to give a sample of his DNA he had clicked on an article that indicated there was no DNA evidence of the case so when he offered to give a sample of his DNA he knew it could be used against him in Janelle's case near a year went by the cool case investigators continue to investigate Panky Panky continued to act oddly in September 2020 a year after his Hess search he didn't an interview with ktbb in Boise Idaho he denied having anything to do with Janelle's murder and claimed that the police were framing him a few weeks later he sent a statement to there were four people on the list they were Russell Ross who dropped off Janelle that night the mayor of gy at the time and the man who was the chief of police at the time the fourth person he named was [Music] himself in September 2020 py ran for Sheriff again the investig thought this was the last ditch effort to stop the investigation on October 12th 2020 Steve Panky was arrested for the murder of Janelle Matthews a year later py went to trial for Janelle's murder Pinky's own words his internet searches and his ex-wife's testimony were the strongest evidence against him Pinky's defense lawyer pointed out there was no physical evidence that pinky was at the Matthews house that night he argued that pinky was a suspect because he was fascinated by Janelle's case and being a true crime Enthusiast does not make him guilty of murder the defense lawyer also presented an alternative suspect a man named Drake Norris who supposedly was interested in young girls was visiting his mother who lived across the road from the Matthews the night Janelle was kidnapped he supposedly left the house around the same time that Janelle was kidnapped there are several hours where he is unaccounted for the police interviewed Norris and he knew that that the footprints had been raged Norris had died in the years since Janelle had been murdered the jury deliberated for two days they were deadlocked on the first degree murder and second degree kidnapping charges the jury was 9 to3 for convicting him the three jury members who voted to acquit said no evidence placed him at the house that night the district attorney chose to retry him py went to trial again a year later in October 2022 at this trial Drake Norris's sister testified she was living with her mother at the time of the murder it was home that night she said her brother left closer to 10:00 she testified that they had watched a TV special which ended at 9:00 p.m. then her brother hung out for a while and didn't leave till after 9:30 which is when Jim Matthews returned home the trial lasted nearly a month then the jury deliberated for about a day 71-year-old Steve Panki was found guilty of first-degree murder and second degree kidnapping he was sentenced to life in prison with a Chance of parole after 20 years at the time of this recording 72-year-old Steve Panky is incarcerated at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway Colorado he can apply for peole in November 2040 when you'll be 89 years [Music] old one question many people have about the case is why did Panky kill Janelle motive was not something the district attorney needed to prove in court however the investigators believe that Panky was an extraordinarily vindictive man he was still angry at the church for excommunicating him so he killed Janelle to get back at them they also alleged that Panky was racist he may have killed Janelle because she was Latino the investigator said that if Panky had never said anything about Janelle's murder he probably would have never been caught but he was cocky and he thought he was smarter than the police so he taunted them for years thank you so much for listening to this episode if you have a case You' like us to cover please don't forget to visit our website Crim list.com but that's all for this week thank you again for listening please be safe and take care of [Music] yourself