Cold case solved after 35 years. Jonelle Matthews went missing after her Christmas concert in 1984

[Music] today we are covering a case that was open for over three decades before being solved and I 1 million per believe it was divine intervention that helped bring closure for this family 12-year-old girl named Janelle Matthews that went missing from gy Colorado in 1984 hi there and welcome to lost and found the missing I'm your host zenic medium I'm a medium and connect with those on the other side and have a pull towards those that have gone missing if you're new here welcome we cover all types of missing person's cases we'd love for you to follow along and subscribe if you're interested in more True Crime and missing person's content many times with a bit of a paranormal twist Janelle Matthews was a 12-year-old girl who went missing from her home on December 20th 1984 Janelle was adopted by her parents parents who say they were very open with her about her adoption they wanted her to know that she was chosen by them Janelle was raised by her parents Jim and Gloria and had an older sister Jennifer Janelle attended Franklin Middle School in gy Colorado and reportedly loved choir she was in choir at both her church and in honors choir at her school it just happened to be their last day of school for winter break Janelle had a Christmas choir concert and her sister also had a basketball game at the exact same time her mother had just left town earlier that day to go and visit her parents out of state in California for Christmas as it was said that her dad's Health was quite poor so she was going to spend Christmas there with them she would then come home and they would celebrate Christmas together as a family so that left the girls's father to decide to either go to the choir concert for Janelle or her sister's varsity basketball game as he couldn't do both he decided to go and watch the basketball game as Janelle's concert was being filmed by the local news company so they could watch that at a later [Music] time jingle bell jingle bell [Music] jingle Janelle's friend Deanna and her dad ended up giving Janelle a ride home after the concert they drop her off and say their goodbyes and wait for her to get inside she flickers the lights to let them know that she has made it in safe and then they head home janella's dad gets home about 9:30 p.m. after the basketball game he finds the house empty he searches all of the rooms and doesn't find Janelle anywhere however he does find the space heater on and the TV on as well in the living room where she had been at one point obviously because her dress shoes were sitting there by the chair so he waits for Jennifer to get home thinking maybe she will know where Janelle is but when she gets home she too says that she has no idea where her sister could be this is when the worry really sets in he phones her friend Deanna who had given her a ride home she says they dropped her off at home she was fine at that point and she hasn't talked to or seen her since so they call some more of her friends still no sign of Janelle this is when they realize that Janelle is missing they phone the police and report Janelle Matthew is missing around 11:15 p a police search the home and they don't find much however they do find footprint impressions in the snow all around their home as if someone has been looking into their Garden level Windows they could also tell that someone had taken a break trying to cover up the foot impressions in the snow doing a poor job of the fact that someone had been lurking around their home they also wondered could Janelle have possibly run away however they didn't really think so because Janelle seemed to be quite happy girl and seemed happy with her life and her friends at school it just wouldn't make sense that night Gloria's flight lands in California around 1:00 a.m. she calls her husband to check in and gets the news that her daughter is missing she quickly returns to her home in gy Colorado the police and family search for Janelle and time goes on without any answers the Matthews were trying to get as much publicity as possible on their daughter's case so in 1985 about six months after Janel Go's missing President Ronald Reagan actually held a missing children's event and talked about her case on National Television by the end of 1985 they consider her case cold as they just didn't have much evidence or leads in her case at the time early on in the investigation Grey's current May John Gates was a police officer at the time so back in 1984 and was working on Janelle's case he searched the neighborhood and interviewed people to see if they knew or heard anything about Janelle's disappearance they took notes on everything as they obviously didn't have computer data systems back then they would get potential tips from people saying that they thought they knew who did it or maybe what happened to her but nothing that was very promising one man in specific though said that he thought it was the church that she had gone to however they found out that this man had actually been excommunicated from his church in 1977 because of criminal charges that were placed against him so he seemed to have a bit of a grudge against anyone that did still attend that specific church so they didn't look too much into it man also later actually reached out and asked the detective if they would share the information with him about her disappearance to see if if it matched up against what he believed he had on her case he claimed that she was kidnapped and assumed that she was dead and brought up the church again they're thinking this guy he's just angry at the church and has no idea what he's talking about it ended up being dismissed you know the more I talk about these cases the more I see that in many cases back in the 70s and 80s in specific many people would actually give legitimate tips and you wonder why some of these statements why they weren't taken much more seriously and if they were just how much sooner some of these cases could have been solved was it that they were swamped with tips did they only follow up on tips that sounded legitimate was that how police work was done at the time it's very hard to tell but I can tell you in the go go Beach situation right the Long Island serial killer we know that many of the prostitutes had actually reached out to the police but they dismissed all of these claims because they were prostitutes and they didn't believe them because of who they were but they very well could have caught him much earlier if they did take it seriously it's hard to tell so anyways 10 years after Janelle's disappearance they decided to have a memorial for her the family says that this helped them to get a bit of closure trying to accept that they may never see her again but it still lingered despite trying to go about life what happened to her where could she have gone where was she then time goes on and more time goes on and more more time goes on Janelle was missing for over three decades then one day on July 24th of 2019 when a pipeline crew was digging southeast of gy Colorado They Came Upon a trash bag with clothes and a skeleton it was a body and it just so happened to be that of Janelle's her tea still had braces and she was with the clothes that she had gone missing in on the night of December 20th of 1984 34 years early they could also tell that she had been shot in the head she was murdered the thing that just makes you feel like this is divine intervention that there are millions of Acres of open Farmland in eastern Colorado where Janelle was found in this specific area and they just happened to dig in the one field a two they said the size of a basketball hoop a two to three foot round circle hole to place a pipeline for oil they dig in this exact spot and happen to run directly into her remains if they said if they would have dug six inches to the left six inches to the right six inches above or below they would have missed it that this was how specific and spoton they were in digging this hole and I'm going to show you a video of Eastern Colorado you can see how open it is it's so vast right so much Farmland you know AG culture animals props it's so open there's so many fields and for them to come on this exact location and hit this exact spot it's like this case was meant to be solved her family was meant to get closure and this man was meant to get caught I 1 million per believe this just showing you how many acres of Farmland out here in Lake Eastern col Colorado if you can see like over that street it's like there are millions of Acres but for her to have been found out here on this little piece of land literally they said the hole was the size of a basketball hoop it's just like such divine intervention I can't even believe that they found her and also this road out here is now been built up it's like a main road and definitely back in the'80s that was just a dirt road but so much traffic over here just so amazing that they were able to find her and get some closure for the family but all Farmland out here it's like where they were digging to place the pipeline but this is the field that she was found in right here just off of this intersection and you can see there is like nothing out here obviously more houses now but like I said it's just a miracle that they were able to dig in this random field out of all these millions of Acres of farmland and find her police detective Mike pill was assigned to Janelle's case he had to compile 2 8,686 pages of handwritten documents which took him about a year to go through you remember how people from the neighborhood were interviewed well he found one man that was in a couple of paragraphs of information and all of those documents that he really felt needed looking into again his name was Steve pinky when they reached out they felt that they got a rather odd response that warranted more looking into he said I want an attorney I need a deal I'm not talking to you without my attorney that is quite an odd statement for someone to make who was just being questioned the detective said we just want to ask you a couple of questions and states there is nothing you can be charged for in this case due to the statute of limitations right the amount of time has gone by where certain things cannot be charged except for first-degree murder and kidnapping because of how old this case is he said yep I want immunity and I'm not talking the detective said they knew at that moment no one wants immunity unless they are trying to get a lesser sentence for something that they are in fact guilty of after that conversation they decide to drive out to Idaho to interview Steve detective bril found that in his research into her case Steve pinky kept unknowingly inserting him himself into her disappearance and what he believed happen to her he had written a letter to a DA saying exactly where he was the night of Janelle's disappearance with so much detail they didn't even ask him where he was that night and for him to do that and who would remember what you were doing that exact time 10 years earlier right so that was odd in itself remember also the man who said that it was the church and blamed it on the church that was also him he was the guy that was excommunicated it also turns out that it was the church that Janelle and her family later attended he also happened to only live two miles from her home back in 1984 when she went missing he didn't move to Idaho until 2 and a half years after her disapp parents he was also the one who called in asking for info on her case saying that if they would share with him what they had he would share with them what he believed happened to her kidnapping and murder turns out he also had made statements after moving to Idaho to other police about her case detective Trill said it was if he was trying to guide the investigation towards people that he was wanting to frame Steve had actually ran for governor in the state of Idaho and sheriff in Twin Falls County failing all five times they soon found and interviewed Steve's ex-wife Angela who said why did it take you so long to find me she then said I gathered all of the information that I had on Steve and took it to the Idaho Police Department and they told me that they would forward it to the greedy Police Department to be looked into unfortunately detective Pearl said that that never happened she said back in 1984 Steve decided last minute the morning of De mber 21st the day after Janelle went missing that they were going to California she said Steve came into the living room he said pack your bags we're going to California big bear for Christmas she said she remembered how shocked his F how shocked his family was that they showed up after saying they wouldn't be coming for Christmas she also said he was obsessively making her scroll through news stations to hear anything on Janelle's missing person's case the entire 20-hour Drive home from California and he had never been interested in news prior to that she said when they got home she unpacked the car and he started digging in the snow in their front yard for an entire day also 2 days after getting home from their vacation to California she goes out to the yard and their car is on fire she starts yelling he tells her to get back in the house almost as if he's trying to prevent her from intervening in the fire she thought all of this was odd that said that he had good reasons for everything supposedly that was going on so she trusted him he was her husband she said also that days after they got back from their vacation at Christmas time that he would obsessively sent her to the store to buy articles any news articles that she could find on Janelle's missing person's case she said after they moved to Idaho he brought her missing person's case up again with the police department apartment and that he was trying to get information from them about the case this case in Colorado she said at that very moment she put everything together and had a very strong intuition that it was him that was when she took everything to the police department in Idaho so after detective P talked to Angela the police too knew that they had their man when Steve pinky was questioned by the da Mike roor he said you're asking for immunity demanding it for the murder and kidnapping before saying anything about Janelle Matthews right Steve pinky said you don't know what's in my head the da says I'm trying to get there but you're right I don't hany then laughs almost as if he was proud of what he had done and enjoyed playing this game with the law enforcement Steve pinky was arrested for the murder and kidnapping of Janelle Matthews They confiscated his computers and found that prior to her being found in 2019 he was searching for Janelle Matthews almost daily on his laptop all those years later Steve pinky went on trial for the murder of Janelle Matthews the evidence that came forward was very convincing but three jurs felt that they couldn't prove Steve was at the scene of the crime that night it ended up being a hung jury with no verdict nine wanting to convict and three undecided so October 4th of 2022 he was re tried and the prosecution came forward with even better evidence Steve's own cousin came forward saying he caught Steve on several occasions sitting outside of a school in the neighborhood she happened to be Janelle's neighborhood and school just watching the kids walk home after school then an old jail inmate who happened to share a sell with Steve who said that they shared a bond with their faith in God he came forward he said that one day Steve pinky said I need to pray for for forgiveness against my sins the jail inmate said what sins for doing what he then went ahead and prayed for forgiveness allow for what he had done to Janelle a confession the jury found Steve pinky guilty of murder second deegree kidnapping and making false reports he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years at the age of 91 Janelle Matthews went missing on December 20th 1984 and was found 20 miles Southeast of gy on County Road 49 in Weld County on July 24th of 2019 35 years later this just goes to show you with the right evidence it is never too late to solve a missing person's or a Cold Case cases all right guys thank you so much for joining me as we tuned into to Janelle's missing person's case if you have found this video informative please hit the like button and subscribe to lost and found the missing for more missing persons content remember to stay safe and look out for one another until next time cogenic medium signing off