Jonelle Matthews

welcome to my channel jonelle Matthews thank you to my viewer who suggested the content in today's video jonelle Matthews was born in Santa Barbara on February 9 1972 to 13 year old Terry Vieira jonelle would be adopted six weeks later to James and Gloria Matthews the Matthews family would eventually move to Colorado it was December 20 1984. jonelle was performing in her Christmas concert in Greeley at the time neither her mother or father attended the concert her father was with jonelle's sister and her mother was away visiting family at 8 15 p.m jonelle arrived back home after being given a lift by her friend and her father jonelle answered a call just after 8 30 p.m and took a message for her father this would be the last time anyone spoke to jonelle jonelle was just 12 years old jonelle's father arrived back home at 9 30 p.m and when he arrived found the garage doors open which was strange he went inside but found no one at home jonelle's older sister arrived home at 10 p.m but said she hadn't seen jonelle her father started to get worried and phoned the police to report his daughter missing the police arrived at the Matthews at 10 15 P.M while looking around they found footprints in the snow outside the house which indicated that someone had been there looking through the windows the police found no signs of any struggle or any forced entry leading to the sign that jonelle had opened the door however jonelle's shoes and shawl were still inside the property and her father indicated that she couldn't have gotten too far if she wasn't wearing any shoes especially in the weather conditions outside the police found no signs of jonelle and several weeks went by with no evidence of what had happened to junell jonelle would now just be a face on a milk carton it would be years before what happened to jonel was discovered in 1994 with no signs of jonelle she was legally declared as deceased and her family held the funeral jonel's family would eventually move out of the area her sister would go on to get married still wondering what happened to her sister jonelle's disappearance attracted much interest with even the president of the United States taking an interest in 2018 police recontacted Witnesses and started to reinvestigate her case on Tuesday July 23 2019 excavators installing a pipeline discovered human remains 15 miles from journal's home police used DNA to positively identify the remains as jonelle Matthews it was determined that her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the Head the police now began a murder investigation Greeley Police Department in 2019 announced that Stephen Dana Panky who was a former Resident was a person of interest police believed that Stephen had abducted and murdered jonelle at the time jonelle went missing Stephen and his wife lived three miles from the Matthews home on October 13 2020 Stephen Panky was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping he was 69 years old at the time jonelle went missing Stephen had claimed to be at home with his wife and that they then went on a trip the day after however his now ex-wife claims that they went on a trip two days after jonelle went missing and that the trip was unplanned she would also go on to claim that Stephen had an fascination with jonelle Matthews disappearance she would also state that he displayed suspicious behaviors after jonelle went missing it was then discovered that soon after the unplanned trip Steven's car would catch fire and completely burn out before he disposed of it when in 2008 Stephen's son was killed Angela testified that he knelt beside the urn and said I hope God didn't allow this to happen because of jonelle Matthews Steven's trial began on Thursday October 14 2021 but ended in a mistrial on November 4th because of a hung jury the jury at the time were unable to come to an unanimous verdict on the kidnapping and murder charges however Stephen was given a retrial and this time he was found guilty of kidnapping and murder he was sentenced to 20 years with a possible release in 2042 he will be 91 years old at the time finally the Matthews family discovered what had happened to jonelle and the person responsible was caught and convicted finally jonelle received Justice our hearts go out to the Matthews family major Nell's memory forever be remembered thank you for watching please subscribe to my channel to view other content