[0:05]What is up, E-Woo Crew? The story we have in store for you today is a dark one, full of heartbreak, lies, and one man's intent to live above the law. If you enjoy true crime, mysteries and true stories, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. Now, let's get into it. Janelle Matthews was born on February 9th, 1972 in Santa Barbara, California to her birth mother, Terry Vieira Martinez. At the time, Janelle's mother was just a girl herself. She had only been 13 years old when she delivered her daughter at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Despite her initial willingness to follow through with her pregnancy, 13-year-old Terry realized that she was not yet cut out for motherhood after about a month in the caring for Janelle. By March of 1972, Terry put Janelle up for adoption in the hopes of giving her daughter a better life than the one she would have been able to provide. At the very same time, a couple in Greeley, Colorado, named Jim and Gloria Matthews had been intently searching for another child to add to their slowly growing family. Upon hearing of Janelle's need for adoptive parents, Jim and Gloria decided to take her in as their own. Janelle was welcomed into the Matthews family with open arms, and became the baby sister to her new sibling Jennifer. And the rest, it seemed, was history. The Matthews family was complete. Throughout Janelle's childhood, she was raised to become strong and independent. Some may have called her assertiveness sassy, but any and all who met Janelle knew that she was one of the smartest 12-year-olds around. Janelle always had big, big plans in her day-to-day life. In fact, any small event was a big deal in Janelle's eyes because of her ever-present positive attitude. So, in 1984, as the holiday season overtook the Colorado city of Greeley, and Christmas day approached, 12-year-old Janelle was as excited as ever to spend time with friends and family. Unfortunately, for the Matthews family, evil does not take time off around the holidays. As per their usual holiday schedule, the school that Janelle and Jennifer attended, the Franklin Middle School, had been preparing for their choir's annual holiday concert. Janelle had been anticipating the concert for months, as she had been chosen to perform in it herself. However, in the days leading up to the concert, Janelle had come down with a cold. The cold was not debilitating, though it was an inconvenience for a young girl who desperately wanted to hang out with her friends before the holiday break. By December 20th, just days before Christmas, Janelle was practically begging her parents to let her go to school that day. Unlike most kids Janelle's age, who would do anything in their power to stay home from school, Janelle was adamant about going. Janelle assured her parents that she was feeling fine and that she would take it easy during the day. She told her parents that she had gifts to give to her friends, whom she wouldn't see for weeks because of winter break. Not to mention, Janelle had been looking forward to participating in the holiday concert for weeks, and she did not want to miss it for the world. So, Jim and Gloria agreed that Janelle could go to school and the concert, under one condition. She had to come straight home after the choir's performance to rest. Unfortunately, neither of Janelle's parents would actually be able to make it to the performance that evening. Her father Jim had promised Janelle's older sister Jennifer that he would watch her basketball game that night, while Janelle's mother Gloria needed to go out of town for a few days upon learning that her own mother had fallen ill across the country. Despite not having her family in the audience that evening, Janelle was nonetheless ecstatic to be a part of her school's small-scale production. And she was even able to meet up with one of her friends, Diana Ross, at the start of the event, and effectively secure herself a ride home from Diana's father Russell. The concert was everything that Janelle had hoped it would be. On the drive home in Diana's father's car, Janelle and Diana chatted about the event, their day, and their respective Christmas plans. It was the perfect ending to an amazing day in Janelle's eyes. Unfortunately, Janelle's night was far from over. As Russell pulled his car up along the curb outside of Janelle's home around 8:15 p.m., the two girls said their goodbyes and wished each other a Merry Christmas. Janelle got out of the car and headed up the driveway to the front door. Russell and Diana waited patiently in their car just outside, and watched to make sure that Janelle made it inside without any problems. Once inside, Janelle flashed the lights in the foyer to indicate that she was safely home. With that, Russell and Diana drove off toward their own home. Little did they know that they would be the last people ever to see Janelle alive. At around 8:30 p.m., records show that Janelle answered a call made to the Matthews home phone, and even took a message for her father, as the caller had been trying to reach Jim. Janelle's father was the principal of a nearby elementary school, called Platte Valley Elementary School. And one of the teachers had been trying to contact him to say that he wouldn't be at work the following morning. That was the last time anyone ever heard from Janelle. Well, with the exception of one other individual. The sinister one, lurking in the shadows. After finishing the call, Janelle allegedly made herself comfortable in the living room. She had a very specific spot on the couch that all but had her name engraved on it. She was known to sit on her side of the couch, next to her family's decadent Christmas tree, and relaxed by the warmth of a space heater. With Christmas just days away, that mental image of an exhausted Janelle curled up on the couch with her shawl draped over her shoulders was the epitome of the holiday season. Unfortunately, the calm of the evening was short-lived. At around 9:30 p.m., just an hour after Janelle had been dropped off, Jim arrived home to an empty house. The notion of an empty house was not necessarily out of the ordinary. He assumed at first that Janelle had simply stayed out a bit later with her friends, despite the agreement she had made with both of her parents before going to school that morning. And then Jim entered the living room. On the couch, Jim noticed three very specific things.

[7:27]Firstly, the heater was on with no one there to embrace its warmth. Second, Janelle's favorite shawl was strewn across the back of the couch, as if she had just taken it off the moment before. And lastly, a pair of Janelle's shoes were positioned perfectly in front of her usual spot on the couch, as if they had been kicked off the second she sat down. The only thing missing from the picturesque scene in the living room was Janelle. Jim tried to remain calm as he quickly searched the house for his youngest daughter. When he found no other sign of Janelle, Jim heard the front door open and rushed downstairs. When he arrived at the foot of the stairs, he let out a sigh as he locked eyes with Jennifer, who had returned home around 10:00. Jennifer was entirely unaware of her father's sudden panic. When she told him that she had not seen Janelle all night, he knew right away that something was terribly wrong. Almost immediately, Jim called the police and reported that his daughter was missing. Greeley police arrived at the Matthews residence at 320 43rd Avenue Court within 15 minutes of Jim's initial phone call. The possibility of a missing child in the chill of the winter was worthy of a rush. As the police walked around the interior and exterior of the home, they were astonished to find virtually no evidence of a struggle, nor any sign of forced entry. At first, the authorities believed that Janelle must have left on her own accord, even though she seemed to have left the house without so much as a pair of shoes or a jacket on a cold night. Jim assured the police that his 12-year-old daughter could not have gone very far if she was barefoot in the snow. And then, upon taking a closer look around the outside of the house, the officers found something peculiar. Footprints in the snow around the living room windows. Footprints that were too big to be left by a young girl and seemed to indicate that someone had been watching Janelle from outside the home. Despite the seemingly eerie nature of the footprints, the police carried on with their initial theory that Janelle had potentially run away. The authorities involved in the case eventually released a summary of her disappearance. On the evening of December 20, 1984, 12-year-old Janelle Matthews was dropped off at her parents' home by her friend's family at approximately 8:30 p.m. When her parents returned home later that night, they discovered that Janelle was missing. She was last seen wearing a red blouse, dark gray sweater vest, charcoal gray skirt, light blue ski jacket, and house slippers.

[10:17]Jim once again tried to convince the police that there was practically no way that Janelle would have run away. Jim stated, there were too many neat things happening to her. She had a girlfriend coming to sleep over the day after she disappeared. She was going to be in the Christmas presentation at church. She's such a ham plus with Christmas. Though the police acknowledged Jim's assertions, they followed through investigating Janelle's disappearance from the perspective of a runaway. They went through Janelle's locker and bedroom in hopes of finding any evidence of a plan to leave. Coming as no surprise to Jim and Gloria, the police found nothing out of the ordinary. The investigators' runaway theory was further debunked when Janelle had still not shown up back home in the days after her disappearance. In most cases of runaways, the child usually returns home within a few days after their initial choice to leave. As the police shifted their focus to examine the possibility that Janelle had actually been kidnapped from her home, there was only one real person of interest that they had in mind. Janelle's birth mother, Terry Vieira Martinez. It is not entirely uncommon for biological parents to reach out to their children long after having given them up for adoption. So, for weeks, investigators monitored Terry's movements in hopes of finding some indication that she had been involved with Janelle's disappearance. All the while her family panicked, and worried that something horrible had happened to their daughter. Though the police's initial assumption of Terry's involvement had been understandable, it was extremely far off, and unsubstantiated. In fact, Terry had not even known that her biological daughter was missing. More so than that, she never actually made contact with Janelle. Even with their most promising person of interest found to be completely innocent, the police certainly took their time to investigate other potential leads. They interviewed friends, family, neighbors, teachers, and essentially anyone who had been near the Matthews residence on the night of December 20th, 1984. Unfortunately, every lead that the investigators had eventually led to a dead end, and Janelle's case wasn't the only one on the nation's mind. During the 70s and 80s, more than 1 million children went missing in the United States every single year. One month after Janelle went missing, the news station KMGH reported on a 24-hour prayer vigil for Janelle's safe return. That was conducted at the Greeley Church where the Matthews attended. 12-year-old Janelle Matthews disappeared from her Greley home one month ago today. It's believed she's the victim of a kidnapping. She has not been seen or heard from since December 20th. Authorities and the girl's parents still have many avenues open to them in their search. But the Matthew's family feels their widest avenue is prayer. We want to pray for Janelle. We want to pray for the family that God can do the right things, that his timing will be precise. A 24-hour prayer vigil began at noon today at most Greley churches. The Matthews family, Jim, Gloria, and 16-year-old Jennifer attend the Sunny View Church of the Nazarene. Throughout the ordeal, their faith has been strong and unwavering. Meanwhile, Jim Matthews says he and his family will keep hanging on to the hope that Janelle is alive and will one day be found. We'll keep hanging on, he says, and will not give up. Months passed since Janelle disappeared, and in March of 1985, President Ronald Reagan decided it was time to speak out regarding the astonishing disappearances of children all over the country. Understanding the importance of the media, President Reagan pleaded with journalists across the country to help aid investigators in locating missing children and bringing them home. During his speech, President Reagan even mentioned Janelle by name, stating, Well, over a million American children disappear from their homes or neighborhoods every year, causing as we can all understand, heartbreaking anguish. For example, I learned about Janelle Matthews of Greeley, Colorado, who would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month. But five days before Christmas, Janelle disappeared from her home. Despite the efforts of the president and the media alike, Janelle's case went cold. There was a potential piece of evidence found in May of 1985, when a portion of a person's scalp was located on a farmer's land in Weld County. However, upon further investigation, the skin and hair attached to the scalp did not match Janelle's. After confirming that the remains did not belong to her daughter, Gloria stated, I wasn't really prepared emotionally to look at the scalp, but it was a job that had to be done. I felt a great sense of relief when I realized it wasn't Janelle. And despite the Matthews' initial relief, it was clear that the investigation was once again stuck, without any more leads. And it would remain that way for a very long time. 10 years had passed with no leads, no indication that Janelle was still alive, and no hope to locate her anytime soon. Nearly a decade after Janelle first went missing, Jim and Gloria finally had their daughter declared legally deceased. Despite the finality of declaring their daughter dead, Jim and Gloria longed for proper closure. They just wanted to understand what had happened to their bright little girl, whose smile lit up any room she entered. At the time, it seemed that the Matthews would never get answers to the heartbreaking questions they had been holding on to since 1984. Staying in Greeley proved to be far too painful for the Matthews family to bear over the years. Jim and Gloria eventually retired to Costa Rica, and Jennifer moved to Washington. And then in July of 2019, nearly 35 years after Janelle disappeared without a trace, the entire case broke wide open. As construction workers prepared land in a rural area of Greeley, Colorado's southeastern side for an oil and gas pipeline dig, they came across something peculiar. The team of construction workers had been slowly, but surely moving the earth around 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23rd, just a mere 15 miles southeast of Janelle's old home, When they shockingly came across a set of human remains. Upon further investigation and DNA testing, the buried remains were discovered to be those of 12-year-old Janelle Matthews. The girl whose disappearance had turned the town of Greeley upside down all those years before. Not only did the discovery of Janelle's remains allow for the Matthews family to come to terms with their daughter's disappearance, But it also allowed investigators to determine Janelle's cause of death. You see, despite the fact that her body had obviously decomposed in the 30 years since it had been buried, There was a very clear bullet hole in what remained of her skull. As the investigation finally began, Janelle's parents returned to Greeley to put their daughter to rest in her hometown. For them, uncovering Janelle's remains meant that their daughter had been dead for the entirety of the 35 years that they had hoped endlessly to eventually bring her home. Despite this discovery, it did not provide them with any answers as to what actually happened to Janelle, just days before Christmas in 1984. On September 13th, 2019, investigators from Greeley Police Department publicly announced that they had a person of interest in Janelle's abduction and subsequent murder. In fact, the suspect was none other but a man whom they had secretly had their eye on the entire time. Steve Pankey. Steve Pankey was not an average former Greeley resident. Rather, he was well known and influential. He had actually run for governor in Idaho in 2014 and 2018, and even ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2010. You might be wondering, what does a politician have to do with a three-decade-old cold case? The answer is sure to shock you. Pankey was first associated with the land where Janelle's remains were found, though he later denied any connection, and instead claimed that the police began investigating him out of dislike. He said, I don't think they have a really good suspect, and I'm somebody they don't like, so I think that's it. His home in Twin Falls was searched under a warrant on behalf of Greeley PD's assumption that he was directly responsible for the abduction and murder of Janelle Matthews. At the time of Janelle's initial kidnapping, Steve Pankey and his now ex-wife had lived just about two miles away from the Matthews' home.

[19:58]After the police search of his house, Pankey said, 31 days ago, they searched my house, took a whole bunch of stuff, and I'm still at home, so obviously in all my stuff, they've found nothing connecting me to it. It, being Janelle's murder. Pankey even voluntarily agreed to give a DNA sample to the police, a choice that may prove critical later. At the time of Janelle's disappearance, Pankey had served as a youth pastor at the very same church that the Matthews family attended weekly. Upon further investigation, Steve Pankey claimed to have never even known the Matthews family. Rather, he asserted that he had only ever heard of them as a result of Janelle's case. Number one, it wasn't until my wife and I and her five-year-old returned from Colorado from California to Colorado on December 26th. That was my first night, my first on that night in the car radio is the first time I heard that Janelle Matthews existed or disappeared. That was my first knowledge of that. Yet, in an interview with the Colorado Sun, Pankey contradicts his story by acknowledging that he had, in fact, been a youth pastor at the church. Shockingly, he also includes the information that he had been accused of assault by the piano player at the church. Not only did he know Janelle and her family personally, but he had also made efforts to speak with detectives following her initial disappearance. According to the police, Steve Pankey initially inserted himself in the investigation many times over the years, And even claimed to have potential knowledge of the crime that could help officers. However, he refused to give investigators any information unless they granted him immunity beforehand. Back when the case first began, Steve Pankey had discussed some details with the police, accidentally mentioning that the footprints that remained in the snow outside of the Matthews' home had been covered up using a rake. That small piece of information had never actually been released to the public, Causing the police to have their initial suspicions regarding Pankey's potential role in Janelle's disappearance. Yet beyond that, they had no probable cause to investigate him at the time. According to the police, Pankey claimed to have watched the students walk home from Franklin Middle School almost every day. The same school that Janelle and her sister attended around the time of her disappearance. Yet Pankey declared that he and his wife had been at home on the night of Janelle's disappearance, as they had been planning on heading out of town the next day for a trip to Big Bear Lake in California. However, upon receiving fall statements and superfluous details regarding the trip itself, the police decided to interview Pankey's now ex-wife, Angela Hicks. Angela told the police that she and Steve had actually started their trip on December 22nd, 1984, not on the 21st. More so than that, Angela said that the trip was not planned. It was entirely unexpected. When the couple returned to Greeley on the day after Christmas, Angela said her then husband had taken an unusual interest in Janelle's case. And even forced her to read the newspaper articles concerning the case. And then Steve even started digging in the yard of their shared home for a reason he never revealed to Angela. Later that same week, a vehicle stored on their property mysteriously caught fire and burned to a crisp. In 2008, Steve Pankey's own son was murdered unexpectedly. Angela recalled that at their son's funeral, Steve stated, I hope God didn't allow this to happen because of Janelle Matthews. At the time, she'd not thought much of it, as she had assumed that Steve was grieving and at a loss for comprehensive words. Pankey later addresses this accusation in a statement. Now another interesting layer to this whole case Scratch and is that when police searched his home, Pankey told me that they took a DVD from him. And on that DVD was actually his son's funeral from 2008. Now, I asked him why? Detectives would want to take this. And Pankey said that he heard the detectives think that on that DVD is a recording of him saying that he hopes this didn't happen to his son because of what happened to Janelle Matthews. Now Pankey said that that thought has never crossed his mind and that he's never said those words ever. Despite being ultimately unhelpful with the police search when Janelle first went missing, after his name was again associated with the disappearance, Pankey was not afraid to speak liberally with journalists and news outlets. In fact, he had many inflammatory interviews with reporters as the investigation turned to see him as a primary suspect. Pankey eventually gave a 51-minute incendiary interview to KTVB. He speaks casually and with flat effect through the entire interview, and his manner, one arm cast leisurely over the back of a bench, appears far too unfeeling for a man suspected of the horrific murder of a child. When speaking of the night that Janelle went missing, he reveals he has, as he puts it, a gay background. I have a gay background. It's all over the internet. It's well known, and I had had multiple problems with local law enforcement, and so I was thinking, oh no, here's coming another arbitrary charge. So, they just they flashed their lights towards my house and towards the house next to me, and then they just turn around and left. So I thought nothing more about it. We went to bed. As pointed out by keen observers in the video comments, Pankey seems to mention his homosexual background frequently in the interview, as a way to dismiss any belief that he would have an interest in young girls like Janelle. I got a copy of the newspaper and Janelle Matthews thing was all over it. It was the only murder in the area that was at the time, or or disappearance at the time that was talked about.

[29:56]So I was thinking this is the end of it. There'll be no more. Pankey has even taken to social media to air his grievances with the Greeley Police Department, and his claim that the police have tried to frame him for the young girl's murder. When asked why he wants Janelle's case to be resolved, Pankey's answer appears to have a distinctly frustrated tone.

[32:13]Probably most people don't realize in the 300,000 or how many missing exploited children there are across the United States. There are a lot of people that are victims in it. It goes there are rock in the pond has many rings and just keeps going out. There's a lot, there's a lot here. I am not against them solving it. Okay. I'm for solving it. On October 13th, 2020, Steve Pankey was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Janelle's disappearance and subsequent death. As of November 2020, 69-year-old Steve Pankey is being held without bail in the Ada County jail in Idaho, awaiting his eventual extradition to Colorado for trial. Upon Pankey's potential association with the case becoming public knowledge, a variety of true crime podcasts have realized that Steve is a Patreon patron of theirs.

[33:21]One of the first and only podcasts to cover the Janelle Matthews case. Chillingly, Pankey was even discovered to have been a Patreon of the popular podcast, The Trail Went Cold, one of the first and only podcasts to cover the Janelle Matthews case, so, YIKES! Perhaps Steve Pankey's eerie obsession with Janelle's case is an indication of something far darker than his claimed status as an average true crime lover. It will be interesting to see what happens through the course of Steve Pankey's trial, as he is the first proper person of interest in the Janelle Matthews case in the last 36 years. We don't yet know what happened that cold winter night. But soon, we may finally find out. Perhaps the most positive thing to take away from Janelle's story is this. She and her family may finally receive closure to know what happened to the unsuspecting 12-year-old girl who was brutally murdered all those years before.