Suspect appears in court in girl’s 1984 murder

GREELEY » A former longshot Idaho gubernatorial candidate charged with kidnapping and killing a 12year- old Colorado girl who disappeared after a holiday concert more than 30 years ago made his first court appearance in the state on Friday.

Steven D. Pankey went before a judge in Greeley for a brief hearing two days after being sent there to face prosecution in the killing of his former neighbor, Jonelle Matthews, in 1984.

He appeared in person, wearing an orange jail uniform and a mask, standing next to his lawyer in a courtroom with limited capacity because of the pandemic. Matthews’ parents and sister watched the proceedings remotely by video.

Judge Timothy Kerns told Pankey he would be held without bail for now. Pankey’s lawyer, Anthony Viorst, said he planned to ask Kerns to consider allowing him to be released on bail after a Dec. 4 hearing scheduled to weigh the evidence against him.

Pankey was arrested at his home in Meridian, Idaho, on Oct. 12, a day before prosecutors announced he had been indicted by a grand jury.

Jonelle’s family searched fruitlessly for years for her as her picture was printed on milk cartons during a national missing- children campaign in the 1980s. Her remains were discovered in 2019 in a rural area southeast of Greeley. She died from a single gunshot wound to her forehead, according to prosecutors.

In the decades since he lived in Colorado, he has run as a Constitution Party candidate for Idaho governor in 2014 and in the Republican primary in 2018.

Jonelle disappeared on Dec. 20, 1984, after being dropped at home by a friend and the friend’s father. She was last seen at 8 p. m., entering the ranchstyle home where she lived with her father, Jim; mother, Gloria; and sister. But when her father returned from her sister’s basketball game an hour later, Jonelle was gone.