Man charged with kidnapping Amish teen walking home from church

LANCASTER – A Lancaster County man has been charged with kidnapping an Amish teenager, who disappeared several weeks ago and remains missing.

Prosecutors said Saturday they believe she “was harmed following her abduction.”

Justo Smoker, 34, of Paradise,

was arrested Friday and charged with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment in the case of Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, who has been missing since June 21, the Lancaster County district attorney’s office said. Stoltzfoos was last seen walking home from church in the Bird-inHand area.

Prosecutors say surveillance video obtained by East Lampeter Township police and enhanced by FBI forensic technicians “depicts the abduction” of Stoltzfoos on Beechdale Road, which would have been part of her route. That video shows a red sedan involved in the abduction, and the defendant owns the same kind of car, prosecutors said.

Multiple witnesses reported seeing an Amish female in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by a man, and descriptions of the driver and vehicle are consistent with the defendant and his car, investigators said. Police also “found nothing indicating Stoltzfoos was unhappy and wanted to leave her community,” prosecutors said.

Investigators on Friday searched a rural location in

Ronks where they believe Stoltzfoos might have been taken and where the vehicle was seen parked June 23. They found clothing believed to be hers buried in a wooded area, prosecutors said.

No other information was provided about why authorities believe she was harmed.

The FBI earlier posted a reward of up to $10,000 for information about Stoltzfoos and “the identification, arrest and conviction of the subject(s) responsible for her disappearance.”

Smoker was arraigned Saturday and denied bail.

Court documents don’t list an attorney representing Smoker and a telephone number listed in his name was disconnected.