Going West: True Crime - Jonelle Matthews // 98

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

*In December 1984, a 12-year-old girl in Colorado went missing after returning to her empty home from a choir performance. Years went by and no one knew what happened to this little girl. But in insane recent events, everything changed. This is the murder of Jonelle Matthews.* *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.denverpost.com/2020/10/13/jonelle-matthews-arrest-cold-case-greeley/ https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/01/jonelle-matthews-greeley-police-murder-cold-case-pankey/ https://www.greeleytribune.com/2020/10/16/unredacted-autopsy-report-jonelle-matthews-killed-with-single-gunshot-wound-to-the-head/ https://www.greeleytribune.com/2019/07/25/greeley-police-bones-discovered-at-oil-and-gas-site-are-remains-of-jonelle-matthews/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50885382/jonelle-renee-matthews https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/01/jonelle-matthews-greeley-police-murder-cold-case-pankey/ https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2019/09/13/idaho-man-investigated-murder-jonelle-matthews/2312954001/ https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Jonelle_Matthews Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Today, we have such a crazy case out of Colorado that has recently had some major developments. Boy do we have some wild stuff to talk about. But before we get into today's case, we just wanted to let everybody know that we do have some social media accounts that you guys can follow. We always post photos of these cases that we cover, so you can follow us over on Instagram, at Going West Podcast, and over on Twitter at GoingWestPod.

We also have a discussion group on Facebook that is going West Discussion Group. Also, we've decided as part of our 100th episode at the very end, we're gonna have a Q&A. We did a Q&A for our 50th episode, and we asked you guys on social media last week what you wanted to see for the 100th episode, and a lot of people said a Q&A. But we don't want to make the whole episode of Q&A.

So we're going to do a case and then a Q&A. So if anybody has any kind of questions for Heath and I or questions about the podcast or whatever, go ahead and send us a message on one of our social medias and we'll go ahead and save that and we'll put in that episode. Yeah, definitely. Make sure you do that. We're going to be posting on our social media accounts to remind you guys to give us some questions So if you have any lingering questions about the show just like definitely said leave us a message

All right guys, this is episode 98 of going west. So let's get into it In December 1984, a 12-year-old girl in Colorado went missing after returning to her empty home from a choir performance. Years went by and no one knew what happened to this little girl. But in unbelievable recent events, everything changed. This is the murder of Janelle Matthews. Janelle Renée Matthews was born on February 9, 1972 in Santa Barbara, California. Janelle Renee Matthews was born on February 9, 1972 in Santa Barbara, California. Janelle was quickly put up for adoption as a baby and an amazing family was able to find her. And that was Gloria and Jim Matthews of Camarillo, California, which is in Ventura County, just outside of Los Angeles County. And they already had a three-year-old daughter named Jennifer at this point,

but they were very eager to have another child so they could kind of fill up the family. But Gloria and Jim had a pretty difficult time conceiving, and after many attempts to have a second child, they decided to move forward with adopting a child. That's when they visited the Children's Home Society of California in Santa Barbara, and during the adoption process, they found sweet, dark-haired, one-month-old Janelle, who looked like she just fit right in with their family. So after they were approved, they took her home.

Jim was a lifelong educator, and within a couple years of adopting Janelle, he got the opportunity to teach in Beirut, which is the largest city in Lebanon. So he and his little family of four made the move out of the United States and into the Middle East for about three years until 1978, when he was offered a position as the Director of Development at a Christian Academy, which teaches from preschool all the way to 12th grade in Greeley, Colorado. With a population of around 100,000 people, Greeley hosts the University of Northern Colorado

and sits about an hour's drive north of Denver. But at some point after their move, Jim had taken a new position as a principal at Platt Valley Elementary School in the neighboring town of Kersi, Colorado. Janelle grew up as a very spunky and outgoing child who absolutely loved the arts. So six years into their move to Greeley in December of 1984, when Janelle was 12 years old and nearing her 13th birthday, Janelle was getting ready for a concert. She had previously done a number of performances with her school's chorus,

as well as auditioning and performing in several plays, but this particular event was a Christmas show. In the days leading up to this performance, Janelle had come down with a common illness, but she insisted on attending school so that she could give all of her friends her hand crossed-ditch gifts that she made them for Christmas, which is so sweet. That upcoming Friday, December 21st,

1984, so the day after the concert was the last day of school before winter break. So she wanted to make sure that she could get these presents to her friends and she also didn't want to sit in bed all week, which kind of says a lot about her personality considering most kids take any opportunity to stay home from school. Oh yeah, I did. Oh me too. That week went on and Thursday came, but none of her family could be there to see her perform. Unfortunately, her mom Gloria was leaving town that same day to aid to her sick father in Southern California, so she wasn't able to make it to Janelle's performance. But Jim and Jennifer, remember Jim and her dad, Janifer's her sister, wouldn't make it either, because 16-year-old Janifer had a basketball game at her school, which was

a Greeley Central High School, and so she would play in the game and her dad was going to go watch her play. So on Thursday, December 20th, 1984, seventh grader, Janelle, headed to McDonald's with her dad, Jim, and they grabbed some burgers before Jim dropped her off at her performance. And this was about the same time that Gloria headed to Denver for her flight to Los Angeles. Then at around 6 p.m., Jim took Janelle to Interwest Bank in Greeley, which is where the show was, and then he headed to Jennifer's school for the basketball game while Janelle performed with her fellow choir group of Franklin Middle School. After the performance ended at around 8 p.m., Janelle's friend Dianne and Dianne's dad dropped Janelle off at her house. Again, no one was at the house because her whole family was out, so she went into her house alone. She actually had asked her parents if she could attend whatever was left of Jennifer's basketball game

after the show, so she could support her sister, but since she was still a bit sick, they told her to just go home and rest. Shortly after returning home at around 8.30 pm, she received a call at the house from one of her father's co-workers. She took a message stating that she, the teacher co-worker, needed a substitute for the next day and then hung up the phone. Little did this teacher know, she would be the last person to speak to Janelle. An hour later at approximately 9.30 p.m., Jim returned home and noticed the garage door was open. It didn't strike him as odd right away, so he walked into the house to settle in for the night. And Jennifer was still finishing up the basketball game, so she would be home shortly after after him but right now it was just Jim.

The Matthews family had a bi-level house so basically you walk up some stairs to get to the front door and then the living room is inside and downstairs and I'm a visual person so if this doesn't make sense to you just google bi-level house for a better visual. So Jim walked inside and yelled hi Janelle just so she knew it was him coming through the door and that he was home. But Janelle didn't answer. When Jim walked down into the living room, he saw Janelle's shoes, along with her favorite pillow, on the floor, next to the electric heater, and the TV was on, kind of painting the image that when Janelle returned home, she snung it up in the living room to get warm and just rest for the night. Jim automatically assumed Janelle was probably in her room, so it being five days to Christmas, he decided to take a few minutes to wrap a Christmas present for one of his co-workers at the elementary school he worked at, and the present was for one of the janitors.

As soon as he finished wrapping it, which was maybe ten minutes later, he went around the house looking for Janelle. When Jim got to her room, he realized that she wasn't there, and confusion set in pretty quickly. As he walked around the house, he noticed the note that Janelle took from his coworker, ensuring even further that Janelle had recently been in the house. And because of this, he tried not to worry, and he just hoped that maybe Jennifer would know where she was. So about 15 minutes later at 10pm, Jennifer came home

from her basketball game, and her dad Jim asked her if she knew where her sister Janelle was, but she didn't. With that, Jim picked up the phone and thought about calling police, but you really couldn't imagine that something could have happened to her if she had seemingly just been there. But considering it was just 10 degrees Fahrenheit that night, or negative 12 Celsius, and snowy, he knew Janelle wouldn't have gone for a walk or left the house, especially since her shoes were in the living room and she was also sick. So he called his best friend, who was a pastor named James Christie and he told James about what was going on and asked what he thought he should do. But Pastor James didn't advise Jim to wait this out but instead to just call police in case something actually did happen.

After hanging up, Jim called the Greeley Police Department and explained to them everything that had happened that night. The garage door was open, that Janelle's things were in the living room, and that she was just nowhere to be found. And about 20 minutes later, multiple officers arrived at the house to figure out where Janelle Matthews went. Upon their arrival, they noticed some footprints in the snow leading up to one of the windows of the house and to them

This indicated that someone had possibly been peering inside the home. Yeah, that's never a good sign when you see Footprints outside of a window on the outside of a house Well, because this isn't something that you're gonna do to your own house Like you don't just walk up to your own house and look through your own window. Yeah, that's yeah, you're right So obviously a very clear red flag here. So, police wondered if maybe Janelle opened the door for someone after she got home, like maybe somebody knocked on the door, or maybe the front door or the garage door was open,

and someone just walked in and abducted her. There also wasn't a sign of a struggle, so maybe was she abducted in the doorway possibly? They started to weigh out all the options and work as fast as they could. Because none of this was looking good. Like Heath said, she's sick, she has no shoes, she's not just walking outside by herself, this looked really bad. Yeah.

So now the town of Greeley and the surrounding areas were looking for a 5-foot, 3-inch, 115-pound brunette girl with brown eyes, braces, and pierced ears. A few hours later, at about 1am, Gloria called Jim to tell him that she had finally gotten to Los Angeles safely. She was supposed to arrive earlier, but considering it was a cold and snowy night in Denver 2, where she was flying out of, her flight was delayed a bit. When Jim answered, he broke Gloria the news that they didn't know where Janelle was, and that the police were there to help look for her.

Which must have been so frustrating for Gloria who had just landed in a different state, because I'm sure all she wanted in that moment was to teleport back to Colorado and figure out what was going on. Yeah, that's got to be the worst feeling. I just, I feel so bad because, like you said, you know, it's not like she can just catch a flight right back. I mean, she probably could, but, but it's still going to take some time to fly back to Colorado. Yeah, this is not good news. And we couldn't actually find any information if Gloria did return home right after hearing about this or if she stayed in California, but we assume that she returned very shortly after this instead of staying in California.

Especially since the first person being considered a suspect was Janelle's adoptive father, Jim Matthews. So, the last person to be in the Matthew home that evening after Janelle was her father Jim. So naturally, police wondered if his story was even true. Did he really come home to the scene or was he telling a lie to cover up for something far worse that he himself did? When this was all happening, Jim wasn't playing the terrified father. He was extremely calm, and this was a big red flag for investigators. Since he was also naturally close to Janelle, it was important to be able to rule Jim out and he completely understood this.

He was a potential suspect right off the bat, so when the next morning came, which was Friday, December 21, 1984, the last day before winter break, the police dropped Jennifer off at her high school while Jim remained at the police station. Jim was being extremely cooperative the whole time and even willingly took polygraph tests administered by the FBI, which he passed. The months had passed on and still, the only suspect in this case was Jim. They didn't have any evidence of whatever happened to Janelle, but they always wondered if he was involved, so they consistently

brought him in for questioning over the next six months or so of this investigation, which he complied with. But obviously, this took a toll on his personal life because other people in the community wondered what had happened to Janelle and if he was actually responsible. Finally, around seven months into the investigation, Jim became incredibly verbally frustrated with the investigators, stating his confusion as to why he was still being looked at because he had absolutely nothing to do with whatever happened to Janelle. And after that, investigators virtually stopped pursuing him. They too knew that they didn't have anything on him and that he likely didn't commit any crime.

Police also wondered if Jinelle's birth parents were behind this. Did Jinelle maybe find their identity and reach out and then they came and found her or did they regret giving her up for adoption and find her themselves? Investigators felt this could be a really good lead, so they started secretly keeping tabs on Janelle's birth mother. They didn't want to tell her so she wasn't tipped off in case she was involved, but after watching her for some time, they didn't suspect she was behind this. Three months after Janelle went missing, President Ronald Reagan mentioned her in a speech

he gave in 1985. He said, Well, before I close, I want to speak to you just briefly about a great power for public service that you possess. I'd like to suggest one especially tragic area where your newspapers can do a great deal of good. The problem of missing children. Well over a million American children disappear from their homes or neighborhoods every year causing, as we can all understand, heartbreaking anguish. Parents cry out for help, many through letters to me.

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. Letters like these touch us deeply, and we've tried our best to help. Last June, we opened the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,

which runs a toll-free hotline and gives other aid as well. But a president can only do so much. So today, I'd like to ask for your help. We saw how reaction to the television program Adam led to recovery of at least 36 missing children. We also know how melt cart manufacturers have begun putting photos of missing children on melt cartons. If you're newspapers, and forgive me for sticking my nose in your business, but if you could publish

as a regular feature, pictures and descriptions of children missing in or near your circulation areas, I know that you would give the police a welcome new source of leads that could solve some of these cases. So I'm asking you to enlist your newspapers in this mission of mercy. Even if it only finds one missing child, it's worth it. A few years after Janelle went missing, her parents declared her legally dead. At that point, they had come to terms with the fact that they would probably never know what happened to their daughter.

And ten years after she disappeared, her birth mother, Terry Vera Martinez, reached out to Jim and Gloria to see if she could meet Janelle. Jim and Gloria had never met Terry, and she actually reached out to Jim and Gloria to see if she could meet Janelle. Jim and Gloria had never met Terry, and she actually reached out to a consultant to help locate her child's new parents, so she could ask for permission to meet Janelle, who at that point would be about 22 years old. Terry had no idea what happened to Janelle, so Gloria and Jim had to explain to her that Janelle had disappeared 10 years prior. And it's almost like this tragedy brought them together because they all

became really close friends. But around this time, Jim was retiring and he and Gloria decided that they wanted to move to Puerto Rico. So they gave Terry and police their new address in case anything were ever discovered regarding Janelle. At this time, Jennifer had also moved out of Colorado and to the state of Washington. On Tuesday, July 23, 2019, so 34 and a half years after Janelle went missing, there was some construction going on just outside of Greeley in Lassal, Colorado, along the side of a country road. This area is very rural and flat, so this whole general area is pretty much just country roads, flat plains, some rivers, and a reservoir. Some construction workers were installing a pipeline underground and at approximately 450 pm, they came across skeletal remains.

This was immediately called into local police who carefully removed the body and brought it to the Weld County Corners office. Based on dental records, they were able to clarify that the remains belonged to Janelle Matthews, and that her manner of death was homicide. And they described finding her remains as a miracle because if the workers hadn't dug in that exact area, like if they had dug just a couple feet over, her remains would likely never have been found. Oh my god, it's so crazy when stuff like this happens because someone could be missing for 30 plus years, 40 plus years, and then all the sudden these remains are found and

they're identified. Like, it's just mind blowing when this happens. I know, I always think about this with my aunt because for those who don't know, my mom's sister disappeared in 1984 and basically her remains were never found but we know that she was murdered because all this other stuff.

But it just always makes me think like, this happens to so many people where they're murdered and they're missing and nobody knows where their remains are and it's like they are out there somewhere and it's just a matter of whether or not someone is going to find them or not. Yeah and unfortunately a lot of times the remains aren't found but in the cases where they are I just think like you said it's a miracle honestly. It really is.

And by the way we did put photos of this area in which she was found on our social medias, along with photos of her and everything else in this case. Genelle's body was found 15 miles or 24 kilometers away from her family's old home. Her cause of death was very clear, a single gunshot wound to her left frontal bone in her school. There was no bullet in her head

though, and they determined that it had exited out the back of her head when it was fired. Considering the condition her remains were in, they were not able to determine whether or not she was sexually assaulted. As soon as it was determined that the remains belonged to Janelle, police called Jim and Gloria to explain their findings and they were in complete disbelief. But a part of them felt relieved that they could finally put their daughter to rest. But now that they had her body, a whole new chapter was starting. The chapter of finding out what happened to her and who killed her. Jennifer, Janelle's sister, stated, because of our faith, we feel all will be revealed whether that's here or in heaven.

Our prayer now is that the police are able to find whoever is responsible and that they're still alive and cooperative so we can get even more closure. About two months after Janelle's remains were found on September 13th, 2019, police announced that they had a person of interest in her case. A 68-year-old man named Stephen Dana Panky, a man who was 33 years old and living just two miles away from the Matthews' home, when Janelle went missing. Over the years, Stephen had inserted himself into the investigation in many ways and even claimed to know details of the crime. But he was never considered an official suspect, or known to the public at all, since police didn't have a body.

Stephen Panky was born in Ventura, California in 1951, which I think is kind of interesting because that's Ventura is very close to Santa Barbara, which is where Janelle was born. In his early 20s, he enlisted in the US Army in Denver, which is how he got to Colorado. But after just one year, he was discharged and he believes that this is because of his homosexual activity. And he says, after this, he quote unquote, left the gay lifestyle and repented for that. After he was discharged at the age of 25, he moved up to Greeley and accepted a job as a security guard at the Northern Colorado Detective Agency. But he wasn't very good at this job and appeared to have gained some sort

of like power complex because he used his security guard status on people as much as he could. Oh God, so he's that dick. You know what's funny is when I was researching this part, I was like, he's gonna hate this. Oh God, I hate power trips. I fucking hate power trippy people. And yeah, during one instance, he maced a couple of teenagers

when they wouldn't put up their hands when he asked. And it turns out the kids were doing nothing wrong and this incident was actually reported. So he was like, put up your hands and they wouldn't because they're like, we're not doing anything and then he literally just maced him in the face. Dick. Yeah. So around this time, Steven apparently began studying criminal justice at Ames Community College in Greeley, but this is yet to be confirmed. In 1977, a woman accused Steven of rape and filed a report and then received an abortion since he had impregnated her.

So he's also just, on top, he's just a big piece of shit. Yeah, pretty much. He threatened to tell her church of the abortion so she dropped the rape charges against him about a month later. And then he filed a lawsuit against her. But we're not sure on what grounds. I think it was probably for false, like a false accusation. Like libel or something like that? Yeah, like he's just trying to get her back.

Yeah. So a lot of this information is actually known because in 1993, so about nine years after Janelle was murdered, Steven self-published a fictional book with autobiographical elements titled Graveyard, the untold story which goes into his personal life and is upbringing. So it feels like this guy is full of himself, he thinks that his life is somehow extraordinary. So in this book he discussed how his father, who was a youth for Christ leader, didn't give he or his siblings much attention.

And in this book, he did mention the woman who accused him of rape, but he also says that she falsely accused him of rape. He also has a website up called, Panky for Idaho.com, that includes information about his personal life because, crazy enough, he ran for governor of Idaho years later, which we'll discuss in a minute. Throughout his life, Stephen had been known to harass people.

No real shock there. In 1982, Stephen was cited for a verbal disagreement that he had with two people outside of K-Mart in Gredley. Then in 1984, the same year Janelle was abducted and murdered, multiple people in his own family made complaint about him harassing them. His aunt reported this harassment and stated that he would follow her when she left the house to run errands, and in a single day, he had called her nearly 60 times. Okay.

Yeah, he's that dude. This dispute was regarding the fact that Steven had obtained some property from her, his aunt, and he wanted the tenants removed immediately and this didn't happen, so he became irate. In April of 1984, other family members reported Steven for making repeated phone calls to them as well. And around this time too, a woman reported Steven for a previous rape that occurred when

she was a teenager. She said that Stephen was staying at her house after her parents let him stay there for unknown reasons, and that at some point in Stephen's young life, he had been sent to a mental hospital. Although proof hasn't yet been discovered, much of Stephen's book takes place inside a psychiatric hospital, so this is believed to be true. So this is Stephen's second rape allegation and multiple people in this family came forward to police that he was harassing them.

Five years after Ginele's disappearance in 1989, Stephen Panky moved to Ketchum, Idaho, then eventually to Shoshone, and then finally Twin Falls Idaho. And in 2014 and 2018, Ran in the Republican primary for Governor. He was one of seven declared candidates and was a Constitution nominee. In 2018, he received 2,701 votes, so he came in fifth place. But overall, he lost to Brad Little, who won the Republican primaries, with 72,518 votes. So he didn't get that many votes, but still, he beat out two other people, so.

Yeah, but still not even close. While investigators questioned Stephen after Janelle's remains were found, he stated that he hadn't heard about her disappearance until December 26th, and that he had also never met Janelle nor her family. He said on December 21st, he and his then-wife Angela Hicks left for a family trip to Big Bear, California to celebrate Christmas with his parents in the West Coast Mountains. But later, his ex-wife stated that they didn't leave until December 22nd, one day after Steven said that they had left, and two days after Janelle went missing. And she also mentioned that the trip was incredibly unexpected.

During their drive home days later, Angela says that Stephen was searching for news on the radio regarding Angela's disappearance, and she said this was very out of character of him. Like, it's struck her as odd how much he was trying to find this news. Then, when they arrived home on December 26th, Stephen immediately went into their backyard and started digging, and it doesn't seem like she paid much attention to this though, because she didn't have any other information on what he was digging and why. But two days later, a car on their property burst into flames and Stephen proceeded to dump said car at a local salvage yard.

And I mean, we can only assume that he blew this car up to destroy some evidence. Yeah, and it kind of seems like Steven had been on the Greeley Police Department's radar for a while regarding Janelle's case because in 2013, Steven sent him a document detailing his alibi during the time Janelle disappeared. AKA the trip to Big Bear.

And this is really weird. Why would you ever do that if police weren't really actually looking into you in the first place? Well, exactly. And this isn't even something that the police requested at all. He just did this on his own. But apparently, they were able to determine that many of the statements in this document were fabricated. Not to mention the trip began two days after Janelle went missing,

so that trip doesn't account for his time during her actual abduction. Also, in the years leading up to Janelle's remains being discovered, Steven released a letter to the public that stated that he theorized that Janelle died on the way to the hospital with a trusted adult, and that trusted adult called a friend who was a police officer and they covered it up.

This is such a specific theory. It just proves that Stephen was talking about the case and was interested in it and was inserting himself into the investigation like, what is this? And it also proves that he's trying to mislead investigators and point them in the wrong direction away from himself. Exactly. While Stephen was in the process of being questioned after the remains were found,

he tried to defer the attention from himself again, with another letter about unethical police. He wrote, for 35 years, the Janelle Matthews case has never been about Janelle Matthews. It's been about white, greedly cops covering for the bad act of a white cop. So again, he's theorizing that a cop helped cover up the crime against Janelle, which by the way there is absolutely no evidence of what so ever, so it just makes you wonder how he even came up with such a theory and why he's so confident about it.

Again, probably to take attention off himself. But he was pitching this theory since the beginning. Because according to the Greeley Tribune, which had a lot of information on this case, in March 1985, about three months after Janelle went missing, police interviewed him and he talked about the fact that two police officers lived on the same block as Janelle, meaning they would be close to help cover up the crime. But what this statement also did was prove that he knew where Janelle lived and he knew the people who lived on her street. In this original interview, he also discussed the fact that a rake was used in order to cover

up shoe impressions that the abductor had made in the snow. Because remember we talked about the fact that there were footprints leading up to the Matthews' window? The prints had been partially raked through to cover up any actual evidence of shoe size and print and somehow, without this information being released, Stephen knew about it. Over the years, like we said, Stephen talked about the case and offered information to police about Janelle's case, including one incident when Stephen asked for immunity in exchange for information regarding Janelle's case, which is kind of weird that he wanted immunity if he was supposedly innocent, but the strange stuff isn't over yet.

His ex-wife Angela was also able to provide some more information that could further implicate Stephen for the crime, including the following. She told police that during a church service in early 1985, the minister spoke about how he knew that Janelle would be found safe and that she would return home. And while the minister was saying this, Stephen kept whispering, false prophet. A false prophet is someone who claims they can speak to God but can't, meaning that the minister saying that God told him Janelle would return home safe was a lie and that the minister wasn't talking to God at all. And Stephen knew this because he knew Janelle was already dead.

Which is so creepy to me because this is such a small little thing. But by him saying false profit and keep you know whispering it and Angela heard this, he's basically saying oh this guy can't talk to God because if he really was, he would be telling him that Genelle was dead because she is because I killed her. This also proves to me that he's proud of what he's done, because it's almost like he's snickering to himself, making a joke to himself. So that to me proves that he's proud of what he's done,

and he's pretty cocky about it as well. Totally agree, and another creepy thing that Angela told police was that she remembered in 1999, Stephen looked at her and said, you don't think I could have heard or do you? She looked just like you. And this is such a telling moment, and it just makes me wonder if maybe Angela

and Steven didn't have a good relationship, and it's almost like he took his anger out on Janelle, a girl who possibly looked like his wife, instead of taking it out on his actual wife. And we've actually seen this happen before, like with certain serial killers, they are dating a girl who maybe has brown hair and brown eyes, and then the killer's MO becomes killing

girls who have brown hair and brown eyes to kind of almost take it out on, take out the revenge on that, that first girlfriend. Yeah, we have seen this in other cases, whether it looks like their mom or it looks like their ex who destroyed them, like, is definitely a thing. Yeah. Crazy enough, in 2008, Stephen and Angela's son was murdered in Phoenix, Arizona. His name was Carl Wesley Panky, and he was born on August 6, 1987. While living in Phoenix to attend college, he was shot and killed by his girlfriend at the age of 20. And we couldn't find any details regarding this murder or why it happened like I really looked.

But if Steven's guilty, it's pretty ironic. In 2008, during his son's funeral, Angela heard Steven say, I hope God didn't allow this to happen because of Janelle Matthews. In 2019, after Panky was questioned again, police issued a search warrant for his home and discovered that he had searched Janelle's case

on the internet repeatedly. They were also able to tell that after he had been questioned when her remains were found, all previous search history was attempted to be deleted. Yeah, that just, it's just one more sign that this guy's responsible for the crime. In November of 2017, so about a year and a half before Janelle's remains were found, the trail went cold, which is a really great true half before Janelle's remains were found. The trail went cold, which is a really great true crime podcast that you guys have probably heard of that's been around since 2016 and hosted by Robin Warder, covered this case.

This was obviously before the public news Stephen Panky's name, so he wasn't mentioned in the episode. By now, you guys all know what Patreon is. It's a place where you can help support podcasters and get bonus episodes. So get this, and May of 2019, just two months before Janelle's remains were found, Steven Panky became a Patreon supporter of the trail went cold, meaning that Steven had likely looked up Janelle Matthews in his podcast app. Found the Trail went colds episode on her case. Listen to it and continue to listen to the show and enjoy it so much that he decided to start donating $10 a month on

Patreon, which is the Trail went colds top tier. Also, Steven Pinky was a Patreon supporter of other true crime podcasts, including Nina Instead's True Crime podcast already gone, and Stephen Pacheco's True Crime podcast, Trace Evidence. And if you guys want to hear more about Stephen Pinkie listening to the Trail Went Cold, which is insane to me, check out our friends over at Crawl Space. They did a podcast episode last month, an interviewed Robin of the Trail Went Cold about this whole deal, and it's definitely a really interesting lesson. And by the way, Robin had kept up on this case and knew Stephen Pinkie's name just by seeing the recent

news. And recently, Robin happened to be looking at his list of patrons and came across Stephen Pinkie's name and then compared his photo and address to what he saw online. And that's how he discovered this, which is crazy. Yes, this is just like the absolutely craziest part of this case. The fact that this guy was so insistent on like just being close to the case that he actually followed podcasts that covered Gen L's case. It's insane to me.

And just in general, if you guys are looking for new podcasts, the trail went cold and trace evidence and already gone a really great, really great people who host those shows. So go check them out. And again, check out that episode of Crawl Space with Robin Warder. On October 12, 2020, Stephen Panky was arrested

at his Meridian Idaho home and charged with first-degree murder, two violent crime charges, and second-degree kidnapping after being indicted by a grand jury. As of December 4th, 2020, a Welled County District Court judge, and Greeley is in Welled County, set a $5 million cash-only bond for Stephen Panky, and there'll be another hearing on December 30, 2020. So we'll definitely keep everyone updated on what's going on in this insane case. To this day, Stephen maintains his innocence and believes the police are trying to frame

him. Unfortunately, since so much time has passed, there's no hard evidence that Stephen committed the crime, and everything is circumstantial based off of what he said in the past and in the documents he wrote and what others say about him. But it was enough for a grand jury to indict him. So we'll see what else comes forward in the months to come, and if there is a trial, we're sure much more information will be revealed then. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. And next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This case was so crazy and I absolutely love when old people think that they're gonna get away with murder because years and years have passed and finally they get caught. Yeah, and I'm so glad that they were able to find her remains and that they had a suspect that they knew they wanted to interview and that looks really good for this crime right off the bat. So I just can't wait to read more about where this is gonna go.

I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of headlines about it as well, so thank you guys so much for listening to this episode was a crazy one. Yes, thank you so much everybody, and I really want to get into the Patreon shoutouts because we totally forgot to do them last weekend. I'm so sorry, I don't know how we forgot, but thank you so much to everyone who has joined. This is literally the biggest way that you can help support our show other than just telling a friend. So thank you guys so much for everybody who has been listening to the episodes and everyone

who has gone and supported us on Patreon. Thank you so much. You guys are amazing. So first off, thank you so much to everybody who joined last week. Thank you Ashley, Diane, another Ashley, Johnny, Raymond, Laila, and Emily. Big thanks going out to Robin, Jamie, Rachel, Erica, Leanne, Jane, and Marissa. And thank you so much to Michelle, Teresa, Lovey Teresa, and Margaret. And then we have the patrons that joined this week.

Thank you guys so much. Big thanks going out to Michaela, Miss Murder, Tracy, Russell, Megan, and Katrina. Thank you so much to Nicole, Elizabeth, Melissa, Brianna, Darcy, and Trin. Big thanks going out to Sue, Harley, Katie, Ginger, Ashley, Marcia, and Rebecca. Thank you so much to Laurie, Amy, Kelly, Yasenia, Brooke, and Marissa. And last but not least, we have a big thanks going out to Kelsey, Amy, L, Kate, Ellie, Emily, Carolyn, and last but not least, Ashley.

Thank you guys so much. We really appreciate you guys joining our community. We have a lot of fun over there and we love creating the bonus episodes for you guys, so thank you so much. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger. you