True Crime All The Time - Steve Pankey

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Steve Pankey was a husband, father, car salesman, and Idaho gubernatorial candidate. He was recently convicted of murdering 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews, bringing closure to a case that had been cold for decades. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Steve Pankey and the murder of Jonelle Matthews. Jonelle went missing in December of 1984 after arriving at her Colorado home. When her parents got home, they became frantic, and a massive search ensued, but the case went cold. Jonelle's remains weren't found until 2019. Steve Pankey had been a person of interest for years and made several incriminating statements. But would the evidence against him be enough for a conviction?You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 418 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. How are you? I'm doing good about yourself. We're doing great. You and I just talked on Patreon about the cold, the snow, what we're watching, the possibility that we'd like to move south to get away from the cold. But those things pop in your head when you're, uh, you know, minus one.

Yeah. I don't see it happening, but it's, you know, we can all dream. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Jim Nicol. Hey, Nichol. Pierpont Limpkin. Limbkin, what's up? Tabitha Bryant.

Hey, Brian. Jalissa Carasco. Mary Kay Cordova. Hey, Cordova. Dina Devaney. The vaney. It sounds cool. Bill Gerton.

Hey, Gerton. Barbara Fox. What's up Fox? Scott. Hey, Scott. Kylie. Well, thanks, Kylie. Jeponica Ferguson.

The Ferguson of the Fergus clan. A son of Fergus. Yes. And last but not least, Michelle Aspden. What'd you say? Aspden. I just want to make sure I heard it right. Yeah.

I have to like really enunciate that one. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah. Appreciate the new support. And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected Victoria Stebbings. Thanks, Stebbins. Yeah.

Appreciate all the Patreon support that we get. So Gibbs, right now we have an episode out on Unsolved where we're talking about Christina Kettlewell. And we've called this episode the eight day bride because she'd only been married for eight days when her body was found near her honeymoon cottage in Ontario. It's a really good case. Yeah. Yeah.

There's a lot going on. I really don't even want to give anything away, to be honest with you. I think people will enjoy it. and they should definitely check it out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready. We're talking about Steve Pinky. Panky was a husband, father, car salesman.

He ran for governor of Idaho at one point. But he was recently convicted of murdering a 12-year-old girl, bringing closure to a case that's been cold for decades. Gloria and Jim Matthews met and Mary. and married in California. They had their first daughter, Jennifer, within a year and a half of their marriage. And they adopted a little girl named Janelle three years later when she was six weeks old. The family moved fairly often. At one point, they lived in Beirut, Lebanon, before returning to California. Okay. That's really relocating.

Well, it's changed, right? Big difference between California and Beirut. in 1978, they settled in Greeley, Colorado. So Jim could work as an administrator at a local school. And you and I talk about Colorado a lot. We spent quite a bit of time there for work. Oh, yeah. I really love Colorado. I do too.

But you talk about, you know, a change. Okay, you're in Beirut, you're in California. Now you're in Colorado. So depending on what parts you live in, those places can be very, very different. Oh, yeah. And we'll be back out in Colorado in September. For CrimeCon. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Janelle's childhood friend, Deanna Ross, said Greeley was considered a safe town. And she and Janelle often went out bike riding together. Janelle Matthews was in the seventh grade when she disappeared. She was an outgoing girl who enjoyed performing. whether that was doing skits in church or singing with the honor choir at school. You probably liked doing little skits too, didn't you? I did sing in the choir.

Did you? When I was younger, like in elementary school. And I was always doing like talent shows or with my friends. Yeah, putting on skits. I seen that 8mm film of you back in the day, sitting at a table with a fake microphone, you know. Talking true crime. Doing a podcast. Who would have thought?

That's funny because... That's funny because I still have that eight-track tape of your failed record. Singing attempt. I'm surprised it didn't make it. Gloria Matthews told the Fort Collins, Colorado. That Janelle was strong in everything. She was strong physically. She was strong will.

All throughout her life, even when she was the little girl, she knew what she wanted. and she let you know. Her friend Deanna recalled that she was really theatrical and dramatic and just the center of the room. And I think a lot of people listening will probably either have or know of someone just like this. Oh, yeah.

In their life. You know, if you have a couple of kids, you might have one who's like this, another one who's a little more shy and reserved. Now, do you want? Two or three of these, maybe not. It might be a bit. It might make it hard. But, you know, if you have more than one, chances are you're going to have a child that's

like this, a little more strong-willed than most and is not shy to let you know exactly what they want. And they kind of like to garner some attention. Yeah. They like to be the center of attention. On December 20th, 1984, Janelle participated in her. school choirs Christmas concert. The performance was broadcast on the city's local network.

And I don't know if places still have these, but I remember like in the 80s, that was kind of a big deal. Like, you know, every place had their own little public access channel. Oh, yeah, yeah. And sometimes you would see like a city council meeting on it. And I always thought, who in the heck wants to watch this stuff? I remember seeing some of those. But I was a kid, too.

Yeah. And then you'd have somebody doing some cooking thing. Yes. But I mean, it wasn't like Bob Ross doing his painting. Oh, no. These were very low production. This was low production. This was amateur type stuff.

Janelle's parents did not attend the concert that evening. Her mother was traveling to Los Angeles to visit her sick father for Christmas. and Jim Matthews was at his older daughter's basketball game. Right, a little rough that, you know, this little girl's got a Christmas concert and neither of her parents can attend, but you got a sick dad. You got another child who's got another event. Yeah. That can often happen in a family where you have multiple children.

I mean, we all been there, right? I mean, you're up on stage and you're looking out trying to find somebody, you know. and there's just nobody there's just nobody there for you and you're like I don't know where's my family where's my and then sometimes you have it where you're up on stage and there's literally no one in the audience and that has to be even tougher that is especially today you know in today's world I'm up on stage and I can't even get the people that should be there there kind of hard to do that YMCA song all to myself when I'm performing my routine Family friend Russell Ross and his daughter, Deanna, dropped Janelle off at home after the concert.

Everything seemed normal at the time. Janelle was excited to go to school the next day, which was the last day before a break started. So she could give her friends homemade Christmas presents. She'd been working on. She was also eager to perform in her church's Christmas play the following week. Man, I love Christmas break back when I was young. I love every break from school back in the day. Christmas break, especially summer break.

That was a time to celebrate. Russell Ross noticed that the garage door was half open, but this was not unusual. Janelle got out of the vehicle, walked to the door, and flipped on a light to let Ross know that she was safely inside. Jim Matthews got home at 9.30 p.m. and headed downstairs,

the TV was on and a space heater was running next to an easy chair. Janelle's shoes had been put away. He called out her name and got no response. Jim didn't think anything of it, and he wrapped a Christmas present before he went upstairs to look in Janelle's bedroom. But he became worried when he saw that she wasn't there. Jim walked into the kitchen and saw that Janelle had written down a message for him on a blackboard near the phone.

Around 8.30 p.m., about 15 to 20 minutes after she was dropped off, Janelle answered a call from one of the teachers at the school where Jim worked who needed a substitute. Jennifer Matthews arrived home from her basketball game around 10 p.m. and had no idea where Janelle was. So obviously Gibbs at this point, Jim was extremely worried, right? The girls always kept him informed of their whereabouts. So he started calling friends to try to get some answers. But no one knew where Janelle was. So Jim called the police to report her missing. Then I think, you know, people can put themselves in his shoes. You know, that's a frightening situation that you would just never wish upon anyone.

Yeah. It'd be so tough, too, right? I mean, it's not like today or almost every kid has a cell phone. It's one of those things you have to call around and try to get a hold of their friends and say, hey, she over there? Well, let's face it, 1984 was a very different time, especially as it pertains to trying to get a hold of someone or determining someone's whereabouts.

Right? I can open up my iPhone right now and tell you exactly where each one of my girls are, or at least where their phones are. And normally they always have their phones. I can text them. I can call them. them. But to your point, in 1984, you know, we had nothing but landlines. So you are calling friends houses, talking to their parents. I mean, what else could you do? You're getting in your car

maybe and driving around. Yeah. I mean, not everybody was as cool as you that had five pagers strapped to you. Okay. I don't think they had pagers in 1984 yet, but. If they did, you'd have five strapped to you. This is my work one. This is, this is my one just for Gibby. So, you know, he reported Janelle missing. Officers searched the neighborhood in the home, even dusting for prints to collect potential evidence of foul play, which I don't think, you know, is a bad idea. It is a little different from what we've heard in many cases stemming from, you know, back in the

1980s. A lot of times parents were told, well, you know, she'll turn back up. or whatever. Right. But they obviously took this much more seriously than some police did, you know, back in the day. They dusted for fingerprints. One piece of evidence was hidden from the public for many years. And it was a rake that had been used to destroy shoe prints in the snow.

The rake came from the Matthews garage. Well, someone had at least the, uh, awareness to get rid of their shoe prints. Yeah, so there was some thought put into that. Jennifer told the Fort Collins, Colorado, that the whole family spoke to the police, but Jim was asked the most questions and also did a polygraph. And that doesn't surprise me at all.

Is the dad going to be probably the focus of the investigation? when a daughter goes missing. And I would say, yeah. I mean, everybody's going to be looked at. But if you had to pick, who's going to be the focus? A lot of times it's the husband or the dad. Yeah, that's just the logical person to look at. Well, because why?

Oftentimes, that's who it turns out to be. Yeah, I think stats prove that. They do. Months passed with no new leads. Janelle's case received national attention. and former president Ronald Reagan mentioned her name in a March 1985 speech highlighting missing children. Two months later, Janelle's missing poster was printed on the side of milk cartons

distributed around the country. I know you and I have talked about that before. You know, that was a big thing growing up. It's something I really remember sitting at the table, eating my cereal, looking at you know, these milk cartons with these pictures of missing kids on them. Your fruit loops? That was more of a cap and crunch. Okay.

You know, type of guy. But understand why they did it. It's a great way to get that information out. But as a kid who's sitting there just trying to enjoy their cereal, was it a little jarring, a little scarring? Maybe. Could have been for some. I think for some, it probably was.

Janelle's case went cold and eventually became the oldest unsolved missing person case in Weld County. Steve Panky, a local man, was on police radar from the very beginning. Panky lived about two miles from the Matthews family with his wife and young son. He worked as a used car salesman. He'd been living in Greeley since 1973. But he also had a history of trouble with law enforcement. In 1977, a woman he was seeing accused him of date rape. Now, Panky maintains they had consensual sex.

His charge was later dismissed. And that could be for a number of reasons. It could be that, you know, it was a he said, she said thing. They just didn't have enough evidence. It could also be what we've seen time and time again, which is that, you know, sexual crimes in the 70s and the 80s. they just were not taken very seriously. They really weren't, unfortunately.

At this time, Panky was a youth minister at Sunnyview Church of the Nazarene. He was asked to leave, but returned sporadically. He officially left in the spring of 1978. The Matthews family joined the church that summer. They didn't know Steve Panky. Okay. What does that mean when you're asked to leave the church? church. Not good, right? No, there's obviously some reason for that. Now, how he was able to return

sporadically, and I'm not sure how that all worked. On December 19th, 1984, Panky was arrested for making a scene at a local bank. His future defense attorney Anthony Vorsed told 48 hours that he argued with a teller and the police were called. He said, that's the kind of thing that happened. to Mr. Panky over the years, he's had periodic sort of spats with people because he's an irascible, prickly guy. Arascible and prickly. You don't hear that often at all. No, you actually don't.

But, you know, if you're in a bank and, you know, you're arguing with the teller, how long is it going to take before the police are called? Probably not very long. No. Well, I mean, they're not going to put up with that kind of abuse. Well, my thought is a bank would be probably more quick to call the police than most places. I mean, let's face it, they got a lot of money. They're, you know, they're always on guard for robbery.

So somebody raising their voice or causing a ruckus is going to get their attention very quickly. After Janelle Matthews went missing, Steve Pinky inserted himself into the investigation and made suspicious statements. statements to law enforcement and his wife, which we'll talk about in depth later in the episode. But you hear about that a lot, right, in certain cases where someone inserts themselves into the investigation. They start asking a lot of questions or, you know, they want to know what the investigators know, or they just start showing up at different scenes. And oftentimes it's because they have some level of involvement. Those red flags if you couldn't recognize them.

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know that the police always do. In 1987, Panky and his family moved to Idaho. He tried to get involved in politics by running for sheriff three times, his local municipal council, and even lieutenant governor. But he was never elected. Panky ran for governor in 2014 and 2018. but failed both times.

So you can't say that this guy was a quitter, but at a certain point, if you've run for, you know, all types of different levels of public office and never once won, maybe you think about giving up. What most people probably wouldn't think is,

you know what, I'll just keep going to a higher level. Yeah, they didn't want me to be the local guy, but I think I got to, chance to be the state guy. Yeah, I'm sure they're going to want me to run the entire state. According to Oxygen, his campaign poster from 2018 described him as a Republican candidate with traditional core values with a biblical and constitutional perspective. Panky promised to protect

Second Amendment rights and to not take donations from lobbies. He was quoted it on his campaign poster is saying, I intend to keep simple issues simple and bring together competent people to resolve Idaho's complex issues. All right. Some of that stuff sounds okay. But he earned just 1.4% of votes in the Republican primary in 2018, which meant he was eliminated before the general election even took place. I mean, that has to suck. To want to be something and you find out that it canceled the beginning of it. Before it even really starts. Yeah.

And I'm sure you put a lot of time and money into all these different campaigns. And, you know, to just get beaten down at every turn. I'm surprised that he just kept going. Very determined. But maybe also a little misguided. Like we said, right? If you can't get elected to your. local council, then how do you shoot for lieutenant governor and then governor?

It just, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. It doesn't. My other thought was, you know, what does being a car salesman have to do with qualifying you to be sheriff? And maybe that's why he was not elected three times. Strong possibility. Over 30 years after she went missing on. July 23rd, 2019,

Janelle Matthews remains were found in rural Weld County, Colorado, by oil and gas workers digging for a pipeline. 30 years. It's a long time. For your family to wonder, you know, what happened to you, are you alive? Are you not alive? If you're dead, where are, you know, your remains?

It really is a long time. The workers found a set of human bones, including a skull with intact teeth and braces. Scraps of blue and red fabric were also found. Janelle was last seen wearing a red blouse, gray skirt, and navy blue sweater vest. Her remains were found 20 miles southeast of her home in Greeley. An autopsy determined she died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Authorities were unable to recover usable DNA samples from her body.

And that doesn't really surprise me. 30 years a long time. It is a long time. Greeley, police confirmed the remains were Janelles on July 25th and said the case was now an active homicide investigation. Ramping it up. Well, you have to, right? At that point, the body's been found.

There's a gunshot wound of the head. You have to treat it as a homicide. Gloria and Jim Matthews had moved to. Costa Rica by this point and were shocked. The remains were found. Jim told nine news, we had been resigned to the fact that we would probably never know what happened to her. And this is just an absolute miracle about how she was found.

Amazing. Well, and a lot of times it is, right? It's just a kind of a freak occurrence. Someone digging in this case up a pipeline. He said, this crew. If they had dug up 15 to 20 feet on one side or the other, they never would have found her. So we really believe that God has provided a miracle for this to happen. In September 2019, Steve Pinky spoke to several news outlets about the fact that he was

considered a person of interest. So it wasn't, you know, like he didn't know, but you think about that kind of hanging over your head. Oh, for sure. for so many years. It's a long, long time. Also, do you think that had something to do with the fact that he never got elected to anything? Could have had a part to play in it. That he was a person of interest and a disappearance.

Of a 12-year-old girl. Of a 12-year-old girl. He told local outlet KTV that he provided the DNA sample in case his home was searched. He claimed he offered to take a polygraph, but investigators didn't want to do it. And you and I talk about polygraphs a lot. I talked about it on Patreon that I've been watching a lot of Joe Kenda on Homicide Hunter. And one of the things that he always says is that he doesn't really care for polygraphs. But he did say a couple of times in different episodes that he doesn't care what the results are.

He cares about the statements that are made or the answers given to some. of the questions, which I never actually thought about it that way. Yeah. He, you know, he, he kind of acts like he doesn't believe in the science all that much, but you're still getting answers to certain questions that you can then run with. And that's what he focuses. Yeah, that's what he focused on. Pinky told the Idaho statesman that he had never met Janelle Matthews or her family. He claimed he was home with his wife. On the night, Janelle went, missing and their vehicle was packed up for a road trip to California the next day. They planned to leave at 5 a.m. on December 21st, 1984.

They returned to Colorado on December 26th and heard news of Janelle, but according to him, this was the first time he'd ever heard about her. He claimed he met with an FBI agent at the Greeley Police Station soon after he returned because his father-in-law told him someone asked him about getting rid of a body. His father-in-law worked at a cemetery. Panky was suspicious because of Janelle's disappearance, so he reported it to the FBI rather than the police. I don't know what I would think if my father-in-law said,

hey, you know, somebody asked me about getting rid of a body. That would be a strange conversation. Yeah, for most people, for you, maybe not. For me, maybe not. Pinky said he had never been formally interviewed by the police about Janelle's disappearance beyond his interview with the FBI. He noted that he left Greeley in 1987 and had not been back. So I don't know, Gibbs, you know, when we talk about him running for, you know, all this stuff in Idaho,

I don't know how many people would have actually known that he was on the radar for the, you know, the disappearance of Janelle Matthews. That might not have been a common thing that was no. And if not, it just means just people didn't like you for you. That might be even worse. Yeah, because it's like they didn't have anything to hold against you possibly. They just didn't believe in you. Nothing worse than when people don't believe in you.

Two detectives came to his home on August 15th for an interview, but he told them he would only talk if his attorney was present. On August 19th, law enforcement asked for a DNA sample, and he gave it. He thought the police would stop investigating him after this, but they didn't. Panky claimed he was shocked when investigators searched his Idaho home on September 4th, 2019. He spoke about his past troubles and said he had a bad relationship with the Greeley police because of the stigma of being accused of rape.

he said he was charged with up to 20 arbitrary misdemeanors such as battery and harassment by phone he had multiple trials and won all of them now the statesman couldn't verify his statement at the time because colorado courts didn't have an online record system but they did request copies of his criminal record in weld county via mail panky said he decided to go public because he wanted to show he had nothing to hunt. Well, that's one way to do it, though, right? If you really didn't have anything to do with it, yeah, get the public involved. Well, I think you could look at it one of two ways.

If you really didn't have anything to do with it, okay, you're going to lay everything out in the open and hope that the truth comes to light. If you really did have something to do with it, then you're going to go big and bold and public to try to prove to people that you didn't have something to do with it. Right. Yeah. Sell the public on it. And maybe even the police. Yeah. Because could it be possible that people would start to think, hey, there's no way this guy would be, you know, doing all this press or talking if he actually did this. Panky told the Idaho statesman, you hear these people all the time. Their place has been searched. The police say, well, they're a person of interest. The person of interest. The person of

Centress says no comment, no nothing, won't talk to you. They look guilty. I would like to have my name clear. I'd be willing to take a lie detector test. I'd be willing to take a voice stress test. Voice stress test. Well, if you just take that comment at face value, you would think, right, this is a person who has nothing to hide and they're willing to let police give them whatever examination they're they want to, that's how confident they are. Greeley Police Commander Roy Smith told 9 news that Panky previously made repeated efforts to speak to detectives about the case, but when detectives tried to talk to him on August 15th, he refused to answer questions, but did submit his DNA.

He remained a person of interest because of inconsistencies in his statements. And that's something that you've talked about a lot. Now, we're also talking about a lot of years here. We are. So making statements over a long period of time. Do you remember what you said? It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough if you're lying to keep it all straight.

In August 2020, it was announced that a Weld County grand jury would investigate the death of Janelle Matthews. On October 9th, 2020, Steve Panky was indicted for first-degree murder, second-degree. kidnapping with a weapon and two sentence-enhancing crimes. Investigators believe he abducted Janelle Matthews from her home between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m. on December 20th, 1984, and shot her in the head at some point afterwards. Panky was arrested in Meridian, Idaho. On October 12, 2020, DA Michael Warwick said after the arrest, there was no definitive DNA link between Panky and Janelle Matthews.

Panky became a suspect because of his unusual behavior in the way he inserted himself into the investigation. So, I mean, a grand jury indicted him for murder. But so far, we haven't talked about a lot of strong evidence. And I think the DA even said it, right? Unusual behavior. He inserted himself into the investment. I get it. That's how you become a suspect. But there has to be more to put someone away for

murder. Authority said Panky made direct and veiled statements about Janelle in civil and criminal court documents. In a 1999 filing with the Idaho Supreme Court, Panky wrote that his conviction for causing a disturbance in a bank was an attempt to force him to become an informant. in Janelle's disappearance. He feared he might get the death penalty for revealing the location of her body. He also wrote in this filing per oxygen without a deal. This case will never be solved. Okay.

You know, you're saying some things now that really make you look guilty. Oh, for sure. I mean, you don't want them to find the body? Why? because you had something to do with it. And you're afraid you'll get the death penalty? According to the Fort Collins, Colorado, and in an April 2003 pro se court pleading, Panky wrote that the Matthews family should be informed that Janelle died before crossing 10th Street

and not to give the family hope. All right, this is not something that, you know, a person in a bar said they overheard. or that this guy told them. This happened in court. It's very well documented. Now, how does he know that stuff unless he was involved? I mean, that's the big question, right? One affidavit mentioned that Panky briefly attended the same church as the Matthews family.

He also had a habit of watching kids walk home from the middle school that Janelle attended. And that's a very scary thought to me. Because who else besides some type of sick predator wants to sit and watch a bunch of middle schoolers walk home? Unless one of those is your kid. Yeah. And you're just worried about them. But if you don't have any kids and your pastime is watching middle schoolers walk home, there's a problem. There's a problem.

Pinky also knew about and discussed the fact that a rake was used to obliterate shoe impressions in the snow outside. to Matthew's home on the night of the abduction. And we said it early on, right? This information was never given out to the public. No. So you, for you to know, you had to have some type of involvement, right? Or you heard it from law enforcement. There's really no other way around it. But it also goes back to you and I talking about why police hold certain things back. And here's a great example of that. maybe you catch somebody saying something that they couldn't possibly know. I mean, I like the concept of holding something back in hopes that you will catch somebody

that knows that information that shouldn't know it unless they're involved. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's why police do it. And then the other reason is to, you know, kind of weed out people who confess to a crime, but then get the information wrong.

That would be another reason as well. I still can't wrap my head around that kind of stuff. No, it's shocking how many people confessed to crimes that they did not commit. Finally, Panky owned a gun at the time of the kidnap. Steve Panky went to trial on October 13, 2012. D.A. Michael Wark acknowledged during opening statements that there was no forensic evidence, linking Panky to the case, but he made incriminating statements. So again, you know, he's coming right out.

And I think he almost has to, right, in telling the jury, hey, we're not going to have this bombshell DNA slash forensic evidence that is going to conclusively prove that Panky killed Janelle Matthews. But we're going to give you a whole bunch of other stuff that hopefully is going to, you know, convince you that he did. did. On January 16th, 1985, Panky walked into the Greeley Police Department, falsely claiming to be a Baptist minister who heard a pastoral confession about Janelle's disappearance. Wow. And, you know, we said he inserted himself into the investigation. I mean, this is a little bit more than that. This was just his first

attempt at seeing whether or not he was on, you know, in the investigation's radar. But that's a first for me. I've never heard of someone doing that. You know, my thought has always been. If you were a murderer, wouldn't you just want to lay low? Wouldn't you just want to try to stay off the radar? I would think so. It doesn't seem like you'd want to walk into the police station at any point in time for anything. No. And especially to claim that you were a Baptist minister and you heard a confession about this young girls disappear.

Yeah, now you just open up the window of opportunity for the police. Starting in the mid-90s, Panky consistently wrote letters and legal filings that included references to Janelle and mentioned him being the subject of a capital murder investigation. The prosecution argued that Panky would have seen kidnapping and killing Janelle as a way to get back at the police and Sunnyview Church of the Nazarene, the church he was asked to leave in 1977. Panky also had a personal vendetta against Russell Ross. The man who dropped Janelle off after the concert, Panky was reportedly angry with Ross.

Overchanges made it the local seven-up soda plan. while the two of them worked there. Okay, these are arguments made by the prosecution. I have to admit that they seem pretty thin as motives go. No, he's trying to get back at the police. He's trying to get back at the church. He's upset with this Russell Ross guy over something that happened at work. And so he's going to kill a 12-year-old girl who had nothing to do with any of

these things. I'm just saying Gibbs as a juror, those might be tough motives for me to latch on to. Oh, I think they'd be that for almost anybody. Panky's ex-wife, Angela Hicks, was a key witness at trial. She testified that he was extremely controlling during their marriage and didn't allow her to drive, listen to the radio, or watch TV. Okay. Talking about limitations. Now, we've talked about controlling behavior many, many times. When has it ever been good? And I'd say never in our case because we're always talking about a killer, right, exhibiting controlling behavior.

But you think about living with someone, being married to someone who is so controlling that you can't drive, you can't listen to the radio, you can't even watch TV. What can I do? cooking clean for you, is that it? It sounds like it. That's it. Don't you dare listen that radio. Well, it's shocking that she was his ex-wife, right?

How long is that marriage going to last? Well, very long. It lasted as long as it did. He exhibited unusual behavior around the time of Janelle's disappearance. Panky's grandparents wanted him to visit them in Big Bear, California for Christmas, 1984. Panky asked his dad for money. for the trip, but he made it clear they weren't going.

Angela testified per nine news. To me, it was like he was wanting his dad to send him the money, but there was no plan to go. They later called Steve's mom to tell them they weren't going to California, but on December 21st, Steve told her they were going after all.

Angela asked him who would take care of their two dogs. She testified, Steve said, don't worry about the dogs. The dogs are gone. Angela said, the dogs are gone. He said, don't worry about the dogs. I dumped the dogs. Get us ready to go. And she never saw the dogs again. Now, if you can't drive, you can't listen to the radio and you can't watch TV, that's one thing. Right. But if you find out that your husband did away with your dogs, if the first three weren't deal breakers, that one has to be. You would hope so. Angela testified they last. early on December 22nd. Panky abruptly ended the trip on December 25th after getting into an argument with his father. While they were driving home, Panky asked Angela to turn on the radio, even though he normally didn't allow her to listen to it. She testified as quoted by oxygen,

in my flipping around, I came to a portion of a news report. They indicated that a girl had gone missing from Greeley, Colorado, and he wanted to hear that. And then he wanted me to keep flipping the channels to see if he could hear anything more about it. Kind of hungry for that information, wasn't he? Once they were back in Greeley on December 26th, Panky stopped at a store and bought multiple newspapers. He then asked Angela to read him articles about Janelle's disappearance. He asked her to read each one at least three times. It's really sick.

If you think about how he's acting, it's like he's excited. I think he is. It's what we hear about killers all the time. You know, is this a way to kind of relive what they did? They want to hear about, you know, what investigators are saying about the case, what the news is saying about the case. A month after Janelle's disappearance, their church was putting together a search group. And the pastor said, he heard a message from God that Janelle would be found a lot. Panky shouted false prophet and had to be escorted out of the church. Okay.

Wow. I mean, little things like that start to add up. Well, and I think that's probably what we're seeing in this trial, right? There's not one big, huge piece of evidence that proves that he did it. But jurors are probably putting all of this together and saying, yeah, he did. Panky made other strange comments about the case over the years. In 1999, he brought up the case again. When Angela learned he hadn't paid rent, he said he used the money for legal fees because the police were persecuting him because he wouldn't tell them what they

wanted to know about Janelle Matthews. It had been years since she'd heard about the case, so she asked for clarification. Janelle Matthews? He responded, do you really think I would hurt her when she looked so much like you? Whoa. Yes. And I think that testimony right there would make a lot of people stop and really think about what that could mean. As reported by 9 News, Angela testified that his response made her blood run cold.

She thought to herself, oh God, please don't let anything have happened to her because she looked like me. And it wouldn't be the first time, right, that a killer has sought out their victims because they looked like someone in their life. Oh, I think that's kind of common. Especially someone with whom they're not happy or they have an issue with.

You know, they don't like their mom. They don't like their wife, whoever it might be. Their son Carl was murdered in 2008, the day before his memorial service, Panky walked up to their son's urn and mentioned Janelle again. Angela testified, it's the only time I ever saw that much emotion from him. Very choked up. He bent and kissed the urn.

And he said, I hope God didn't allow this to happen because of Janelle Matthews. So either this guy is saying some of the most incriminating off-the-wall stuff ever, or his wife is making all of this up to get back at him. There's only two options. Yeah, it could be a little bit of mix or no. No, I think it's probably all or nothing. Yeah. Well, you know what they say about a scorn woman?

What do they say? Don't make them scorn. Pinky's defense attorney argued that Pankey wasn't a killer. He was a busy body who was interested in true crime and liked to insert himself into things. He also inserted himself into two other murder investigations in 1997 in 2003.

Okay. You know, you got a lot of people who are interested in true crime. They follow certain cases. I think that his defense attorney is trying to do something that's very smart. He's got to combat all of these strange things that his client has said over the years. And so,

you know, he's trying to weave it into, well, he's just a true crime enthusiast. And he's, also done this in other cases. It doesn't mean anything. His defense attorney introduced an alternate suspect, Norris Drake, the adult son of a former neighbor who lived across the street from the Matthews. Drake passed away in 2007. Another tactic, right? Sometimes used by defense attorneys to raise reasonable doubt.

Yeah, that's what you're trying to do. Here's an alternative suspect. Oh, and this person just happened to have passed away, so they can't defend themselves. Which is awesome for a defense attorney. That might have gone into the factoring of who to choose. I don't know. Drake's sister testified that he was home watching a comedy special on the night Janelle disappeared. However, CBS reported that Drake was missing for several hours that night.

Law enforcement did question Drake, but didn't pursue him because his family had an alibi for him. It's always good when families stick together. Yeah. And they can be truthful and they can also lie. They can. We've seen that happen. The defense noted that Drake showed an interest in young girls,

per his ex-girlfriend's testimony, and he knew the detail about the footprints that were destroyed at the crime scene. Steve Pinky got on the stand and admitted he lied about having information in Janelle's case. He insisted he wasn't involved in her disappearance or murder. and never knew the Matthews family. He said he made up most of his claims out of bitterness. According to the Fort Collins, Colorado, and he testified that he wanted to protect himself

in case he was ever called to testify against anyone in the case, especially Jim Matthews. In the 1990s, Panky made comments to Lieutenant Mark Lockwood claiming Jim Matthews was involved in his daughter's disappearance. However, he again denied personally knowing the Matthews family. That's such a strange comment to make then. Yeah, if you don't know these people, why are you claiming that this guy had a role in his daughter's disappearance? He testified that he no longer believed the family had anything to do with Janelle's disappearance in death.

Panky explained that during his conversation with Lockwood, the lieutenant told him about the shoe prints being raped over, which is how he knew about this piece of evidence. During cross-examination, Panky was reminded that Lockwood testified. He never had this conversation with Panky. Panky responded that Lockwood was lying. So, I mean, this guy took the stand, which you don't see all that often, right?

It's fairly uncommon. Yeah, it's not normally recommended. But did he have to do so to tell the jury, why he had made all of these strange comments over the years. Because they make him look guilty. They do. And so he's going to say, hey, I lied about this. This is why I lied about it.

Panky admitted that he started lying on December 27, 1984, when he falsely reported the conversation with his father-in-law about hiding a body. He testified, I began a series of lies. and it got bigger and bigger over the years. Okay, so my father-in-law didn't really say that someone came to him about burying a body. I'm sure his father-in-law was very happy with him. And, you know, Gibbs, one thing I will say about some of these people is they lie so much that it becomes really kind of hard to figure out what's going on. Yeah, they lie so much that they don't even know when they're long.

line sometimes. He said he made this conversation up to keep the story going. He claimed the false report was in connection to some conversations. He had at Sunnyview Church of the Nazarene in the late 70s, but he didn't elaborate further. Panky testified that he heard earlier reports that Janelle's disappearance was connected to the church. So now he's saying the church was involved somehow. Just spreading the blame everywhere. Panky also testified about his whereabouts on December 20th. He said he filled up his family vehicle in preparation for a planned trip to California and they left around 4 or 5 a.m. on December 21st.

He denied having access to any other vehicles after his automotive business went under in 1984. He maintained that he didn't hear about Janelle Matthews' disappearance until they returned to Colorado. And he disputed his ex-wife's testimony about the trip being last minute, he also disputed her claims that he started digging in the front yard when they returned in that he banned radio TV and the news from their house. All lies. Panky was asked why his wife would lie and said, she may be scorned or want money. Well, I did mention being scorned.

Or it could be possible that she just knew you were a piece of shit and that you were really did say all these things, the jury heard that when investigators contacted Panky before his arrest, he demanded immunity before he would offer information. Give me immunity, or I'm not doing anything. Well, who doesn't want immunity? I want immunity right now. And as far as I know, you're not even guilty of anything. As far as you know.

But immunity would be great. It's like the get out of jail free card from Monopoly. Yes. Just like immunity. beforehand, just in case something were to go down. Like diplomatic immunity? Yes. Like in lethal weapon?

Yes. That's what I want to do. I want that too. I want to be able to go somewhere and just say, diplomatic immunity. First of all, you've said it twice and neither one of them's been correct. It's close.

It's close, but it's not correct. Panky testified that he asked for a deal because he was worried. He would be charged for lying about his supposed knowledge of the case, saying, I wanted immunity to privately say I made it up. So I didn't have to publicly say, I made it up. This guy, he's all over the map, dude. He's a character. During closing arguments, Panky's attorney said, per the Fort Collins, Colorado.

And Steve Panky's kind of a jerk. It's a fact. We can't hide from it. A jerk is not the same as a murderer. And again, I understand. why the defense attorney is doing what he's doing. You can't paint this guy out to be a good guy. Because the jury already knows he's not. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to admit that he's an a hole, but say that doesn't mean he's a murderer. Right. You have to sell him on that. Because a lot of people

are a holes. I'm an a hole. Yeah, you are. I'm not a murderer. No, yeah. Allegedly. But if you keep pushing me, that might change. I wonder when that day will come. Never, never. His defense attorney said he thought Pinky suffered from a mental disorder and told the jury, Mr. Pankey lives in a world of conspiracy, paranoia and self-esteem issues. Having an interest in her disappearance is not the same thing as being involved in the disappearance of Janelle Matthews. And that statement is absolutely true.

That doesn't mean he didn't do it, but that statement is true, right? Having an interest in something is not the same as being involved in something. Well, that's true. Very true. But he's really trying to sell the jury. And he has to. Because things right now, they don't look great for his client. No.

Even without, you know, some conclusive DNA or anything like that. On November 4th, 2021, the judge declared a mistrial after two days of deliberation. However, Panky was convicted of one charge, false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor with a maximum of six months in jail. Prosecutors filed this charge on November 1st after Panky admitted to lying to the police. So you go through this whole trial and what comes out of it, right, a mistrial and a conviction on this one kind of misdemeanor charge. For authorities, though, you feel good about it in the sense that you know. where he's going to be for the next six months. Well, and you know you, you can have another shot at it.

So it's not great. You didn't get a conviction. No. But he wasn't acquitted. Right. If he'd have been acquitted, then you're done. But you got another shot at it. His retrial started on October 7th, 2020.

And the evidence was mostly the same as the first trial. Because they had no DNA evidence, the prosecution's case was built on pankey's incriminating. statements. And we went through all of those. There were a lot of them. on October 31st, 2022, Steve Panky was found guilty of second-degree kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon, felony murder, and false reporting to authorities. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder. But he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Well, as a prosecutor, you're probably not feeling great,

but you're glad that you were able to pull him away for at least 20 years, maybe longer. Yeah, I mean, it's not probably the slam dunk win that they were looking for, which would have been first degree of murder, but you got a conviction. And he is going to go away for quite a long time. But it doesn't surprise me, Gibbs, to be honest with you, that a jury would have a hard time, maybe with first degree murder, but go with another lesser offense. Or you have all these incriminating statements. You have a ton of stuff that makes this guy look guilty.

But in your head, are you going to be able to say that I am sure beyond a reasonable doubt that this guy is guilty of first degree murder? And I think people might struggle with that. And I could understand it. But I could also understand that they don't want to let him off the hook because deep down they know that he did something. It's a real tough place, I think, for the jury. When you're dealing with this type of evidence. Jim Matthew said at sentencing per oxygen, you've claimed to be a Christian on many occasions. There's still hope for you. It's not too late to confess your sins, which is the first step to your forgiveness. The second step is to

repent or turn away from your evil ways, it's up to you. And it's not too late, Steve Panky. Panky said in court, I am a Christian. I will be in heaven. I am innocent. And this is not justice for Janelle. Okay. So Jim didn't get what he wanted. Right. He was trying to appeal to Panky. Sure. Be honest. Confess your sins. But Panky's going to double down and say, I didn't do it. which if he ever were to come up for parole would probably be a strike against him. I think so. We've seen that many times. Now, Steve Pinky's currently 73 years old.

And, you know, he'll be eligible for parole in 2040. So, 88 years old. Yeah, he's going to be like 88 years old. So did he take that into account? I mean, it's much different than if he was 20. Right. then maybe he makes the calculations in his head and says, I could get out of here when I'm 40,

but I'm going to have to admit to what I did. He probably figures he's never getting out because he may not live that long. Yeah. So why admit it? I'll just go with what I've been going with. I'll just write it out. As we wrap this one up, Gibbs, the disappearance of Janelle Matthews was a cold case for more than three decades.

after her remains were finally found, then it became a murder investigation. And although there was no forensic evidence really against him, Steve Pinky's statements in his incriminating knowledge about the case was enough to convince a jury that he was guilty of the murder. And so there are a lot of things that really fascinated me about this case. Number one, it was a cold case for a very long time. And you and I also do an unsolved podcast. and we talk about it quite a bit.

Right. You know, what's the likelihood that this case will be solved? Because some of the cases we talk about are 30, 40, even 50 years old. Yeah. Yeah. And I just don't think you can give up hope. No, there's a prime example why you can. Right.

Prime example. And then the second thing that really fascinated me is really the evidence against this guy. Again, no real hard proof. have is a series of incriminating statements circumstantial evidence and then it's up to the jury yeah what do they make of that much different than if they had you know found this guy's DNA on jenelle matthews remains all right then you're talking hard evidence yeah more of a slam dunk yeah you got something to work with but when this guy's just making strange statements, incriminating statements. I think that's a much tougher ask for a jury. Do you know who his roommate? Do you know who his cellmate is? No. Hank. Hanky-panky?

Yeah. How'd I know you were going to go there? I'm so juvenile. But I think it shows in the fact that, you know, the first jury couldn't make a decision. And then the second jury wasn't willing to convince. him a first degree murder. I just, I think that shows you how I don't want to use the word weak, but how little, you know, they had in the way of concrete evidence. Yeah. It really was just, you know, his own strangeness and things that he said and knowledge that he had that he shouldn't have had. Somewhat arrogant. That, that I think, you know, put him away. But that's it for our episode on Steve Panky and the murder of Janelle Matthews. We got some voicemails Gibbs.

You want to check those out? Let's hear them. Hi, Mike and Givie. My name is Heather. I am calling from Houston, Texas. I just wanted to say, I love you all. I love your podcast. I've been listening since about 2020.

I go back and forth between truth crime all the time and true crime all the time unsolved. I'm a little bit behind on true crime all the time unsolved. I just got done listening to the Brandon Lawson. podcast. I was just calling in to give a little update. I always like to go and kind of Google the cases that y'all do on Unsolved. Brandon Lawson, I did look it up. The Facebook page did an update in December of last year. I know on the podcast you were talking about the remains they found and they were still trying to determine if it was his. In December, they did put a

post out that it was finally to determine those were his remains. So hopefully maybe they can find out what actually happened to him if there's anything they can do, but at least they got the closure that those are his remains. Just wanted to give you all that update. I love y'all. I love your podcast. I listen to y'all on my commute to work, which is over an hour. So keep up the good work. I am team Gibby.

And keep your own time taking. Thanks, guys. Heather from Houston. All right, love it. Yeah, thanks for the update. We always appreciate those. And our commute is no joke. She's got me in the car with her.

Yeah. And luckily you're not driving. Hi, Mike and Gibby. This is Nesta from Texas. I love both of these, so I am team Gibby and team Virgie. It's not a question really. It's just a comment. A lot of people leave their voicemone.

They always say, keep your own time ticking, which absolutely. But one of the things I always hear you say is stay safe and keep your own time. time ticking. So I'm just wondering, does that bother you when people leave that off? If you want them to say the whole safe thing, and keep your own time ticking, or is it fine for you if they say, all right, bye, keep your own time picking. And it kind of gets up like that. Hope we have a great day and keep doing what you do. Thanks. Man, another call from Texas.

Yeah, how about that? No, it's fine with me either way. But it's interesting what people pick up on. Yeah, that's true. People pick up on things that we say, that we don't realize we're saying. She's picking up on what people are leaving in voicemails. And then, you know, she's wondering, I wonder if that bugs, Fergie and Gibby. Pisses us off. No, it doesn't at all.

But it's just, it's so interesting to me to hear from people and, you know, kind of when they dive into what sticks out at them. Yeah. about a case, things we say, things other people say. I don't know. I just have an interest in that. So I appreciate you calling and letting us know. But the answer is for me at least, no, it doesn't bother me at all. I don't care.

For me, it pisses me off. I think you should, I think you should do both. Stay safe. That's right. And keep your own time ticking. And they kind of go hand in hand, right? You have to stay safe to keep your own time ticking. Or you can just keep your time ticking.

but stay safe. But stay classy, San Diego. Stay classy. Yeah, that's right. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of True Crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.

And stay classy, San Diego.