Jonelle Matthews Was Last Seen Performing at a Christmas Concert in 1984 — Here's What Happened

If you were a milk drinker in the early 1980s, chances are you were often met with the face of a missing child. The missing kids milk carton campaign was kind of like an early Amber Alert, because back then everyone was drinking milk. Anderson Erickson was one of the first companies to display pictures of these children on their cartons of milk, per the Des Moines Register . The campaign grew from there, though it was not very successful.

Jonelle Matthews was just one of hundreds of children whose smiling faces would be printed on a milk container. Families across the United States would learn that the 12-year-old disappeared in December 1984, five days before Christmas, from her home in Greeley, Colo. Sadly her remains would be found 35 years later in 2019. What happened to Jonelle Matthews? Here's what we know.

What happened to Jonelle Matthews?

Jim and Gloria Matthews were living in Beirut when they adopted Jonelle at just six weeks old in March 1972, per the Greeley Tribune . The couple struggled to get pregnant after Gloria gave birth to her daughter Jennifer, in 1968. "In those days, adoption agencies matched children to the parents," Gloria told the outlet. Jennifer looked like Jim, so the agency found a baby that looked more like Gloria.

The family returned to the United States in 1975; three years after that, they ended up in Colorado. Things were going well for six years until tragedy struck on Dec. 20, 1984. Jonelle was performing with the Franklin Middle School Honor Choir at her school, but neither of her parents was able to attend. Jim was watching Jennifer's basketball game over at the high school while Gloria was returning home to surprise her family. Evidently, she hadn't seen them in two years.

"I knew exactly when I got home because I was listening to the radio and the 9:30 news show just started," explained Jim. "I walked into the house and said, ‘Hi, Jonelle,’ but I didn’t get an answer." Jim told CBS News that he knew Jonelle hadn't run away because it was Christmas time, and she loved presents. "She just loves the whole festivities of Christmas," he said.

When police arrived, the only physical evidence they found was a set of footprints in the snow that someone had tried raking over. They never found any fingerprints or DNA evidence, though the latter wouldn't be very useful in 1984. Without anything to go on, Jim was the prime suspect, though his name was eventually cleared. After that, the case went cold until a break in 2019.

Jonelle Matthews's remains were found in July 2019.

While digging a pipeline just south of Greeley in July 2019, the crew uncovered skeletal remains with a gunshot wound to the head. Once they were identified, Jonelle went from a missing person to a murder victim. A year before this discovery, one man was labeled a person of interest by authorities, reported Fox News . Steve Pankey claimed to have information about the 12-year-old's disappearance but wanted immunity first.

The person primarily responsible for bringing Pankey to justice is his ex-wife Angela Hicks. She told police about her then-husband's strange behavior in the days and years following Jonelle's disappearance. Hicks and Pankey were vacationing in Big Bear when they learned what happened to Jonelle. They left quickly and on the ride home, Hicks said Pankey needed to keep switching the radio stations in order to find information about Jonelle. That was very unusual for him.

Hicks learned that Pankey attended the same church as the Matthews family, but that still didn't explain his obsessive behavior. He also reached out to the investigators working on the case and constantly inserted himself. That wasn't enough to make him a suspect, but he was on their radar. He would repeatedly mention Jonelle for decades to come, in times when it simply made no sense for him to do so.

He was eventually found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2040. Investigators believe Pankey had an issue with the church and took his rage out on Jonelle, though they were never given a motive. If it weren't for Hicks and Pankey's bizarre desire to be part of the case, police said they might not ever have arrested him.