The Girl On The Milk Carton: The Real-Life Jonelle Matthews Tragedy Explained

The case of a missing Colorado girl went unsolved for more than three decades until construction workers made a gruesome discovery.

Jonelle Matthews’ perplexing 1984 disappearance, just five days before Christmas, gripped and horrified the nation as she became one of the first missing children to appear on a milk box.

The years between the 12-year-old’s disappearance from her living room in Greeley, Colorado (approximately 60 miles north of Denver) and the 2020 arrest of her stunning killer are the topic of a two-part true crime special, The Girl on the Milk Carton, which premieres Sunday, August 25, 2024, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

1. Who was Jonelle Matthews?

Jonelle was Jim, Gloria Matthews’ adopted daughter and Jennifer’s younger sister.

“She was strong physically and strong-willed,” Jonelle’s mother remarked. “All throughout her life, even when she was a little girl, she knew what she wanted… and she let you know.”

Jim, who had previously served as an administrator at a Christian school, was the principal of Platte Valley Elementary School in Kersey, about 10 miles east of Greeley, when Jonelle went missing.

The Matthews were regarded as a close-knit family who attended church regularly. According to her childhood friend Deanna Ross, Jonelle enjoyed normal 1980s activities such as riding bikes, having sleepovers, and adoring boy bands like Menudo.

“She was very funny and just very loud,” Ross explained. “She was really theatrical and dramatic and just the center of the room.”

2. What Happened The Night Jonelle Matthews Disappeared?

On December 20, 1984, the night of Jonelle’s disappearance, she and her friend Deanna performed in their middle school’s honor choir, singing Christmas carols in an event televised for a local cable network.

Jonelle’s father had attended a basketball game at her sister Jennifer’s high school, and his wife was visiting her ailing father in California. Deanna’s father agreed to drive Jonelle to her Greeley split-level home at around 8 p.m. and didn’t think much of the fact that the garage door at the Matthews house was partially open.

Jonelle answered the phone at her home around half an hour later and left a message for her father, putting her abduction between 8:30 p.m. and when her father, Jim, returned home to an empty house barely one hour later.

Jim had no reason to be concerned until his older daughter returned home from a basketball game at 10 p.m. with no knowledge regarding Jonelle’s location.

According to The Colorado Sun, Jim discovered the TV and heater near Jonelle’s chair still switched on. A pair of the 12-year-old’s stockings was left on the couch, and she had removed her shoes.

“After being home for about a half an hour, I just had a really strange feeling because our girls were very good about letting us know if they were gonna change their plans, leaving a note or calling,” Jim said, as reported by The Colorado Sun.

Greeley police arrived at the location but had little to work with besides unusual footprints in the snow outside one of the home’s windows. According to The Denver Gazette, it looked like someone attempted to hide their tracks with a rake, which was eventually exposed during the trial.

Before Amber Alerts, photographs of missing children appeared on milk cartons across the United States in the mid-1980s. The widespread coverage came at a period when the individual incidents of Etan Patz, Adam Walsh, and Johnny Gosch aroused awareness and pushed laws to assist missing children and those looking for them.

Jonelle disappeared in the same year that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was formed.

The Nationwide Child Safety Council launched the Missing Children Milk Carton Program in December 1984, the same month Jonelle went missing.

Despite Jonelle’s tragic status as a milk carton kid and former US President Ronald Reagan recognizing her by name in a 1985 speech, the attention did not assist her loved ones in understanding the reality at the time. For more than three decades, the girl’s fate remained unknown.

3. When Were Jonelle Matthews’ Remains Found?

Jonelle Matthews’ remains were found 35 years after she went missing

On July 23, 2019, an oil crew digging for a pipeline in “a desolate field southeast of Greeley,” approximately 20 miles from the Matthews’ home, discovered skeletal remains, including a skull with orthodontic braces, Oxygen.com reported. Jonelle wore a plaid skirt, top, and sweater vest to her Christmas choir concert, and the fabric pieces matched.

Two days later, police determined that the bones belonged to Jonelle, and evidence showed she had been shot in the head.

On October 9, 2020, a grand jury indicted Steven Dana Pankey, a person of interest identified early in the inquiry, for kidnapping and murder. Authorities reported that Pankey was a neighbor of the Matthews family and attended the same church.

Pankey was an Idaho gubernatorial candidate who ran two unsuccessful runs (one in 2014 and one in 2018) and was unduly involved in Jonelle’s missing persons case. In an indictment acquired by Oxygen.com, Pankey’s electronic devices demonstrated that he searched the case thousands of times.

Among the details described in Pankey’s arrest affidavit, Pankey mentioned the rake used to conceal the footprints in the snow outside the Matthews’ house, which police purposefully kept from the press.

Pankey also wrote a letter in 2013 saying, “About a week after the fact, I realized a blanket, or comforter, or quilt, had also disappeared from the Matthews’ house… some experiences are hard to forget.”

Pankey’s former wife reveals more about her ex in The Girl on the Milk Carton, which premieres on Oxygen on Sunday, August 25, 2024.

“Pankey’s ex-wife, a key witness in the case against him, bravely comes forward to exclusively share her experience of living with a deluded fantasist and sadistic murderer and reveals the crucial evidence that led to his prosecution,” the special’s synopsis reads.

4. About The Girl On The Milk Carton

Five days before Christmas 1984, 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews went missing from her own living room in the small town of Greeley, Colorado. In an attempt to find her, Jonelle was given the tragic distinction as one of the first missing children whose face appeared on a milk carton. Sadly, the publicity did not bring her home. Nearly 35 years after her disappearance, her remains were found more than 20 miles away from her home.

In a bizarre twist, a true-crime fanatic and gubernatorial candidate, obsessed with Jonelle’s disappearance for three decades became the main suspect. Master manipulator and aspiring politician Steve Pankey had inserted himself into this case by volunteering details about Jonelle’s murder, but only in exchange for a deal.

Pankey’s ex-wife, a key witness in the case against him, bravely comes forward to exclusively share her experience of living with a deluded fantasist and sadistic murderer, and reveals the crucial evidence that led to his prosecution.