Nearly four decades
after a young girl disappeared,
a jury has convicted her killer.
The jury found Steve Pankey guilty
of kidnapping and murdering 12 year
old Janelle Matthews in Greeley.
She disappeared back in
1984's first trial had ended in a mistrial,
but this time it took jurors less
than a day to reach a decision.
News crime and justice reporter
Matt Jablo is in Greeley.
Joining us now with more on
the decision. Matt.
Tom Janelle's parents said they often
thought this day would never come,
but now that it has, they're overjoyed
and deeply grateful. I just wanna cry.
38 years after their daughter Janelle
disappeared, Jim and Gloria Matthews said
justice delayed was not justice denied.
What did I feel when they
announced the verdict?
Well, obviously. Relief.
In December of 1984,
twelve year old Janelle Matthews was
kidnapped from her home in Greeley.
Her body was finally found 35 years
later in 2019 by oil workers digging
in a remote field in Weld County.
That was a miracle. Then, in 2020,
police arrested Steven Pankey,
a former Weld County resident who
over the years told police and
prosecutors that he would lead
them to Janelle's body in exchange
for immunity from prosecution.
Which he never received.
We, the jury find the defendant,
Steven Dana Panky, guilty.
Late Monday morning a jury found Panky
guilty of first degree murder and
a few hours later a judge sentenced
him to life in prison with the
possibility of parole after 20 years.
Closure. Finality.
For our family. And.
Praising God. For his
health, and this as well.
I cannot forgive him for
how he killed Janelle.
God's the only one who can forgive evil.
And I feel that this is evil.
For his part, Pankey made only a brief
statement in court today saying, quote,
I am a Christian, I will be in heaven.
I am innocent and this is not
justice for Janelle, Kim and Tom.
I can't even begin for those of
us who've been here for 40 years
trying to sort through all the that
happened in that time and how,
how that family, how the prosecutors,
how all the people had to work on
this case and live with this case
for so long are feeling today.
Tom, it was, as you can imagine,
an incredibly emotional day both
inside the courtroom and afterwards,
outside of the courtroom steps when
prosecutors and the Matthews family spoke.
Alright, Matt, thanks.
Court documents reveal two of the
four people killed in a shooting
early yesterday morning filed
Protection Orders against the suspect.
Just last week, police believe 21 year
old Joseph Castorina shot four people.
Police say this stem from an
ongoing domestic situation.
Court documents show that Castorina's
ex-girlfriend as well as her
sister and father filed Protection
Orders against him last week.
They claim he pulled the
gun on his ex-girlfriend
had threatened to kill her
father's safe house. Denver,
a domestic violence survivor support.
Center says family members of domestic
violence victims are often at risk as well.
Perpetrators are really skilled at
finding vulnerable places and so if
a survivor has a strong relationship
with a friend or a family member,
especially somebody living
within their own home,
perpetrators are going to exploit that.
And we should add,
the castorena also filed a protection
order three weeks ago against what
is listed as his mother-in-law.
Based on the circumstances,
this appears to be the
mother of his ex-girlfriend.
Two people died and at least ten others
were hurt in an early morning fire
at an apartment complex in Lakewood.
The fire started about 4:15 this morning at
an apartment complex off 9th and Sheridan.
The fire destroyed the complex and displaced
residents of all 32 units coming up at 4:30.
Arnold Brennan is going to join us live from
Lakewood with more on this developing story.
Denver police are trying to find out who
shot and killed two men in southeast Denver.
This after police responded to a
shooting a little after 2:00 AM
yesterday morning on East Girard.
Ave near Hampden and Dayton.
Police say DeAndre Lewis and
Rashad Jackson were killed.
Lewis died at the scene,
Jackson at the hospital.
Now police are looking for any leads and
are asking you to call Crime Stoppers.
If you do know anything,
there is a reward for information.
So we take a look outside on
this Halloween afternoon.
Still a lot of blue sky warm
temperatures for this time of
year as we wrap up October.
Kathy, I know Rod Mackey will be
along later to tell you how much
snow he was expecting on Halloween.
Yep, I came
in today. I'm doing all the shows just to
make sure he doesn't get into that forecast.
Don't let him get away with it.
He's like a gremlin.
He just call him out and he just
starts like messing with things.
Now we are going to have snow this week.
It's just not going to be on Halloween.
And you wouldn't know it by
looking at this beautiful day.
Mount Meeker in the distance here.
So clear fair skies,
light winds this afternoon,
high pressures are dominant feature
and with the storm track to the north
and light winds out of the southwest,
we say goodbye to the month of October
with seasonal readings and hello to
November with temperatures in the 70s.
But it won't last.
There's a storm off to the West of us.
We'll look for increasing clouds and
snow will start to fly over the higher
terrain and mountain communities
probably as early as Wednesday morning.
We're watching that pretty closely today,
comfortable 68 in Denver,
67 in Greeley, 70 Lamar.
Pueblo 52 in Eagle and 55 in Meeker.
Winds have been pretty light and will
be shifting out of the southwest as
we move through the day tomorrow.
This evening temperatures currently
in the 60s dropping into the 50s,
but who cares about that?
It's all about the trick or treaters.
So let's dig into that Halloween forecast,
shall we? Not too scary at all, I hope.
Rod Mackey is watching.
There is not a snowflake in
this forecast tonight.
Fair skies cool.
6:00 PM temperature close to 60 degrees.
9:00 PM temperature in the mid 40s.
Not even cold enough to snow.
Tonight, Rod,
but coming up,
I am going to talk about that Metro
Snow forecast and how about sunshine and
70 you guys for the start of November.
Wow.
It's like a lot of his sports
predictions. He's off by a bit
like 3 days. We always say don't let
him call a game in favor of a home team.
That's ever. So same thing with
the forecast for Halloween.
I love never. Is he working today by the way,
even if he's here, is he really working?
I haven't seen him. I don't
think so. I mean to get back
from London around midnight. Big
difference between being here and
actually working. Rod defines it,
celebrating the Broncos win.
Sometimes he hears he here.
He is here but not really
working right. Yeah,
right. He's present,
but we can do this because
I really don't think he
can be coming in today.
You think he's watching them? He is off
is is a jet lagged fool.
He's not coming in today.
Kathy will talk to you more about
the forecast in a couple minutes.
Thanks. Great.