the baffling disappearance and murder of Janelle Matthews a 12-year-old girl vanished on the evening of December 20th 1984 on the night of her disappearance jonelle had participated in a holiday concert at her school and was dropped off at her home around 8:15 p.m. her parents were out at a Christmas party and her sister was away on a school trip when her father returned home later that evening Janelle was gone but her shoes and Shaw were found in the living room suggesting she had made it inside the house over the years Janelle's fate remained unknown and the case grew cold a significant breakthrough came in 2019 when construction workers found human remains while Excavating for a pipeline in a rural area about 15 Mi away from Janelle's home DNA testing confirmed that the remains were janel's after re-examining the case with new forensic Technologies and reviewing old leads authorities arrested Steven Panky in October 2020 Steven Panky was tried in 2021 facing charges of murder and kidnapping in a retrial in 2022 Panky was found guilty of murder largely based on circumstantial evidence and his own incriminating statements