Posted inCrime and Courts, News

Sheridan police use DNA to finally identify Israeli man killed in 1988

By Patty Nieberg, The Associated Press/Report for America Colorado officials identified the victim of an unsolved 33-year-old homicide by using DNA analysis that traced the victim to relatives in Israel. The victim was identified as 36-year-old Akram Bada’an, who was killed in August 1988. His body was found in Sheridan, a suburb just south of […]

Posted inCrime and Courts, News

Weld County trial begins for man accused in 1984 cold case killing of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews

By Patty Nieberg, The Associated Press  A former longshot Idaho gubernatorial candidate on trial in the 1984 killing of a 12-year-old Colorado girl wasn’t even remotely considered a suspect to law enforcement until his obsession with the crime and incessant visits to talk with police about it provided clues that turned him into the suspect, […]

Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit

An eager new investigator proves indispensable in a novel about a Colorado cold-case murder

Award-winning author Donnell Ann Bell knows statistically that crime and accidents happen within a two-mile radius of home. With that in mind, she leaves the international capers to others and concentrates on stories that might happen in her neck of the woods.  Donnell’s novels “The Past Came Hunting,” “Deadly Recall,” “Betrayed” and “Buried Agendas” have […]

Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News

After haunting Colorado for three decades, there is new hope in the Jonelle Matthews case

Before 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews went missing, Greeley was half the size it is today.  Kids rode their bikes on dirt roads past farmers’ fields, explored ravines and sold Girl Scout cookies door to door. On the night Jonelle was last seen, Christmas presents were already tucked beneath trees and holiday lights blinked from rooftops and […]

Posted inCrime and Courts, News

Former Idaho gubernatorial candidate being investigated for 1984 Greeley cold-case murder of 12-year-old girl

A failed two-time Idaho gubernatorial candidate says he is being investigated in the disappearance and death of a 12-year-old girl in Greeley 35 years ago. Steve Pankey, who previously lived in northern Colorado, told the Idaho Statesman that the first time he heard about the murder case of Jonelle Matthews was the day after Christmas […]