DENVER, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A former two-time candidate for governor of Idaho was convicted on Monday of the abduction and murder of a 12-year-old Colorado girl who vanished from her home in 1984 after singing at a Christmas recital. Steven Pankey, 71, was found guilty in Weld County District Court for the first-degree murder and kidnapping of Jonelle Matthews, who disappeared from her home in Greeley, Colorado, about 50 miles (80.47 km) north of Denver. The conviction came in Pankey's second trial for the girl’s murder. Pankey unsuccessfully ran for Idaho governor on the Constitution Party ticket in 2014, and lost a second gubernatorial bid in the 2018 Republican primaries. Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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