LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa.
“The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office has been called to the scene,” prosecutors said in a news release.
Stoltzfoos, 18, of Bird-in-Hand, made national headlines following her June 21 abduction, which took place as she walked home from church.
“Lloyd noted that after the church service, Linda was going to walk home and change her clothing before going to youth group,” East Lampeter police Detective Christopher Jones wrote.
Amish teen murder: Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, vanished June 21, 2020, after leaving a Sunday church service on this farm in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
Three of Stoltzfoos’ friends were also interviewed, and they indicated they’d all spent time together two days before she disappeared.
All agreed with Ebersole that Stoltzfoos was content and would not have left without telling anyone.
June 21, he was sitting on his porch watching traffic when a red sedan drove east past his home, heading away from the location of Stoltzfoos’ final church service.
Amish teen murder: Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, vanished June 21, 2020, as she walked the mile from church to her home, pictured, in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
Security footage obtained July 8 from the 500 block of Beechdale Road, near the Stoltzfoos home, showed the red vehicle moving south, away from Stumptown Road, at 12:42 p.m.
Detectives conducting a police record check learned that Smoker, who worked for a water treatment supplier in nearby Gap, owned a red 2007 Kia Rio.
Amish teen murder: Images from prosecutors show a red Kia Rio belonging to Justo Smoker, who is suspected of using the car to abduct Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, as she walked home from church June 21, 2020, in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
The day after Smoker’s first interview, a detective enlarged and watched the video of the red Rio.
Two days after Stoltzfoos’ disappearance, a Pennsylvania state trooper went to a business in Ronks, about five miles from the abduction area, after a man reported a suspicious vehicle.
Each time, the driver parked the car near railroad tracks behind the business.
Amish teen murder: Authorities found the undergarments of missing Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, buried behind this Ronks, Pa., business.
The couple, who are intimately familiar with the Amish traditions and culture, noted that the women who attend the churches around Gap do not wear black head coverings.
Amish teen murder: Linda Stoltzfoos, pictured as she might look in non-Amish clothing, vanished June 21, 2020, after leaving a Sunday church service a mile from her home in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
A state police corporal interviewed Smoker a second time on July 10, according to court documents.
Detectives also learned during the investigation that Stoltzfoos may not have been Smoker’s first target.
21, 2020, with killing Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, during a kidnapping as she walked home from church June 21 in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
Another witness told police that about 30 minutes after the group spotted the suspicious vehicle, a red car passed her four times in that same area.
Detectives tracked Smoker’s movements on June 20, the day before Stoltzfoos disappeared, and found records showing he bought beer and liquor in Lancaster and Gap that afternoon.
Smoker went back to the Dollar General the morning of the abduction and bought a pack of eight pairs of nitrile disposable gloves, three pairs of black shoelaces and two pairs of black boot laces.
The detective wraps up the affidavit by pointing out that in the more than five months since Stoltzfoos vanished, she’d had no contact with family or friends, co-workers or students.