Woman says sister’s ‘brutal murder’ has haunted her for years. Now she’s searching for brother she’s never met.

IDAHO FALLS – Charlene Goetz was just a young girl when she heard the news that’s haunted her all her life.

The 53-year-old Wisconsin woman says her mom was involved in the murder of her 5-month-old sister in eastern Idaho nearly 60 years ago. Though it happened before Goetz was born, she didn’t hear about it until years later.

“The details of her brutal murder and her head being crushed haunted me all these years,” Goetz tells EastIdahoNews.com.

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EastIdahoNews.com highlighted the case in a story last year. Goetz saw it for the first time last month, and paid a visit to Idaho Falls to share additional information about how it’s impacted her, her own “horrible” upbringing and the discovery that her mom had a son whom she’s never met.

To begin, here’s a look at what happened, according to law enforcement.

Ellen’s story

In the summer of 1965, Pansy Jones and her boyfriend, Leo Daniels, of South Dakota, got a job working at an apple orchard in Idaho Falls. She had a baby named Ellen May Jones from a previous relationship who was just a few months old at the time. On August 4, they crossed the border into Wyoming, where law enforcement determined the baby was killed.

After three days of searching, then Bonneville County Sheriff Lester Hopkins, with the help of Boy Scout troops, volunteers and other law enforcement agencies, found the baby’s body buried in Idaho near Palisades. His written account of the incident says it was “covered with wood debris and limbs.”

An autopsy later revealed the baby’s stomach was empty at the time of death and there was severe trauma to the body, Hopkins wrote.

“I figured (Daniels) beat the child to death over a period of weeks or months,” Hopkins’ personal account says. “The baby cried all the time because it was hurting and its stomach was empty because it could not eat.”

When Hopkins questioned Jones, she initially said the baby died from pneumonia but eventually admitted Daniels had been beating her.

“The final blow to the baby was when Daniels took it by the feet and swung its head against the car fender,” Hopkins wrote.

Daniels and Jones both went to prison, but Jones only served a three year sentence. There were other factors surrounding her involvement in the baby’s death.

“It seemed to me that Pansy Jones was an immature young woman of below average intelligence who was easily dominated by a man. I knew less about Daniels but I was sure he was easily emotionally upset and a hot head,” Hopkins’ written history says.

Hopkins indicated he didn’t believe Jones wanted to kill her baby and was sympathetic to her loss.

Ellen‘s body was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Idaho Falls and Hopkins frequently visited her gravesite.

Hopkins passed away last year at age 92. It was one of his most memorable cases, and his 54-year-old daughter, Shelley Ramey, who lives in Idaho Falls, says it was a case he never got over.

Up until his death, Ramey says it’s something her dad brought up at least once a year.

“He’d say something like, ‘I’ve never stopped thinking about her’ or ‘She never had anyone but us to look after her grave.’ It seemed like every detail (caused) so much trauma for him,” Ramey explains.

Hopkins resigned as sheriff several years after this incident, but he and his family visited Ellen’s gravesite every year. Ramey has memories of placing flowers on the headstone as her dad quietly stood there for a few minutes.

“He recognized that other people were probably still suffering from the trauma (of her death),” says Ramey.

A closer look at the case

Over the weekend, Goetz met Ramey in Idaho Falls and saw her sister’s gravesite for the first time. She shared additional details about the case in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com.

Goetz was born five years after Ellen’s death and didn’t know about her murder until she was 8-years-old.

“It wasn’t until I was in grammar school that Pansy sat us (me and my other sister) down and told us her version of what happened,” Goetz says. “It was a sugar-coated (story that painted) her as the victim.”

Jones is now 80-years-old, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We reached out to get her side of the story, but she didn’t answer our calls.

Goetz says Jones told her the beating of Ellen May was a one-time occurrence. After claiming to have buried the baby in a 30-inch grave in Swan Valley, Jones said she stopped at the next gas station and told law enforcement what happened.

That’s when Jones said the baby had died of pneumonia. Authorities found blood-stained baby clothes in their car and they reportedly told them she had fallen out before her death.

There wasn’t enough evidence to arrest them at the time, Goetz says, so police kept a close surveillance on them.

“The truth of the matter is that they were on the run as fugitives for days,” Goetz explains.

Daniels and her mom buried Ellen on the side of the road, according to Goetz, and left her foot hanging out.

They sold the car they were driving in Washington for $10 and hitchhiked to Bend, Oregon, where they were later found and arrested.

It was the owner of the apple orchard Jones and Daniels were working for who alerted police about the baby’s death. He overheard them talking about it at one point before they took off.

Law enforcement found Ellen’s body at 11:45 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1965 about 100 feet off the road, according to Goetz’ written timeline.

Based on her research of court records, Goetz says her mom “turned state evidence against Daniels” to get lesser charges.

On Jan. 24, 1966, Daniels was reportedly sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder. Jones ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of accessory to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison. Why she only served three years is unclear.

To this day, Goetz believes her mom had more to do with the murder than she’s ever admitted.

An ‘absolutely horrible’ childhood

Goetz had her own troubled upbringing with Jones that she describes as “absolutely horrible.”

She recalls living in a filthy, cockroach-infested trailer. There were animal feces everywhere and she and her sister had no food or clothes.

Goetz says she walked in the house one day and saw her mom doing drugs. Jones was in the bathroom with a needle in her arm, Goetz recalls.

At one point, Goetz says she was molested and raped by Jones’ brother.

“When I was 12 years old, I called Child Protective Services myself,” Goetz explains. “I wanted to be removed.”

She was in and out of foster care during her teen years, still living part of the time with her mom. Goetz explains there were times when she had nowhere else to go, which is why she returned to her mom. After turning 17, Goetz never went back.

Goetz struggled with PTSD for years and even had her own brush with the law before getting her life back on track. These experiences, combined with the death of her sister, compel her to be a voice for children in abusive situations today.

Despite her troubled past, Goetz says she’s come a long way. She acknowledges her mom’s childhood was also horrible and she’s sympathetic, but it doesn’t excuse her actions as a mother, Goetz says.

“What I would like is for her to have some accountability and for her to tell the truth,” Goetz says, tearing up. “I’d like some answers from her but I’ve never been able to believe her because it’s all lies.”

Making connections and searching for answers

Visiting Ellen’s gravesite is a tradition that continued with Ramey and her kids. She still visits the grave every couple of years to honor her memory.

“It’s weird that a person you’ve never met can mean something to you,” says Ramey. “But it just goes to show … that everybody on the earth has somebody who cares about them.”

Knowing that Hopkins and his family made a point to visit Ellen’s grave all these years brings Goetz some peace of mind.

“That has filled my heart. I thank God that she wasn’t left there all alone,” Goetz says. “I’m so grateful to them.”

She connected with Ramey during her visit to Idaho Falls and feels like God played a role in the timing of these events in her life.

She recently launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for a new headstone for Ellen, which she’s hoping to install next summer on the 60th anniversary of her death.

Meanwhile, the discovery many years ago that her mom had a son while in prison is another mystery she’s hoping to solve.

Goetz says Jones was three months pregnant when she was booked in prison. Goetz’ brother would’ve been born in July or August of 1966.

Neither her or her mom knows his name or what happened to him. Still, Goetz has thought about him for years and hopes to make contact with him one day.

“It was a closed adoption. Pansy didn’t get to see or hold the baby,” Goetz says. “He would’ve been adopted out of Nebraska (because that’s where Pansy served her prison sentence). That’s all I know.”

Though she’s never met her brother, Goetz feels a connection to him in her heart and she has a simple message for him.

“I want him to know that I love him,” Goetz says, holding back tears. “I’m really hopeful that he’s had a wonderful life and that he escaped the horror that I and my sister went through.”

She’s hoping to hear from him and asks him to reach out via email at chargoerz@gmail.com.

“I know there’s a chance I’ll never find him,” she adds. “But I can’t give up at least trying.”