Justo Smoker, 34, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos, 18. She was reported missing from her Amish community after she did not arrive to a June 21 church service. NBC10’s Stephania Jimenez reports.
Police recovered human remains while searching for a Pennsylvania Amish teen who went missing exactly 10 months ago.
The FBI, East Lampeter Township Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police found the remains on Wednesday while searching for 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos. Investigators did not specify the exact location where they were found but said they were discovered in a rural area in the eastern part of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The scene will be processed and the remains will be released to the Lancaster County Coroner for official identification and a cause of death. Police also said they notified members of Stoltzfoos' family.
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Stoltzfoos went missing back on June 21, 2020, after being kidnapped on Beechdale Road in Bird-in-Hand, East Lampeter Township, while she was walking home from church. A month after her disappearance, Justo Smoker, 35, was arrested and charged with kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment.
Smoker was later charged with homicide in December 2020 after prosecutors alleged that the passing of time and “complete cessation of all routine activities” led to the conclusion that Stoltzfoos had died and that Smoker caused her death.
