Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
In June 2020, 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos disappeared while walking home from church in the quiet town of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. As a member of the Amish community, Linda lived a peaceful, private life, until the outside world forced its way in.
Her sudden disappearance sent shockwaves through Lancaster County. For the Amish, crime of this nature was nearly unheard of.
As search teams combed the woods and back roads, a disturbing picture began to emerge.
A red car. A mound of disturbed earth. A man with a violent past.
tucked away in the rolling farmlands of landcaster county,pensylvania , lies a small picturesque village called bird -in -hand.it’s a place where time feels like it has paused.
where horsedrawn buggies clip-clop down narrow country roads.fields stretched out in neat symmetrical rows plowed not by machines but teams of horses.
in bird – in hand, the pace of life is a little slower,more deliberate,and deeply rooted in tradition.
this quiet town is home to one of the most well-known amish communities in the united states.the amish here, live much as their ancestors did,guided by a strict interpretation of christian doctrine and a desire to remain separate from the modern world.
electricity,cars ,and even zippers are shunned.instead , amish families in bird-in – hand rely on gas lamps , wood stoves and simple handmade garment.
among the carefully tendend farm and winding country lanes of bird -in- hand was 18 year old linda Stoltzfoos .
she lived with her parents and eight sibings in a modest faqrmhouse on beachdale road.a narrow stretch of land that winds through the heart of amish country.the Stoltzfoos home ,like so many others in the area,was seyt back from the road,surrounded by neat fields.
a horsdrawn buggy was almost always parked in the driveway.
the Stoltzfoos family belonged to the old order, amish, a more conservative sect within the already traditional amish community.
linda embodied th values of her community with grace.
she lived a simple,purposeful life. she was a soft -spoken young women who was deeply devoted to her family and her faith.
when she wasn’t tutoritng ,linda worked part- time at a local produce market not far from her home.linda didn’t have many friends outside of the amish community.
in fact she never had a boyfriend.
that wasn’t unusual for a young woman her age and in bird -in hand.
where courtship was often slow and carefully considered, sometimes taking place during church gatherings.she was active in her church and her youth group.
friends described linda as obedient and modest, somebody who always followed the rules, someone who would never take unnecessary risk or draw unwanted attention.
the sun rose over the fields of bird – in- hand on the 21 st of june 2020, it was a regular sunday like so many others in the quiet amish town.
linda began her morning routine. after a quiet breakfast with her family , linda stepped outside.
sunday in the amish community isn’t just a day of rest.it ‘s sacred . it’s a time for reflection , for scripture, for togetherness.
every other sunday , amish family take turns hosting church services in their homes.
on this day , the service was being held in a farmhouse along stomptown road just under 2 miles away.it was a familiar walk for linda.
linda arrived for the service,which like all amish worship was long and traditional. conducted in pennsylvania and dutch with men and women seated separately on backless wooden benches.
after the hymns and prayers , a communal meal followed.
linda and her friend, lillian stayed behind to help with the cleanup, washing dishes and chatting in the kitchen as they had done many times before.
once the dishes were done, the two girls stepped outside and stood near the barn.
linda mentioned that she was heading home to change into more comfortable clothing and grabbed the dessert she had baked the night before.
she wanted to bring it along to youth group, she’d been looking forward to it.youth group ran from 2:00 p.m until late into the night, sometimes until 11:00 p.m.
lillian watched as linda seyt off barefoot with her shoes in her hand,linda appeared to be in good spirits.there was no indication,none at all ,that anything was wrong.she didn’t mention stopping anywhere on her way home. she simply said goodbye and walked away.
that was the last time anybody ever saw linda. hours passed. the afternoon slipped into evening and te stoltzfoos family sat down to dinner without linda.
it was expected .after all, youth group often ran late into the night.
still , when 11 p.m came and went there was still no sign of her, her parents became concerned. her father Lloyd ,went into her bedroom.it was empty.her church clothing was nowehere to be found.the dessert still sat in the kitchen.
he knew then , without a doubt, that linda had never made it back home after church.but he knw her routine. he knew she liked to cchange out of her church clothing before youth group.
without waiting , Lloyd stepped out into the darkness and began retracing his daughter’s route.
with his flashlight in his hand, he walked the quiet rural roads, calling out his daughter’s name into the night.there was no sign of linda . no movement in the hedge.
he reach out to her friends , one by one, they confirmed what he had already feared.
linda had been at church that morning ,but she never arrived at youth group.some assumed she’d fallen ill and stayed home.
it hadn’t seemed suspicious at the time,but now it was clear something was wrong.
at around 2:30 a.m ., Lloyd made contact with the police to report his daughter missing.Lloyd explained that linda had left church around 12:30 to walk back home.
that she was supposed to go to youth group , that she never showed,that her usualy clothing was missing.
the search began in those early morning hours to canvas the area.they spoke to neighbors ,family members , and fellow churchgoers.
lillian told them that linda had lingered after the service to do the dishes. she said they chatted and that linda had walked away barefoot,heading home as she always did.
she’d seemed perfectly fine,normal ,happy.
but somewhere along that familiar ,well trodden path , linda vanished…
by sunrise the next morning, the roling farmland of bird – in -hand was transformed into a search grid. word had spread like wildfire.one of their own was missing.
and in the amish community,where everyone knows each other and the pace of life is slow and intentional, a disappearance like this felt almost unimaginable.
the response was immediate and overwhelming. the amish ,the menanites,and even those outside of the plain communities gathered in droves,united bya single mission to find linda.
the narrow roads around stumptown and beachdale swelled with volunteers.
the searchers walked in lines through the endless rows of corn, their voices calling out linda’s name again and again.
as the day wore on , law enforcement escalated their efforts.police closed off stretches of road in upper leehawk township. by 6:13 by 6 :30 p.m 15 horseback riders were dispatched to reach areas that were too difficult to access on foot. tracking dogs were then brought in.
but as the sun dipped low in the sky , no sign of linda had surfaced,not a scrap of clothing,not a footprint,nothing that could indicate where she had gone.
at around 8:00 p.m the community gathered once more,not to search ,but to pray. a vigil was held ,the same road that linda would have walked.
meanwhile . linda’sfamily set up a facebook page to coordinate efforts and share updates.from the very beginning the theory was grim. something bad had h appened to linda.
she hadn’t simply wandered off.people in the amish community sometimes do leave.
they might feel pulled by the outside world,by freedom , technology, romance,but those departures aren’t usually silent.
but linda had shown none of them. she didn’t have a cell phone,no computer,no boyfriend.
she didn’t even have friends outside of the amish community.and she had no secret life , at least none that anybody knew of.
her world was small by design, but it was one that made her deeply happy.
one family friend said” she was a sweet ,quiet girl who never put herself in a troublesome situation.wer’re shocked. her even leaving without informing anybody where she was going is out of character, this is all out of character”
the next day , the FBI had joined the search. what ever had happened to linda,it was no longer just a local mystery.
it had become something much bigger and much darker…
the days passed achingly slow for linda’s family. each morning brought new hope and each night new dread. a week had slipped by and still there was no sign of linda.
tips came in steadily.people thought that they’d seen linda or maybe a car that didn’t belong in that part of town.investigators followed every lead with urgency,but each one only led to the same place, a dead end.
in the second week of the investigation,detectives shifted focus.
they released a request to the public.
the goal was to narrow down linda’s movements to find somebody who may have seen something, anything that could break the case open.
meanwhile , the emotional toll on the community deepened.
each night, people gathered to pray.
and it wasn’t just the amish. mennonite families and even those without faith showed up with candles and heavy hearts.
as part of the evolving investigation ,the FBI created a composite image showing what linda might look like with her hair down and dressed in modern clothing.
it was a heartbreaking glimpse into another version of linda, one her community had never seen but one the outside world might recognize .
to generate more leads, the FBI offered $ 10,000 reward.not just for information leading to linda’s recovery, but for any information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
because by now they were certain linda had been abducted.and then a tip came in. Isaac ash,a local man who lived on stumptown road , recalled something odd.
around 12:30 p.m. just after linda would have left the church, he was sitting on his front porch when a red sedan passed by heading east.the car hadcome from the direction of the church and strangely it turned around .
the car paused just for a moment before heading back the way it came,now driving west back towards the churche.
Isaac described the driver as a white man with dark hair.but he noticed that the man’s skin was darker in tone.he was maybe hispanic, he thought.
the way he turned around like he’d seen something or someone…
could he have spotted linda walking alone?
investigators thought so. then came another sightingt. around 1 p.m. on the day that linda vanished, sarah and Isaac were walking together when they noticed a red car driving north.
on the passenger side was a young amish women.she was wearing a white apron and a black head covering, traditional church attire.
sarah instictively waved as was custom,but the women didn’t wave back.instead she looked at sarah. her expression haunted her.” she looked at me with pleading eyes”.sarah recalled.
at the time ,she thought that it was strange.after seeing photographs of linda , she was convinced that the woman in the car was her.
other members of the amish community came forward with similar sightings.
a red car, an amish girl, a man white or possibly hispanic behind the wheel,the girl always in church clothing, and always something felt off.
the detail that bothered many was that it was highly unusual to see an amish woman in a car while dressed in her sunday best.something about it felt wrong.
detectives combed through surveillance footage from the area, and at 1:00 p.m thay found it.they saw a red sedan driving south on beachdale road coming from the direction of strumptown.
the footage was grainy , but when the FBI enhanced it ,they noticed something chilling, a pale object in the front passenger seat.it was shaped like a person.detectives believe it was linda.
they analyzed every single frame .the vehicle was identified as a second generation kia Rio.it had a distinctive spoiler and several stickers on the truck.it was the break that they needed.
when they ran the license plate, the search led to a man justo smoker.
justo smoker was a 34 year old hispanic man with black hair, a mustach, and a beard. his early years had been marked by tragedy. as a child ,he was found on the street of Costa Rica.
his biological parents would leave him and his brother alone for weeks at a time.the young boys often stole food as a means to survive.
he was placed in an orphanage where he suffered horrific abuse,both physical and sexual.
while there ,his biological mother died.eventually ,he and his brother were adopted by a couple in the united states in hopes of a new beginning.
at first ,it seemed like he might overcome his traumatic start.smoker excelled at wrestling in high school.he earned a 3.0 GPA and even secure a spot on the Lancaster lebanon wrestling Allstars team in 2003.
but the promise didn’t last.by 2005, he had turned to a life of crime.
in 2006,he and his brother victor went on a violent spree, committing a string of armed robberies using a BB gun to hold up four different businesses.
smoker was sentenced to 12 and a half to 30 years in prison.
during the trial , his attorney spoke of his troubled childhood and the abuse he endured.
smoker himself said to the judge,”they raised me better than this, i’m sorry for what i did and people i hurt,including my family”
his adoptive father was less forgiving.he said that smoker had been trouble from the very start.
after serving nearly the minimum of his sentence,smoker was released on february 28th,2019.
but freedom brought no redemption. smoker struggled to stay sober.his sister died shortly after he was released, sending him into a spiral. he drank heavily, sometimes to the point of blacking out, waking up at home with no memory of how he’d gotten there.
it was in this fracture state of existence that smoker came on to law enforcement’s radar.
aftr identifying the red Kia Rio in the surveillance footage,detectives tracked the vehicle to dutchland Incorporated, a business in Gap , pennsylvania, where smoker worked.
in the parking lot , they observed the car closely.
it matched the description exactly. a second generation Kia Rio missing its front’s passenger hub cab with visible damage to the passenger side panel.
but they didn’t have enough evidence for a search warrant.so they watched.
when smoker left work,detectives followed. he drove north on SR41,then west onto Lincoln highway,pulling briefly into the parking lot of a bird- in -hand window showroom.
then he headed towards a cluster of apartments near 3250 Lincoln highway.detectives learned that this was where he lived.the next day ,they knocked on his door.
smoker let them in.he said he didn’t know anybody named linda.he claimed he hadn’t been anywhere near beachdale road the day she vanished.
but detectives knew that he was lying.they had surveillance footage that place him on beachdale road the very area linda was last seen around the same time she vanished.
but with no body, no physical evidence, and only a vague sighting from grainy footage, they couldn’t arrest him.
so they kept digging. soon they came across some new evidence. footage from a resident,who lived along beachdale road. the video was timestamped 12:36 p.m.
it showed smoker’s red kia turning of beachdale road and pulling into the west side just out of camera view.minutes earlier at 12:30 p.m. a women who was believed to be linda was captured walking south on beachdale road.
then another figure entered the frame. it was a man and detectives believed it was justo smoker.
he walked directly towards linda.then there was movement, sudden and quick.it looked as though he placed something over her head and grabbed her.
the two figures then moved off camera towards the west side of the road.right where smoker’s vehicle hadjust parked.
moments later ,the kia rio was seen driving away. while the footag was blurry ,there was a pale shape in the passengerseat, something white.it was linda.
detectives continue to investigate justo smoker as a person interest in linda’s disappearance.their minds turned back to a tip they had received just 2 days after she vanished.
a report of a suspecious red vehicle parked behind the business at 3:03 harvest drive and bronx.it was a red kia and it had the same license plate as justo smoker’s car.
according to the tipster , a hispanic male had exited the car,looked into the building’s windows and doors , and then drove off.but he wasn’t gone for long.he came back.this time,he backed the kia into a space beside ther railroad tracks that boarded a wooded area.
it was secluded,isolated, the perfect place to hide something or someone.
detectives now believe that justo smoker had returned to harvest drive to dispose of linda’s body.
they launched a search of the area, sealing it off with crime scene tape and beginning a slow methodical sweep of the woods behind the building.
it didn’t take long before they spotted something.about 40 yards into the trees ,they noticed disturbed soil hidden in the thick vegetation as though somebody had tried to camouflage it.
carefully,they bgan to dig. just 6 to 8 inches beneath the surface,detectives unearthed women’sclothing, a white bra, and a pair of dark colored footr stockings knotted together.
linda’s family confirmed the items likely belonged to her.the bra was her size and style.
as for the stockings ,linda had a habit of tying them together and carrying them barefoot as she walked home.not far from the makeshift burial sit , two logs had been arranged in a Vshipe.
when detectives rolled them over ,they made another disturbing discovery.
a white plastic zip tie that had been cut. the evidence was growing and with it the urgency.
detectives brought in a cadaver dog to search the area, but the dog didn’t pick up any scent of human remains.
still ,the presence of linda’s clothing,deliberately hidden and buried ,was enough.
later that day ,justo smoker was arrested. he was charged with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment.
the judge ordered that he be held without bail.
with smoker in custody ,detectives turned their attention to his digital footprint.they now secured a warrant for his phone records.they found that between 1:00 p.m and 3:00 p.m on the day that linda disappeared, smoker had exchanged 15 messages with his brother victor.
text and multimedia messages,many of them sent while he was in the area where linda had last been seen.
cell tower data also placed his phone in the vicinity of the abduction. then it showed movement. smoker drove into the dense , isolated welsh mountain area, a place full of ravines, thick underbrush, and little foot traffic.
after that , he headed to harvest drive.the evidence was pointing to a chilling conclusion.
justo smoker hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
he’d been stalking the amish community.
as the investigation continued,more amish women came forward.they told detectives about a man in a red car, a kia with a missing hubcap and dented roof, who had followed them as they walked along rural roads.
he would slow down, circle back , linger. it appeared that smoker had been hunting for a victim. and on that summer afternoon, he found one.
detectives now strongly believe that linda was no longer alive.
the case had shifted from a desperate search for a missing person to a recovery mission.
at a press conference held alongside the FBI and pennsylvania state police,Lancaster county district attorney heather adams confirmed the community’s worst fears.
she had told reporters that they had no reason to believe that linda had entered justo smoker’s vehicle willingly. she said that linda had most likely suffered harm.
her words devastated the community,especially the amish.
they were peaceful,private, and law- abiding people.the amish were lnown for living simple, quite lives largely untouched by the violence of the outside world.
now that innocence had been shattered.
violent crime in Lancaster county’s amish population was rare,but it wasn’t unheard of.
mark luden , a professor at the university of Wisconsin madison, who studied the amish, explained that while internal amish disputes occasionally arise, violence from outsiders, who he referred to as the English , was uncommon, allthough not unprecedented.
most incidents involving the amish and outsiders thend to be pranks or property crimes.pumkins thown at buggies,theft , buggy vehicle accidents,but this was something far mor sinister.
mark dewald , a professor specializing in amish education, noted the most crimes against the amish were nonviolent.linda’s disappearance and presumed murder was a dark exception.
the fallout was immediate.in the quiet village of bird- in -hand, fear took root.
amish families stopped walking alone. they implemented a buddy system.trusting the outside world,the English was shaken.
but even in the face of such darkness , there was light.
in a show of solidarity and love , thousands gathered for a prayer ride to honor linda and support her grieving family.
they were asked to wear her favorite color , yellow. cars and motorcycles adorned with yellow bandanas and flags filled the lot a Ephrada community church.there were people from all across the country, strangers united by sorrow, compassion, and hope.
a moment of silence was held before the event began.then a 30 -mile caravan wound its way through Lancaster county ,ending in Bird- in -hand, the very community linda had called home.
at the start of august, a preliminary hearing was held to determine whether there was enough evidence to send justo smoker to trial.
his defense attorney, tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s case.he argued that the surveillance footage showing lindas abduction was essentially meaningless.
just pixels ,he said. he insisted that there was no way to prove that the figures in the video were linda and smoker.
but detectives had more than just pixels. detective chirstopher jones detified that everything had pointed to one tragic conclusion.linda was dead.there had been no activity on her bank account and no travel records.and linda ,he pointed out , didn’t even have an ID.
she wouldn’t have been able to use mass transit orcheck into a hotel. she simply vanished. he spoke gently about linda’s life. she was nice,caring, and always wanted to know about other people, he told the court.everybody close to her said the same thing. she was happy .she had no problems at home.no reason to run away.
after the hearing, the judge ruled that justo smoker would stand trial.
then on the 20th of august, attention turned to the rugged wooded terrain of welsh montain.
justo smoker’s cell phone data had placed him in the area after linda’s abduction.
hundreds of volunteers showed up some broguht machetes to cut through the thick summer brush.search teams wera assinged grid patterns mapped with special software.
they use surveyors tape to mark areas and log their progress in meticulous detail.
those who couldn’t join the search helped in other ways.they made sandwiches, handed out bottles of water, and served hot meals at ridgeview mennonite churche, which had become the command cxenter.but after two full days, the forest had given up no answers.
even as the search dragged on ,justo smoker made his next move.he waved his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and fals imprisonment.
then in december ,the case took another sharp turn.
smoker was officially charged with linda’s murder.more evidence against him had been uncovered to warrant the charge.his DNA had been found on linda’s stockings, the same ones buried in the woods near Harvest drive.
and cell phone records revealed something else.in the days following the abdduction ,smoke had returned to the same spot multiple times .
district attorney heather adams announced the new charges.
” given the circumstances of linda’s disappearance, specifically a forceful abduction by a stranger, we always feared the worst.”
but the search for linda’s body was not yet over….
behind the scenes , a plea deal was being discussed.justo smoker agreed to lead the investigators to linda’s body on one condition.
the death penalty would be taken off the table.
in late april, he made good on that deal .with detectives at his side ,he led them to a wooded area of route 41,land that is owned by dutchland Incorporated, where he had once worked.
just beyond the railroad tracks , he pointed to a mound of dirt.detectives began to dig.
about 42 inches down ,something shiny caught the light.it was a tarp.they carefully peeled it back and inside they found the badly decomposed body of linda.
she was still wearing the same dress and bonnet she had on the day she wanished.her hands and feet had been bound.her sash and apron were wrapped tightly around her neck.
a strip of duct tape streched across her mouth from cheek to cheek.
smoker admitted that he had originally buried linda closer to her home near where her bra and stockings were found,but moved her after her disappearance had made the news.
linda had been strangled. she also had been stabbed in the neck while she was still alive.
the wound had caused her to bleed into her esophagus.there was also injuries that were consistent with sexual assault.
for linda’s family it was a final confirmation of a horror they had long feared.
that afternoon, the district attorney held a press conference .
on april 26th , 1o months after linda was taken , she was finally laid to to rest.69 horsedrawn buggies formed a solemn procession to meyers cemetery . a few SUVs followed behind.
police had closed the road to make way.it was a privat ceremony, simple and serene.
much like linda.
amish funerals are quiet,understated affairs.there’s no floors,no eulogies ,no long sermons. there’s just hymns in scripture.death is accepted as part of god’s will.but that didn’t make it any easier.
linda was then buried by hand in a pine coffin made without nails.her community, broken but togther,stood silently.
linda stoltzfoos was finally home.
on the 23rd of july , 2021 , justo smoker stood before the court one last time. he pleaded guilty to thirddegree murder,kidnapping , and several other offenses.
in a quiet, emotionless voice ,he admitted that he had strangled linda,first with his arm,then with his shoelaces before stabbing her once in the neck.although linda’s injuries were consistent with the sexual assault,smoker denied that he had raped her.
judge david ashworth accepted the plea.he acknowledge that it was not justice in its fullest form,but it was something.
without the plea deal , linda’s body may have never been recovered.
without it , there would be no certainty ,no resolution.with it. smoker would be held accountable the community would be protected and linda’s loved ones would be given a measure of peace.
the judge then handed down the sentence.35 and a half to 71 years in prison.an additional
17 years were tacked on for violating his parole.
outside the courtroom, district attorney heather adams called it what it was.
this is effectively a life sentence for smoker”