Convicted Felon Arrested, Charged Over Missing Amish Teenage Girl

Linda Stoltzfoos (East Lampeter Township Police Department)

A Pennsylvania man with a criminal history was arrested in the case of a missing Amish teenage girl who disappeared in June, authorities said.

Justo Smoker, 34, was charged Friday with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment as investigators search for 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos in East Lampeter Township, officials said in a news release

“Smoker became a person of interest in the kidnapping after police received information about a red/orange vehicle seen in the Gap area on the afternoon of the abduction,” said the East Lampeter Township Police Department in the release. “Multiple witnesses in the area reported seeing an Amish female in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by a male. Witness descriptions of the driver and vehicle are consistent with Smoker and his vehicle.”

Justo Smoker, 34, was charged by East Lampeter Township, Pa., police on Friday, July 10, 2020 (East Lampeter Township Police Department)

Stoltzfoos’ father told officials that his daughter went missing on the evening of June 21 when she didn’t return home from a youth group, the release added.

Smoker, of Paradise Township, was released from prison in 2019. He was convicted in 2016 for a string of armed robberies, according to LancasterOnline.

The report said he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crimes, but he only served just over 12 years. In the crimes, Smoker and his brother, Victor, were accused of using a pellet gun to rob four businesses in the summer of 2006.

The FBI is now offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading the teens’ whereabouts.

“East Lampeter Township police is being assisted by multiple agencies, to include the FBI, Pennsylvania State Police and Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office,” authorities said in a statement.