Two months later, Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos is still missing

It has been two months since Linda Stoltzfoos was last seen as she made her way home from church.   

The 18-year-old Amish teen was on her way to her Bird-In-Hand home to get a homemade dessert to take back for youth group when police say she was abducted. Police issued a missing person alert the next day, and hundreds of volunteers began to search for her around Bird-in-Hand. 

34-year-old Justo Smoker has been charged with kidnapping Stoltzfoos, and the charges against him were forwarded to county court after a preliminary hearing Aug. 5. 

Smoker is in Lancaster County Prison without bail, awaiting his day in court. Officials continue to search for Stoltzfoos.

East Lampeter Township police and the FBI will be searching for Stoltzfoos in the Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve on Saturday, Aug. 22.   

The agencies did not go into detail on why the East Earl nature preserve will be searched. 

Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve is approximately 940 acres and is located about 13 miles east from where police say Stoltzfoos was last seen.   

No volunteers are needed, East Lampeter police public information officer Lt. Matthew Hess said Wednesday.

"We do not wish to disclose exact location, because uninvited visitors to the area would not be beneficial to the effort,” Brett Hambright, spokesperson for the Lancaster County district attorney’s office told LNP | LancasterOnline on Thursday.  

Hambright added that the area was chosen based on information obtained during the ongoing investigation. 

The district attorney’s office hasn't said if investigators believe Stoltzfoos is dead or alive. At a press conference in July, District Attorney Heather Adams said finding Stoltzfoos’ bra and stockings buried behind a building near Harvest Drive “lends only to the conclusion that she suffered harm."  

Few new details were revealed at Smoker’s preliminary hearing Aug. 5, but. prosecutors gave insight as to why they think Smoker was the man who abducted Stoltzfoos, adding that they believe the two had never met before June 21. 

Smoker’s attorney, Christopher Tallarico, the county's chief public defender, argued during the hearing that Stoltzfoos could have left the area on her own. A Pennsylvania State Police trooper and the East Lampeter Township police officer who filed the charges said they had no reason to believe she wanted a change in lifestyle.  

Smoker's red Kia Rio, with a missing front hubcap, was spotted by witnesses in several locations around the time of Stoltzfoos’ disappearance, prosecutors said. 

East Lampeter Detective Christopher Jones testified during the hearing that hours after Stoltzfoos was last seen, Smoker sent a Facebook message to a friend saying he was cleaning out his car.  

Jones also said that when investigators asked him why he might have been in the area of Harvest Drive on June 23, where police recovered what they believe to be Stoltzfoos' bra and stockings buried 6 to 8 inches underground, Smoker told police that if he was in the area, it was just to smoke weed.  

Smoker will stand trial on the charges, with his formal arraignment scheduled for Friday, Aug. 28.