When asked that question by "48 Hours," Denlinger replied, "I don't know the answer to that. Authorities believe Burns stabbed the Kennedy High School senior in the chest and face inside a car parked at Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids. A spot of blood on the dress had a full male DNA profile and was consistent with the male DNA profile found on the gear shift. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested on Wednesday after police said he was linked by DNA from blood found on Michelle Martinko's clothing and elsewhere in the car at the crime scene. Burns is being held at the Linn County jail on a $5 million cash-only bond. [2], In 2006, 27 years after Martinko's killing, a new cold case investigator working for the Cedar Rapids Police Department received a tip connected to the case. And I went 'bingo'.". Kayla Lemieux, the transgender high school teacher in Canada, has been put on paid leave after pictures emerged of her dressed as a man proving she does not wear the prosthetics all the time. Want a job? [3] The brothers were placed under surveillance, and investigators began to attempt to collect their DNA secretly. The case had remained a mystery for 39 years until police say new DNA genealogy technology identified Burns' DNA at the scene. The Gazette is Iowas independent, employee-owned source for local, state, and national news coverage. physical distance - it was a 2 hour drive to and from mason city to cedar rapids. Be the first one to comment on this story. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. When Denlinger reminded Burns that Michelle had been killed in 1979, Burns responded, "It was a big deal. Burns also built himself a new home on his parents' land and opened a gas station and convenience store nearby. See Photos. Oral Argument Schedule. His hands and arms were also examined for scars possibly left by the assumed cut sustained during the attack. "Murder at . Sexual Assault of Unnamed Victim (12) . But it was another technique from Parabon -- genetic genealogy -- that led investigators to Burns, CeCe Moore, Parabon's chief genetic genealogist, told ABC News. Jerry Burns. After the arrest this week of Jerry Burns in the 1979 killing of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko, an Iowa city is left shocked, saddened, and skeptical. [2], On October 29, 2018, an investigator observed one of the brothers, Jerry Lynn Burns, drink multiple sodas using a plastic straw. Denlinger had to consider that Michelle could have been murdered by a stranger. 'A complete shock': Family of suspect in Martinko murder releases statement, Bobcats and beyond are wearing orange to support Benton Communitys Tatum Schroeder, UIHC library offers resources for and about people with disabilities. Burns' wife, Patricia . [36][37], On August 7, 2020, Burns was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Months before his February . However, in 2006, a tip came into the Cedar Rapids police department. My gut tells me there's probably something else out there. ", Whoever the killer was, he had come prepared. READ NEXT: Serial Killers Ex Thinks There Were More Victims, Parents of Murdered Teenager Did Not Live to See Her Killer Brought to Justice, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. UPDATE: Trial set for Iowa man accused in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko . The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. Jerry Lynn Burns is pictured in a booking photo released by the Linn County Sheriff's Office on Dec. 20, 2018. She never had any school problems. [2][16] At 2a.m., since Martinko had still not returned home, her father reported her missing. See Photos. "He had told me if I keep beating him, in pinochle, he was gonna have to 'take me to the mall,'" Allison said on the witness stand Tuesday. "We are reviewing the case and at this time have not uncovered any additional information that would implicate Jerry Burns in that disappearance," Sheriff John LeClere told TV9. On the way, Burns continued to talk. Place of rest will be in the Dickson County Memorial Gardens. The defense also requested the trial be moved out of Linn County based on the amount of attention the case had received over the past four decades, as well as "pervasive and prejudicial pretrial publicity". In 2012, while serving a life sentence for an unrelated attack, the man died in prison from colon cancer. Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com, Trish Mehaffey Crime and Courts Sep. 12, 2021 10:48 am535d ago, Gage Miskimen Health Care and Medicine Jul. Powered by. On Wednesday, after weeks of "planning and strategizing," investigators interviewed and arrested Burns for first-degree murder, Jerman said. At the time of arrest, Burns had his own power-coating company called Advanced Coating Concepts. Jerry Burns mentioned Jodi by name while speaking to an investigator shortly before his arrest. 39 years later after the murder, a person named Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested in Manchester, Iowa, and charged with first-degree murder. Police covertly obtained Burns' DNA from a drinking straw he left it on a table after eating lunch Oct. 29, 2018, at the Pizza Ranch in Manchester, testimony showed. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two . Suspect in Martinko murder not suspected in wife's death or cousin's disappearance, Bobcats and beyond are wearing orange to support Benton Communitys Tatum Schroeder, UIHC library offers resources for and about people with disabilities. LEON SPIES: The state's scenario here is that Jerry Burns, a married man with two young children at home, leaves, drives to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the night, leaving his wife and children behind . Jerry Lynn Burns was finally arrested in October 2018 for the murder of Michelle Martinko, that took place 39 years prior. Martinko's father Albert and mother Janet died in 1995 and 1998 respectively. Through his research, he discovered that a woman named Brandy Jennings had uploaded her DNA to a website service to trace her own family history. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. ", First published on November 6, 2020 / 8:47 AM. Rumors began to circulate about the crime. Through the use of advanced technologies, DNA samples from the offender were obtained. Allison says Burns threatened him one day after a winning streak. [24], In 2018, the DNA phenotyping company took the data they had collected the year before and entered it into GEDmatch, a public genealogy website that has been used by law enforcement to solve other cold cases, most famously that of the Golden State Killer. JERRY M. LYNN "Bear" Crown Point, Indiana Jerry M. "Bear" Lynn, age 59, of Crown Point, IN passed away on April 4, 2010. The police considered the murder personal in nature based on the manner of death, according to Little Village magazine. You will begin to receive our Daily Courts & Public Safety updates. [2][4][27], In pretrial hearings, Burns' attorneys claimed that police needed a search warrant to gather his DNA from the discarded straw, but the judge determined that discarded property cannot reasonably be considered private. I don't exactly remember what happened, seen something about Jodi Huisentruit recently.". They then used genealogical data as well as a covertly collected DNA sample from Burns to positively identify him, authorities said. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested on Wednesday after police said he was linked by DNA from blood found on Michelle Martinko's clothing and elsewhere in the car at the crime scene. Jerry Burns appeals his conviction for murder in the first degree. His ex-wife, Patricia, committed suicide in 2008, and his cousin Brian Burns astonishingly disappeared. Visitation for Jim will be held on Monday, March 13, 2023 from 4:00PM until 6:00PM at the Peacock Family Chapel. May 12, 2021 at 04:20 PM. [10] She wore a black jersey dress and black scarf, black tights and heels, and a waist-length white and brown rabbit fur jacket, and she carried a brown leather purse. Burns stated that DNA evidence had been mishandled in 1979 in one instance, but denied ever being present on the night of the murder in another. Jim was born on April 20, 1933 in Walsenburg, Colorado to Geraldine Hudson McAlpine and Victor Paul Hudson and passed away on February 24, 2023 at his home in Amarillo, Texas with his family by his side at the age of 89. While the information is believed to be accurate, the Iowa Department of Corrections makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information. The results were entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the national DNA database, but no matches were found. Unfortunately, Martinkos parents did not survive to see her killer brought to justice. Burns argues the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress where the warrantless extraction of his DNA profile violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I . This narrowed down the possible suspects to three brothers - Ken, Don, and Jerry Burns. The case got nationwide media attention but has remained an unsolved mystery for more than 25 years. The detective looked through the case files and found what he thought to be the murderer's blood. In earlier testimony, Matthew Denlinger, a Cedar Rapids police investigator who testified last week, was recalled to testify about Burns' interview with police Dec. 19, 2018. Jerry Lynn Burns, the suspect in the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko, makes a court appearance via video in Linn County, Iowa, Dec. 20, 2018. I've seen several articles that said he might be tied to other murders. Your login session has expired. Even though the police were tipped over 200 times in the weeks following the murder, the case eventually grew cold as investigations stretched on. They wanted to try to get an explanation for why Burns' DNA was found at the crime scene and to get a DNA sample from Burns to confirm the DNA obtained from the drinking straw. At the department, Burns sked for a lawyer. . The DNA was uploaded to the law enforcement database called Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but investigators never found a match, police said. JERRY LYNN BURNS, Defendant-Appellant. Jerry was born May 22, 1944, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Fred Richard Lynn and Mary Ellen Manning and passed away on July 10, 2022. At the time of her death, police had found Martinko stabbed to death in her car in a local mall parking lot. Blond / All American Girls - Jodi was a bit older. He began to search for her, as did the police. Staggering snowfall in California mountains leaves residents trapped for days, SpaceX launches new crew on flight to space station, Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Firefighter dies battling blaze in downtown Buffalo, mayor says, Several hospitalized after Lufthansa flight diverted to Dulles due to turbulence, Explosive found in checked luggage at Pennsylvania airport, feds say, Prosecution wraps its case at Alex Murdaugh murder trial, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, Sneak peek: Murder at the Mall: The Michelle Martinko Case, Michelle Martinko, left, and Jodi Huisentruit. 6931989, Anamosa State Penitentiary, 406 N. High Street, Anamosa, IA 52205. The sketch looked like a man in his 20s, weighing 165-175 pounds, and standing at around 6 feet. Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. The Delaware County Sheriff's Office says Brian Burns remains an active missing person case but, at this point, has no link to his cousin. Later that day, her body was discovered in her family's car. But where is this cold-blooded killer now? [31] The defense argued that DNA evidence had been mishandled,[31] and that different articles of clothing from the scene should not have been stored together in one evidence bag. [2], Martinko's father, Albert, died in 1995. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Joan C. Plum Merriner, who passed away on January 4, 2019. He had worked for John Deere and co-owned a truck stop. God finally won. When Burns disposed of the straw, the investigator collected it and tested it for DNA. This revealed everything, and Burns was ultimately declared guilty of first-degree murder. And he had the daunting task of trying to figure out who that could be, armed only with an unidentified sample of blood DNA. Denlinger recorded him using a camera that was hidden inside a coffee mug. [11] They described a white man in his late teens or early 20s, around six feet tall and weighing 165175 pounds, with brown eyes and curly brown hair. . After weeks pursuing a wide range of possible blood relatives, Parabon helped him narrow the search down to three middle-aged brothers in Iowa who would have been young men back in 1979: Ken, Don and Jerry Burns. This sounds like a serial killer. When the detectives first investigated this case, they thought of the homicide as being personal in nature - based on the 10 stab wounds . Thirty-nine years to the day after she was killed, a suspect was charged thanks to DNA and genetic genealogy. Jerry Burns' mugshot and a family photo of Michelle Martinko. DNA Profiling is a modern investigative technology used to compare criminal suspects' profiles to DNA evidence so as to assess the likelihood of their involvement in the crime. [10][11] She was also a talented performer, joined the twirling squad as a sophomore, and performed in choirs and theater productions. Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. Identities returned to Does. According to KWWL, at the sentencing, Stonebaker said that Burns stole those 39 years and many more from a sweet smart, talented girl who never got her chance at college, a career, marriage, children and by now, even grandchildren.. Thanks to advances in technology and DNA evidence, a jury in an Iowa courthouse . Burns' wife, Patricia, died by suicide in . A juvenile found carrying a knife was interviewed and ruled out in her murder, as was a shopping center employee who had told police that he enjoyed following women and ogling store mannequins. In her ruling, Judge Fae Hoover said the . Court is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.. Currently, in his late 60s, he is going to spend the rest of his days behind bars. They then started to locate all the people that they had originally interviewed in the investigation and collected DNA samples from over 100 different people. Things that make it difficult. Cutting-edge DNA technology was used to solve the cold case. Michelle Martinko was an 18yr old student from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. "I am happy Michelle finally gets justice.". In 2006, a cold case investigator discovered unidentified blood, presumably belonging to the killer, while he was reviewing case files. [7] Eventually, more than 125 people would have their DNA swabbed and compared against samples taken from the scene. GEDmatch returned one person who shared DNA markers with the suspect in Martinko's murder, and it determined her to be likely the killer's second cousin once removed. Authorities said Burns was last seen at his 1381 180th St. residence in Delaware County on Thursday, December 19 . December . A witness testified he signed this image from a newspaper article about the case. Doug Larison to reexamine the file and find what he believed to be the killers DNA in blood found on Martinkos dress that was not her blood. Now, her suspected killer is set to go on trial", "Search warrant shows how relative's DNA led police to Manchester man in Michelle Martinko's death", "40 years later: What we know about Michelle Martinko and the arrest that re-opened the cold case", "Jerry Burns found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Michelle Martinko", "BREAKING: Jerry Burns, convicted of killing Michelle Martinko, officially sentenced to life in prison", "30 years ago: Murder of teen haunts those who knew her", "Distant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slaying", "Friends of man arrested in Martinko murder shocked", "Iowa community tries to reconcile a cold case arrest and its long history with a neighbor", "One-time suspect in unsolved Cedar Rapids homicide dies in prison", "Police collected DNA from dozens while investigating 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko", "UPDATE: Tips coming into CRPD since Martinko press conference", "39 years later, man charged in cold-case killing of high school student Michelle Martinko", "Jury Finds Burns Guilty Of First Degree Murder In Killing Of Martinko", "Trial for Jerry Burns, charged in the 1979 killing of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko, moved out of Linn County", "No delay in trial for man accused of killing Michelle Martinko", "Burns' Second Hearing Focuses on Pornography", "From the crime to conviction, a timeline of events in the murder of Michelle Martinko", "Witnesses describe murder scene in trial of man accused of killing Michelle Martinko in 1979", "Witnesses describe procedure in collecting, storing, and tracking evidence as part of cold-case murder trial", "Jerry Burns defense calls one witness, rests its case after testimony from self-defined forensic DNA consultant", "After denied mistrial motion, testimony in Michelle Martinko murder case concludes", "Iowa man guilty in 1979 killing of high school student", "Lawyers for Jerry Burns file motion for new trial", "Jerry Burns attorney files for new trial", "Burns Files Appeal on Murder Conviction", "Offender Information | Iowa Department of Corrections", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Michelle_Martinko&oldid=1140457418, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 04:20. Feb. 1, 2019 | The Des Moines Register. [2] Police determined from the lack of blood outside the car that Martinko had been killed while in the car, and the medical examiner later estimated she had died between 8 and 10p.m.[17] The murder weapon was "sharp-pointed" but not definitively a knife, and the medical examiner could not determine its size. She was unsure her information would be of any use because she had read that the murder happened between 10p.m. and midnight, and it was 2a.m. when she drove by. He previously co-owned a truck shop and worked for John Deere. wife was deter mined to be a distant cousi n to many of the Subject's more . 'As far as I know, I wasn't there.. Anthony Rex officiating. I like that it's just the facts and case without anyone trying (poorly) to be a comedian or talk about their own personal nonsense lol. The Vikings organization is mourning the loss of the innovator, colorful . 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