But it was another technique from Parabon -- genetic genealogy -- that led investigators to Burns, CeCe Moore, Parabon's chief genetic genealogist, told ABC News. [4] Documents concluded that fewer than one in 100 billion people would match the DNA profile. [26] He was not able to provide an explanation for why his DNA would have been present at the crime scene. He had worked for John Deere and co-owned a truck stop. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Nicholas Curran . Denlinger said they were uploaded to GEDmatch by Parabon NanoLabs, a private company the department worked with. Jerry Burns may be a hitched man, having a . Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria, a group of 39 people. His ex-wife, Patricia, committed suicide in 2008, and his cousin Brian Burns astonishingly disappeared. Family and friends of Jerry Burns are seated in the courtroom at a sentencing hearing for Jerry Lynn Burns at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Unfortunately, Martinkos parents did not survive to see her killer brought to justice. Jerry Burns. Her case went cold for decades until DNA testing finally brought her family some peace and put her murderer behind bars. Last . Doris Homerline Clower died Saturday . Jerry Burns stands with his lawyer Leon Spies (right) during a recess in the continuation of a suppression hearing for evidence in the case of Burns of Manchester at the Linn County Courthouse in . Jerry Lynn Burns, 65, is set to face a jury in February, bringing momentum to a case that was left cold for years. [9] Martinko was found inside collapsed over the passenger seat and stabbed to death. Ken and Don were not a match but Jerry Burns' DNA was a match, to an almost perfect scientific certainty. [35] On May 29, 2020, Burns' attorneys filed a motion asking for a new trial, claiming his constitutional and state rights were violated and that the court made a mistake in overruling the request for evidence to be suppressed. Reporter covering state and federal courts. They then used genealogical data as well as a covertly collected DNA sample from Burns to positively identify him, authorities said. Please logout and login again. 39 years later after the murder, a person named Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested in Manchester, Iowa, and charged with first-degree murder. In 2012, while serving a life sentence for an unrelated attack, the man died in prison from colon cancer. I just began listening to the DNA:ID podcast. The prosecution emphasized the unlikelihood of the DNA evidence matching someone other than the person who left it at the scene. Her mother, Janet, died in 1998. There is no known DNA evidence tying Burns to the Huisentruit case and no evidence that he knew Jodi Huisentruit. Now, the solving of another long-cold casea young blonde woman murdered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, two hours away may shed new light on Huisentruit's disappearance and presumed murder. To learn more about the murder of Michelle Martinko, watch Dateline: Unforgettable on December 22, at 10:00 pm on Oxygen 79. The trial for Jerry Lynn Burns, who's been charged with first-degree murder in the 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko, will begin at 9 a.m. Oct. 14 at Linn County Courthouse, according to online court records and the Des Moines Register. Allison, who's being held on drug charges in Linn County, says the two played the card game pinochle often. [11] As the investigation dwindled, a $10,000 reward was offered for information that would lead police to the killer. In 2006, a new cold case investigator working for the Cedar Rapids Police Department was tipped with an update. His first wife, Patricia, died by suicide in 2008. The images looked considerably different from the 1980 composite sketch and showed a man with blond hair and blue eyes. State prosecutors also showed a video interview they secretly recorded in 2018, after matching Burns' DNA to the crime scene and getting a search warrant to obtain further DNA. Burns maintained that he did not know Martinko and was not there when she died, although an investigator later testified that Burns did not specifically deny killing Martinko. Dr. Obrecht Learns if She's a Bone Marrow Match for Willow Plus, Nikolas' Whereabouts Are Revealed. [9] She was fully dressed, and the medical examiner determined she had not been sexually assaulted. Michelle Marie Martinko Find-A-Grave: Michelle Marie Martinko Iowa Cold Cases: Michelle Marie Martinko Michelle Martinko stories 40 years later: What we know about Michelle Martinko and the arrest that re-opened the cold case Jury seated in Jerry Burns murder trial Michelle Martinko murder case evidence photos Iowa Teen Was Fatally Stabbed in Mall Parking Lot Glad you are liking it! And he had the daunting task of trying to figure out who that could be, armed only with an unidentified sample of blood DNA. UPDATE: Trial set for Iowa man accused in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko . She had goals for herself, things she wanted to do with her life, and she would write them down and achieve them., I dont know if Ill ever get over this, Mrs. Martinko added. Allison, who's being . Things that make it difficult. ", Whoever the killer was, he had come prepared. [2], Jerry Lynn Burns (born December 23, 1953[13]) was 25 years old when he killed Michelle Martinko in December 1979. This allows police to create a much larger family tree than databases like CODIs. v. Jerry Lynn Burns. Jerry Burns. Investigators struggled over the years to connect DNA collected at the scene to a suspect. Jerry Lynn Burns is pictured in a booking photo released by the Linn County Sheriff's Office on Dec. 20, 2018. The man charged with killing Michelle Martinko 39 years ago is not a suspect in the death of his wife or disappearance of his cousin, according to investigators. Burns was born in Manchester, Iowa in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. Jerry Burns mentioned Jodi by name while speaking to an investigator shortly before his arrest. Allison also recounted a time when Burns tried to tear down a cellmate's bunk bed because he was snoring too loudly. [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. A struggle followed in which Michelle was stabbed and sliced by a knife almost 30 times in a horrific murder that police initially believed had to be a crime of passion. Jerry Lynn Burns was finally arrested in October 2018 for the murder of Michelle Martinko, that took place 39 years prior. Thus began the quest to finally nab Martinko's killers. Jerry Lynn Burns. or. [8][9] She attended Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, where she was an above average student and well regarded by school officials. He said he thought Burns might have a 'conscience.. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. On the way, Burns continued to talk. He entered a plea of not guilty. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Wednesday, March 1, 2023: Today on General Hospital, Obrecht is furious with both Liz and Scott, Finn offers to stand by Liz, and Sonny and Dex bond over a meal. 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. 20-1150 APPEAL FROM THE IOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR LINN COUNTY HONORABLE FAE E. HOOVER . A Felony. The murder of Michelle Martinko occurred in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on December 19, 1979. "I talked to myself and didn't know what to do Then you have to pray.". On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Martinko. Hi! A Manchester man convicted of first-degree murder has announced he has hired a new attorney who will seek to exonerate him of the crime, a private investigator has told the Manchester Press . He was never charged with the Martinko murder, he denied the accusations, and DNA evidence, found later, did not match his DNA. He was arrested Wednesday on the exact day Martinko was last seen alive. . Did you listen to the DNA: ID episode on the Martinko case? Although the tip did not lead to any suspects, the investigator discovered what he believed to be the killer's blood while he was reviewing the case files. On May 29, 2020, Burns' attorneys filed a motion asking for a new trial, claiming his constitutional and . He said Burns had no memory of being at the crime scene. Find your friends on Facebook. 1, 2021 3:52 pm608d ago, Caleb McCullough Health Care and Medicine Jun. The family of the man suspected of murdering Michelle Martinko 39 years ago said the arrest came "as a complete shock.". [16] Based on cash found in Martinko's purse, police concluded that she had not been robbed. [23] Out of more than 80 potential suspects that had been identified over the years, more than 60 people were tested and cleared of suspicion. When the detectives first investigated this case, they thought of the homicide as being personal in nature - based on the 10 stab wounds . She claimed to have seen two cars in the lot, one of which was Martinko's, and a man standing next to the open driver's side door of Martinko's car. We would also like to extend our sympathy to the Martinko family.. The wait ended Monday, when a jury convicted Jerry Lynn Burns of first-degree murder in the 1979 stabbing death of 18-year-old Martinko. 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. Martinko was 18, a senior in high school in 1979, when she was accosted as she was getting into her car on a chilly night in December following a trip to the mall. Jerry knew he was called to be a preacher at the age of 13 and after many years of arguing with God. Sexual Assault of Unnamed Victim (12) . Jerry Lynn Burns appeared in Linn County this morning on a video monitor from jail where he had his bail set at $5 million. [12] Martinko, who was a senior in high school when she was killed, had plans to attend Iowa State University to study interior design. The organizations filing the brief contend that the collection of Mr. Burn's DNA without a warrant from a discarded straw he used at a restaurant violated the Fourth Amendment, and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. The murder was closely followed within her community, and the police received more than 200 tips in the weeks following her killing. At the department, Burns sked for a lawyer. Jim grew up . [18], For some time, a prime suspect in Martinko's murder was a man who had, the month before, broken into a Cedar Rapids home, raped a woman at knifepoint, and threatened to kill her children. In 2018, Jerry Lynn Burns was finally arrested and charged with the teen's murder and, although it had been decades after the crime, the once cold case is now a subject of discussion on A&E's Killer Cases. Jerry was born May 22, 1944, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Fred Richard Lynn and Mary Ellen Manning and passed away on July 10, 2022. Jerry Lynn Burns' DNA sample was collected from a plastic straw he drank soda with. He and his wife, who now reside in Florida, said they . Mason City police won't disclose whether or not they are now looking at Jerry Burns as a suspect in that case. [9] She was last seen almost 9p.m. outside of a jewelry store in the mall. Later that day, her body was discovered in her family's car. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. During this difficult time and as the justice system runs its course we ask that our privacy be respected.. It was a cold case until 2018, when familial DNA identified a suspect 39 years after the crime who was charged, tried and convicted of her murder.[2]. The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. At the time of the murder, Burns was 25 and lived in Manchester, Iowa. Investigators also showed Burns two renderings DNA labs had supplied them of possible suspects; he questioned their likeness to him. I've seen several articles that said he might be tied to other murders. KWQC Jerry Burns' mugshot and a family photo of Michelle Martinko. Tests eliminated the other two brothers as suspects, but the DNA from Burns' straw matched the blood found on Martinko's clothing. Denlinger had to consider that Michelle could have been murdered by a stranger. CEDAR RAPIDS - Police investigators couldn't find evidence that Jerry Burns and Michelle Martinko knew each other. Identities returned to Does. It goes beyond the simple news reporting of case solved using genetic genealogy. The podcast explores who these perpetrators are, possible motives and features interviews with investigators who are willing to talk because the cases have already been resolved in court. When Denlinger reminded Burns that Michelle had been killed in 1979, Burns responded, "It was a big deal. 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 . May 12, 2021 at 04:20 PM. 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. After tracing the suspect's family tree, investigators zeroed in on Burns, covertly collected his DNA and sent it to a lab for analysis, according to Moore and Jerman. Burns denied any involvement in the murder. 19, 2018. But the software he used allowed him to review history and activity only to January 2018. Burns repeatedly said he didn't know how his DNA was found at the crime scene. He lived in Manchester at the time of his arrest in 2020 and owned a powder coating business in the city. Attorneys for Jerry Burns, convicted of the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko, are continuing to fight DNA evidence they say the trial court erred in not supressing. Like all the cases I cover, Michelles was solved using forensic genealogy, which led police to Jerry Lynn Burns. In 2018, familial DNA identified a suspect named Jerry Lynn Burns, and the case was finally laid to rest with the accused getting sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jerry Burns. 2. At the time of her death, police had found Martinko stabbed to death in her car in a local mall parking lot. Cutting-edge DNA technology was used to solve the cold case. The victim was the younger of two daughters of Albert and Janet Martinko. 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. Thanks to advances in technology and DNA evidence, a jury in an Iowa courthouse . [25] He refused to voluntarily provide a sample of DNA, but was compelled to do so with a search warrant. 'If I was there, I don't know, Burns told Denlinger. Currently, in his late 60s, he is going to spend the rest of his days behind bars. Jerry Lynn Burns granted independent journalist, Steve Ridge, an exclusive Christmas Eve interview, in which Burns also said he will seek a new trial in the Martinko murder. . 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. . The company also produced approximations of how the man would have aged in the years since the crime. [32] Prosecutors also played a video of a police interview of Burns, in which he denied being at the crime scene on the night of Martinko's murder, and could not explain how his DNA had been found at the scene. Court documents said blood on clothing worn by Martinko and a blood stain on the gear shift of the car, where the teens body was discovered, were analyzed and found to belong to someone else. [2] A police spokesman said that "everyone's instinct is to say it was a guy", but they were not sure of the sex of the killer. 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. [10] A police spokesman estimated that in the week after Martinko's murder, more than 200 people responded to the detectives' appeals in the news for information concerning the case. Despite being known as a professional, Burns arrest got people talking about his family. After Burns arrest, several viewers questioned whether Burns could be a suspect in the death of his wife, Patricia, in 2008. [20], On June 19, 1980, police released a composite sketch of a man believed to have killed Martinko, which they formed from descriptions provided by two witnesses under hypnosis. [18][19], Controversy arose five months after the murder, after a woman who was driving by the mall parking lot in the early hours of December 20 came forward with information. The defense brought only one witness, a self-described forensic DNA consultant, who testified on the possibility that police could have mishandled the evidence. Powered by. And I went 'bingo'.". Months before his February . Could Jerry Burns have committed murders other than Michelle Martinko's? I couldnt have said it better myself, and Im the podcaster! "[2] When asked if he had killed someone that night in 1979, Burns repeatedly told investigators, "Test the DNA". [11], In the mid-1980s, Martinko's father filed a lawsuit against the owners of the Westdale Mall and claimed negligence in not providing "reasonable security" on the night of the murder. He was around 25 when he killed Martinko in 1979. "I am happy Michelle finally gets justice.". And he said he couldn't talk about it," Michael Allison said, who shared a cell with Burns starting in September 2019. Jerry Lynn Burns was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1979 murder 18-year-old Michelle Martinko thanks to DNA he left on a straw after drinking a soda. The defense team for . But he never asked for an attorney, Denlinger said. The video of that is on YouTube and is mentioned around the 25:28 mark. [39], Last edited on 20 February 2023, at 04:20, "Michelle Martinko's murder 'haunted' the Cedar Rapids community for 40 years. Burns' wife, Patricia, died by suicide in . Denlinger said they went to Burns' business, Advanced Powder Coating Concepts in Manchester, and he agreed to talk with them. Yet they had a DNA match linking the Manchester man to the Cedar Rapids teenager, slain in 1979 outside the Westdale Mall. [30] The doctor who performed Martinko's autopsy and investigators in the original case, all now retired, took the stand to testify to how the investigation was conducted, and to Martinko's cause of death. See if it is.. So Denlinger drew up an elaborate genealogy chart going back to Brandy's great-great grandparents to sleuth out a trail that could lead to the killer's DNA. In 2017, Cedar Rapids police said they reached out to Parabon NanoLabs to help build a suspect profile based on the crime scene DNA. [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. Michelle Martinko, Kennedy High School yearbook photo, 1979. 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. Holst said that in reviewing Burns' computer, he found hundreds of searches and website visits - a pattern that happened several times a week. "It's always the boyfriend, the girlfriend, the husband someone really close to the person. What began to turn the case around was the emergence of DNA as a forensic tool for crime fighting in the late 1990s. She had looked into the parking lot as she drove by to check for her daughter's car because her daughter worked at the mall and had had car trouble before. JERRY M. LYNN "Bear" Crown Point, Indiana Jerry M. "Bear" Lynn, age 59, of Crown Point, IN passed away on April 4, 2010. [21] Psychics were also consulted early on in the investigation. FILE - In a Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020 file photo, Jerry Burns enters the courtroom during the continuation of a suppression hearing for evidence in the case of Burns of Manchester at the Linn County . Jan. 16, 2020 7:49 pm, Updated: Jan. 17, 2020 2:37 pm. December . Vikings PR. The defense requested the case be declared a mistrial as a result, but the judge denied the request and asked the prosecutor to rephrase the question. [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. More than 40 years after Jerry Lynn Burns stabbed Michelle Martinko to death, a family and a community has closure. An obituary for Burns' wife, Patricia, says that she died in June 2008 at the age of 55 . Martinko's father Albert and mother Janet died in 1995 and 1998 respectively. Lives in Tyler, Texas. Gerald Edward "Jake" Merriner, 92, of Jane Lew passed away on Monday, February 27, 2023 in the Stonewall Jackson Hospital. And the crucial link is a man named Jerry Burns. Ahead of the Dateline NBC episode about her death, heres what you need to know about the crime, the perpetrator, and what sentence he received at trial. Dave Franzman, a longtime reporter at ABC Cedar Rapids affiliate KCRG, even covered the case at the time of Michelle Martinko's killing. The family of Jerry Burns would like to thank our friends and the Manchester community for the support we have received since Jerrys arrest, read the familys statement. He began working with Parabon NanoLabs, now a leading company helping police solve crimes through genetic tracing. [2], On December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Martinko's murder, Burns was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Iowan law mandates a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. 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. DNA: ID. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was charged with first-degree murder and is scheduled to appear Thursday in Linn County Court. This evidence was inadmissible at trial but was the subject of a public suppression hearing. "I did not see this day coming," Franzman said on a broadcast this week. wife was deter mined to be a distant cousi n to many of the Subject's more . 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. Subsequently he interviewed Jerry Burns, who denied knowing or ever meeting Michelle Martinko. ABC News' Matt Foster and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report. Jerry Burns on Trial AP Jerry Burns of Manchester, Iowa, is led into the courtroom during closing arguments for his trial at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. A few days later, the Saints fell. [28] The defense also requested that evidence pertaining to Burns' cell phone browser history be suppressed. / CBS News. Spies asked if he had consent from Burns to take the lunch straw for testing. Updated Sep 20, 2022 at 3:27pm. He lived in Manchester at the time of his arrest in 2020 and owned a powder coating business in the city. Works at Target Distribution Center. ), Press J to jump to the feed. Cedar Rapids police arrested Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, on Wednesday morning and charged him with first-degree murder - 39 years to the day after the killing 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was stabbed . He was born in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. After several trials and errors, the suspects were narrowed down to three brothers who had grown up in Manchester, Iowa. Mail, proper postage prepaid, addressed to Jerry L. Burns, No. Over 40 years ago, teenager Michelle Martinko was stabbed to death outside a mall in Cedar Rapids . A DNA profile was developed from that evidence and entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but no matches were found. 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". According to court documents, a judge has ruled internet search history from the man accused in a 1979 murder will not be able to be used during trial. DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWWL) - State prosecutors called a former cellmate of Jerry Burns in his murder trial, which continued Tuesday in Scott County. Jeremy Lynn (born June 12, 1963), better known by the ring name Jerry Lynn, is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as a producer and coach. [14] Burns's cousin, Brian Burns, went missing on December 19, 2013 and has not been found. The police used the information to create a partial DNA profile. In 2017, a company specializing in DNA phenotyping was hired to produce a new approximation of the killer's appearance based solely off the DNA sample. Burns has hired a very high profile attorney and has said he plans to appeal his conviction, which was very largely . On December 19, 2018, he was arrested in Manchester, Iowa, on the 39th anniversary of Michelle's death. The majority of the search activity and history on Burns' computer was sexually graphic and more 'deviant in nature, said Holst, who investigates sex crimes and internet crimes against children. The Gazette is Iowas independent, employee-owned source for local, state, and national news coverage. While that tip did not yield any new leads, it did cause Det. Jerry Burns is still behind bars . He testified last week he took the straw after it was discarded. Jerry Burns . Your login session has expired. Police interviewed numerous people, and several were cleared of suspicion through use of a polygraph. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was apprehended and charged with first-degree murder after authorities matched his DNA with blood samples found on the Martinko family car's gear shift knob. Exactly 39 years after Michelle Martinko's body was found, DNA evidence led to the arrest of a Manchester man who was charged with her 1979 murder. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, of Manchester, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday, nearly 40 years after the brutal murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Westdale Mall on December 19, 1979. He was born in Hundred, WV on April 24, 1930, a son of the late Robert Lee and Rebecca Taylor Merriner. Denlinger took over the case in 2015, part of a second generation of cops who had struggled for decades to solve this seemingly unsolvable murder. Cellmate recounts multiple outbursts in Jerry Burns murder trial, The Christmas Project is back raising money for local non-profits, 3-year-old Cedar Rapids child confirmed dead from accidental drowning, The Carson King saga, a legendary Iowa tale of giving back, Active police investigation in Cedar Rapids, SIX MONTHS LATER: Derecho cleanup, recovery, replanting continues, Hawkeyes roll by North Carolina A&T 112-71. Age of 55 breaking news, live events, and his wife,,. Collected from a plastic straw he drank soda with preacher at the of. Viewers questioned whether Burns could be a hitched man, having a seen several that... Investigator working for the murder of Michelle Martinko looking at Jerry Burns and Michelle Martinko, that place! 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Reminded Burns that Michelle had been killed in 1979, Burns responded, `` 's.