Denlinger does NOT believe Burns is responsible for Jodi Huisentruit - rather that he admired/fantasized about whatever happened to her. Her killer will go undetected for almost 40yrs! 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. 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. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two child. The detective on the case, Matt Denlinger, gave me some interesting details. In his video interview with police right before his arrest, Burns, unsolicited, mentioned the name of Jodi Huisentruit as he was being questioned about the Martinko case. In fact, his father Harvey, now 85, had been one of the original officers on the case 40 years earlier. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Allison says Burns threatened him one day after a winning streak. [9] She was fully dressed, and the medical examiner determined she had not been sexually assaulted. On August 7, 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Creighton Waters said the disgraced legal scion, 54, faced a 'gathering storm' of financial ruin that drove him to kill Maggie and Paul at the family's hunting estate in Moselle, South Carolina . Feb. 1, 2019 | The Des Moines Register. '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. He was never charged with the Martinko murder, he denied the accusations, and DNA evidence, found later, did not match his DNA. [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. They . He was around 25 when he killed Martinko in 1979. 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. Michelle Martinko, 18, was stabbed to death in a mall parking lot in Dec. 1979. [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. Investigators matched DNA found in the car to Jerry Burns and arrested him in 2018. This technology helped the FBI arrest notorious serial killer, serial rapist, and burglar Joseph James DeAngelo (nicknamed Golden State Killer) in 2018. Spies, on cross examination, asked if Denlinger had permission from Burns' two brothers and a distant cousin to access their DNA in developing a suspect pool. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested Wednesday and . Investigators had reviewed Burns' 2018 internet searches and found that he regularly visited websites showing blonde women being raped, stabbed, and strangled, and which depicted sexual intercourse with murder victims. An obituary for Burns' wife, Patricia, says that she died in June 2008 at the age of 55 . The victim was the younger of two daughters of Albert and Janet Martinko. [22][12] From that, police were able to build a partial DNA profile. Police said they were able to connect Burns to the case with DNA evidence. She was seen inside the mall by friends and coworkers because Martinko worked in the mall. [21] Psychics were also consulted early on in the investigation. 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. [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. They then used genealogical data as well as a covertly collected DNA sample from Burns to positively identify him, authorities said. 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. On May 29, 2020, Burns' attorneys filed a motion asking for a new trial, claiming his constitutional and . After reading about the Golden State Killer case in 2018, in which serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo was finally caught through a long trail of DNA, Denlinger had an epiphany: perhaps he could use that same new technique to solve the Martinko case. 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 . "That was big, national news," said Denlinger. When Denlinger reminded Burns that Michelle had been killed in 1979, Burns responded, "It was a big deal. The trial was then moved to February 2020. Exactly 39 years after her death, police took a Manchester man into custody after matching his DNA to blood found at the crime scene. Lives in Tyler, Texas. Investigators say Martinko was murdered on December 19th, 1979 and her body found the next day in a family car in the Westdale Mall parking lot. What began to turn the case around was the emergence of DNA as a forensic tool for crime fighting in the late 1990s. The murder of Michelle Martinko occurred in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on December 19, 1979. The DNA was uploaded to the law enforcement database called Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but investigators never found a match, police said. Martinko, an 18-year-old high school student, was found stabbed to death in her family's car in the parking lot of a local mall, where she had gone to buy a new coat. In 2006, a cold case investigator discovered unidentified blood, presumably belonging to the killer, while he was reviewing case files. And the crucial link is a man named Jerry Burns. Ha ha. [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. [2], On October 29, 2018, an investigator observed one of the brothers, Jerry Lynn Burns, drink multiple sodas using a plastic straw. "Burnsie was laying siege to New Orleans," said Lynn. The company also produced approximations of how the man would have aged in the years since the crime. [28], After two days of jury selection, the murder trial began on February 12, 2020. Her case went cold for decades until DNA testing finally brought her family some peace and put her murderer behind bars. Sonny arrives at his restaurant and gives Dex, who is there, the night off. 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. Denlinger interviewed Burns at his business. 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. ABC News' Matt Foster and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report. People named Jerry Burns. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. Thank you!! Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. [12] Martinko, who was a senior in high school when she was killed, had plans to attend Iowa State University to study interior design. Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. State of Iowa. Grab your popcorn & get comfy as we dive into some dusty old cases revitalized thanks to genetic genealogy (& a bit of good ol' fashioned detective work! Be the first one to comment on this story. Might be nothing, but Jerry has a cousin who went missing in 2013 and it has become a cold case and Jerry's wife committed suicide in 2008. "I am thrilled for her sister, Janelle, and wish her parents were alive to see this," Michelle Martinko's high school friend, Elizabeth Laymon, told The Des Moines Register. He was arrested Wednesday on the exact day Martinko was last seen alive. Her mother, Janet, died in 1998. But he said he and another investigator had no plans to arrest Burns that day. [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. However, in 2006, a tip came into the Cedar Rapids police department. The Delaware County Sheriff said it did review the case after Burns' arrest and "feels that was clearly the case.". UPDATE: Trial set for Iowa man accused in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko . On December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Martinko's murder, the police confronted Burns and arrested him after his DNA matched the one found on Martinko's clothes. Please logout and login again. "Hmm, strange," Burns responded when Cedar Rapids Police Investigator Matthew Denlinger told him he was a suspect for Martinko's death. Police looked at numerous suspects during the initial investigation, including a man who raped a woman at knifepoint and later died while in prison for that crime, but DNA testing ruled him out. 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. The 55 year-old Delaware County man was last seen on December 19, 2013 - 34 years to the day of Martinko's murder. 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. [16] Another rumor emerged that a second stabbing had happened in the following days and that police were keeping it secret, which police denied. [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. The sketch looked like a man in his 20s, weighing 165-175 pounds, and standing at around 6 feet. Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT, a group of 41 people. 24. People around him considered him to be a professional but everything fizzled out shortly after. But then Denlinger's supervisor, who had been listening to the recorded interview from across the street with other officers, sent Denlinger text message telling him to arrest Burns. Vikings Ring of Honor Coach Jerry Burns passed away Wednesday at the age of 94. Lighthouse: The Dark Being, a group of 43 people. 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. 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. Michelle Martinko was an 18yr old student from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. Convicted murderer Jerry Burns, 66, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko, 18. [10][11] She was also a talented performer, joined the twirling squad as a sophomore, and performed in choirs and theater productions. Despite being known as a professional, Burns arrest got people talking about his family. 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. The sample was put into a national computer database and was used to clear more than 70 of Martinkos acquaintances, according to NBC News. The case was solved, but there were lingering questions about Jerry Burns. The detective, Denlinger, told me that he believes Jerry Burns has been reliving the murder in his fantasies ever since, but they have never been able to tie him to any other homicides. This is what eventually helped authorities identify the culprit - Jerry Lynn Burns. [10] Police considered the killing to be "personal in nature" based on the number and location of stab wounds. 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. Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. He was born on December 09, 1952 to Harold Eugene and Virginia Burns in Osceola, Arkansas. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? To learn the entire story of Michelle Martinko's murder, watch Dateline: Unforgettable at 10 pm on Oxygen 79. His first wife, Patricia, died by suicide in 2008. / CBS News. Denlinger said they were uploaded to GEDmatch by Parabon NanoLabs, a private company the department worked with. Denlinger then told him he had a search warrant for his DNA. [9] She was last seen almost 9p.m. outside of a jewelry store in the mall. See Photos. Denlinger had found the needle in the haystack. 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. Things that make it difficult. In 2018, the company entered the DNA data from the case into the public genealogy website GEDmatch, where it found a familial DNA match. Her death was ruled a suicide. [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. 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. He testified last week he took the straw after it was discarded. A funeral service for Jerry Calvin Lynn, 78, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, July 16, 2022, at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2201 Airline Drive, Bossier City, Louisiana. But her sister Janelle and Janelles husband John Stonebaker were present at Burns sentencing. What we know about Jerry Burns and the woman he's accused of killing 40 years earlier Dec 19, 2019/ updated Feb 17, 2020 Four decades ago, 18-year-old Michelle Marie Martinko was found stabbed to death in the family's car in the parking lot of a Cedar Rapids mall. Burns denied any involvement in the murder. On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Martinko. I am a brokenhearted mother.. CEDAR RAPIDS - Police investigators couldn't find evidence that Jerry Burns and Michelle Martinko knew each other. Martinko's father Albert and mother Janet died in 1995 and 1998 respectively. 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. [33] Prosecutors called a criminalist to contradict the defense's witness; the criminalist said that the storage of Martinko's clothing was not unusual. Jerry Burns. 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. I've seen several articles that said he might be tied to other murders. [2] Once there, she perused the stores and spoke with friends and other people she knew who worked there. He was also ordered to pay $150,00 in restitution to Martinkos estate, according to KWWL. CBS "48 Hours" on Saturday will spotlight a 40-year-old Iowa murder case that has raised questions about whether the killer could be linked to Jodi Huisentruit's abduction.. Jerry Burns was convicted last February of killing 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. 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