[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. I miss all her singing and her beautiful music. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was charged with first-degree murder and is scheduled to appear Thursday in Linn County Court. "I am happy Michelle finally gets justice.". It wasn't until decades after the killing that investigators began to link the emotions of a motive with the science of DNA. On December 19, 2018, 39 years after Michelle Martinkp was murdered, Det. [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. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently being held at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. His ex-wife, Patricia, committed suicide in 2008, and his cousin Brian Burns astonishingly disappeared. Dr. Obrecht Learns if She's a Bone Marrow Match for Willow Plus, Nikolas' Whereabouts Are Revealed. We would also like to extend our sympathy to the Martinko family.. Rumors began to circulate about the crime. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? According to Reusse, Burns would generally be a bit more careful with his language during a press conference or whenever there were cameras . I am a brokenhearted mother.. On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Martinko. He said he thought Burns might have a 'conscience.. In fact, his father Harvey, now 85, had been one of the original officers on the case 40 years earlier. 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. Ken and Don were not a match but Jerry Burns' DNA was a match, to an almost perfect scientific certainty. Denlinger said no. May 12, 2021 at 04:20 PM. appeal from the iowa district court for linn county honorable fae hoover grinde, district court judge brief of amici curiae: american civil liberties union american civil liberties union of iowa electronic frontier foundation in support of defendant-appellant *pro hac vice application pending jennifer lynch* Subscribe to the Public Safety newsletter. The next day, she was found stabbed to death in the mall parking lot. Lives in Tyler, Texas. On the way, Burns continued to talk. His ex-wife, Patricia, committed suicide in 2008, and his cousin . He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Joan C. Plum Merriner, who passed away on January 4, 2019. To learn the entire story of Michelle Martinko's murder, watch Dateline: Unforgettable at 10 pm on Oxygen 79. People named Jerry Burns. When Denlinger reminded Burns that Michelle had been killed in 1979, Burns responded, "It was a big deal. Burns, charged with first-degree murder in the cold case stabbing of Martinko, is asking the court to toss out DNA and other evidence because they were obtained without a warrant and represented violations of privacy and other rights. 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. 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. God finally won. 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. "Well, I kind of think you do a little bit," Denlinger responded in the video interview. Burns pleaded not guilty at his February 2020 trial but the jury deliberated just three hours and returned a guilty verdict. The defense team for . 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. / CBS News. In 2018, the company entered the DNA data from the case into the public genealogy website GEDmatch, where it found a familial DNA match. 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. [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. Through the use of advanced technologies, DNA samples from the offender were obtained. Updated Sep 20, 2022 at 3:27pm. Mason City police won't disclose whether or not they are now looking at Jerry Burns as a suspect in that case. Jerry Lynn Burns was finally arrested in October 2018 for the murder of Michelle Martinko, that took place 39 years prior. Michelle Martinko, 18, was stabbed to death in a mall parking lot in Dec. 1979. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two child. He also wished the Burns family well, saying they now have to pick up the pieces of their lives just like the Martinko family did. We need somebody from their family to have tested in order to resolve these cases.". 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. 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. ", First published on November 6, 2020 / 8:47 AM. JERRY M. LYNN "Bear" Crown Point, Indiana Jerry M. "Bear" Lynn, age 59, of Crown Point, IN passed away on April 4, 2010. Her father died in 1995 and her mother died in 1998. 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 Cedar Rapids on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. Find your friends on Facebook. Hi all - I discuss the case of Michelle Martinko, who was murdered in 1979 in Iowa, this week on DNA: ID podcast. Jerry Burns . He was born in Hundred, WV on April 24, 1930, a son of the late Robert Lee and Rebecca Taylor Merriner. In 2006, a cold case investigator discovered unidentified blood, presumably belonging to the killer, while he was reviewing case files. [29] The judge determined the search history was not usable in the trial due to the decades of time separating the murder and the searches. They also played a later recording, after Burns' arrest, in which Burns questioned whether he could have blocked out the memory of committing the crime.[30]. [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. However, the case gradually grew cold as the investigation stretched on. Oral Argument Schedule. But the jury found the DNA connection convincing and after a nine-day trial, Burns was convicted of first-degree murder. State of Iowa. . "I talked to myself and didn't know what to do Then you have to pray.". Lighthouse: The Dark Being, a group of 43 people. Thank you!! She was seen inside the mall by friends and coworkers because Martinko worked in the mall. I've seen several articles that said he might be tied to other murders. [9] Martinko was found inside collapsed over the passenger seat and stabbed to death. When the police executed a search warrant for Burns home and office, they found a computer search history that included blonde females, assault, rape, strangulation, murder, abuse and rape of a deceased individual, and cannibalism.. On Wednesday, after weeks of "planning and strategizing," investigators interviewed and arrested Burns for first-degree murder, Jerman said. Investigators placed the three brothers under surveillance in an attempt to covertly collect their DNA, according to The Gazette. 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. The images looked considerably different from the 1980 composite sketch and showed a man with blond hair and blue eyes. The new technique, started this year with the "Golden State Killer," has identified over two dozen suspects. 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. 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. Derek Chauvin's ex-wife . Jerry Lynn Burns will be in prison for the rest of his days. See if it is.. Burns' wife, Patricia . Life legacy Wallace Jerry Huggins Funeral services will be Tuesday April 11, 2017 at 1 PM from the Chapel of the Taylor Funeral Home with Bro. Denlinger had found the needle in the haystack. Jerry Lynn Burns is pictured in a booking photo released by the Linn County Sheriff's Office on Dec. 20, 2018. He would have been around 25-years-old when he killed Michelle Martinko in December of 1979. Jerry Burns appeals his conviction for murder in the first degree. Burns was born in Manchester, Iowa in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. 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. Almost 40 years later, with the help of DNA Technology, the culprit was nabbed and justice was finally served to Martinko and her grieving family. Burns' attorney, Leon Spies, also argued in his suppression motion that the computer evidence is irrelevant because it's from 2018 - 38 years after Martinko's death. Tests eliminated the other two brothers as suspects, but the DNA from Burns' straw matched the blood found on Martinko's clothing. Further the Iowa Department of Corrections assumes no legal liability or . He and his wife, who now reside in Florida, said they . or. 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. Ha ha. The sample was put into a national computer database and was used to clear more than 70 of Martinkos acquaintances, according to NBC News. Jerry Burns mentioned Jodi by name while speaking to an investigator shortly before his arrest. [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. Denlinger followed each of the brothers around clandestinely, waiting for them to discard an item containing their DNA, and then sent the collected samples to the crime lab. During the trials, Burns was found to contradict his own statements. Denlinger said he intentionally chose that day to interview Burns because it was the anniversary of Martinko's death. Jerry was married to his second wife at the time of his arrest. This is what eventually helped authorities identify the culprit - Jerry Lynn Burns. Burns was arrested on Dec. 19, 2018. The family of the man suspected of murdering Michelle Martinko 39 years ago said the arrest came "as a complete shock.". He was sentenced to life on August 7 without the possibility of parole. The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. Your login session has expired. But Denlinger did get consent from Janice Burns, Burns' first cousin, and collected her DNA for testing, he said. On April 5, 1975, Pat was united in marriage to Jerry Lynn Burns at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Manchester. Police found impressions from rubber gloves inside and outside the car, indicating that the assailant had likely planned his attack and hoped to escape unidentified. In October 2018, DNA was covertly collected from an Iowa man, Jerry Lynn Burns, and was found to match the sample discovered on Martinko's clothing. 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 born in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. 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.. The primary evidence police had to go on was blood on Michelle's dress and on the car's gearshift that in 2005 was finally identified as male DNA. 20-1150 APPEAL FROM THE IOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR LINN COUNTY HONORABLE FAE E. HOOVER . "I was speechless," Denlinger says, recalling the moment the lab told him the results. Denlinger does NOT believe Burns is responsible for Jodi Huisentruit - rather that he admired/fantasized about whatever happened to her. 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