Feb. 1, 2019 | The Des Moines Register. She was stabbed 29 times in the face, neck, and chest. Burns kept pointing to the swab, he testified, and saying, 'Test it. The case got nationwide media attention but has remained an unsolved mystery for more than 25 years. 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. [22][12] From that, police were able to build a partial DNA profile. [12] Martinko, who was a senior in high school when she was killed, had plans to attend Iowa State University to study interior design. 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. [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. His trial was originally scheduled for October 14, 2019, but in September the defense requested a delay in order to gather more evidence and interview witnesses. At 4a.m., police found the Martinko family's tan and green 1972 Buick Electra in the northeast corner of the mall parking lot by a JCPenney. Denlinger had to consider that Michelle could have been murdered by a stranger. [11] As the investigation dwindled, a $10,000 reward was offered for information that would lead police to the killer. Burns' wife, Patricia, died by suicide in . Investigators also showed Burns two renderings DNA labs had supplied them of possible suspects; he questioned their likeness to him. Authorities said Burns was last seen at his 1381 180th St. residence in Delaware County on Thursday, December 19 . Please logout and login again. The new technique, started this year with the "Golden State Killer," has identified over two dozen suspects. "That threw us all off," Allison said about the incident. The defense team for . 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. On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder. This allows police to create a much larger family tree than databases like CODIs. 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. Jerry Lynn Burns faces a first degree murder charge in the killing of Michelle Martinko. Around 4 a.m., Martinko was found inside her familys Buick Electra. The defense brought only one witness, a self-described forensic DNA consultant, who testified on the possibility that police could have mishandled the evidence. Investigators used the blood samples to develop a partial male DNA profile. Born in 1953, Jerry Lynn Burns grew up in Manchester, Iowa, and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. Want a job? He lived in Manchester at the time of his arrest in 2020 and owned a powder coating business in the city. Let's uncover where he is now in this article. Hi! God finally won. 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. See Photos. Further the Iowa Department of Corrections assumes no legal liability or . Jerry Burns, of Manchester, is led into a courtroom at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport for closing arguments in his murder trial in February 2020. Things that make it difficult. Over 40 years ago, teenager Michelle Martinko was stabbed to death outside a mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. KWQC And the crucial link is a man named Jerry Burns. This narrowed down the possible suspects to three brothers - Ken, Don, and Jerry Burns. He said Burns had no memory of being at the crime scene. . "I am happy Michelle finally gets justice.". Authorities pored over 300 pages of internet search terms and 400 pages of website history, according to court testimony Thursday - almost all of it involving blonde females and most web searches starting with queries about blonde strangulation. "Burnsie was laying siege to New Orleans," said Lynn. The company created a family tree starting with four sets of the woman's great-great-grandparents and reported that the killer was most likely descended from one of those couples. She was a beautiful singer, and I miss all this. Works at Target Distribution Center. 20-1150). Log In. [6] In September 2020, Burns filed a notice of appeal. The final nail in the coffin was when a witness gave his statement to the court. He grew up in Manchester, Iowa, and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. Allison says Burns threatened him one day after a winning streak. Now in his late 60s, Burns is currently behind bars and will stay there till he dies. Then in 2018, DNA phenotyping company GEDmatch, a public genealogy website that famously helped catch the Golden State Killer, started creating a family tree based on the killers DNA. December . DNA: ID. 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. Burns' defense team objected to the wording of one of the prosecution's questions, which they claimed implied unequivocally that Burns' blood had been at the scene. Jerry Burns, busy back in Minneapolis, wasn't on the guest list that time. 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. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Jerry Lynn Burns' DNA sample was collected from a plastic straw he drank soda with. But the jury found the DNA connection convincing and after a nine-day trial, Burns was convicted of first-degree murder. State of Iowa. At the time of her death, police had found Martinko stabbed to death in her car in a local mall parking lot. When the detectives first investigated this case, they thought of the homicide as being personal in nature - based on the 10 stab wounds . He testified last week he took the straw after it was discarded. . He had followed them and secretly recovered their DNA. Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested in the 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko. During the investigation, the police assumed that there were personal motives involved in the murder due to the nature of Martinko's stab wounds. [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. Updated on: August 4, 2021 / 2:29 PM He began working with Parabon NanoLabs, now a leading company helping police solve crimes through genetic tracing. 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. She never had any school problems. The Vikings organization is mourning the loss of the innovator, colorful . 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. 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. Place of rest will be in the Dickson County Memorial Gardens. Michelle was a high school senior when she was found stabbed to death in 1979 in a parking lot at the Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids. On December 19, 2018, 39 years after Michelle Martinkp was murdered, Det. The similarities were eerie two pretty, young women, both meeting their final fate in parking lots in Iowa, 16 years apart, in cases that went unsolved for decades. [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. During the trial, he initially denied knowing Martinko but his statements were found to contradict when his defense argued that evidence had been mishandled back in 1979 and that different articles of clothing from the crime scene should not have been stored together in one evidence bag. Investigators struggled over the years to connect DNA collected at the scene to a suspect. Jerry Burns is still behind bars on a $5 million cash bond, charged with first-degree murder in the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko. Thirty-nine years to the day after she was killed, a suspect was charged thanks to DNA and genetic genealogy. Dave Franzman, a longtime reporter at ABC Cedar Rapids affiliate KCRG, even covered the case at the time of Michelle Martinko's killing. Jerry Lynn Burns. Allison also recounted a time when Burns tried to tear down a cellmate's bunk bed because he was snoring too loudly. 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. 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* 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 . Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. A few days later, the Saints fell. KCRG-TV9: 10PM Newscast, December 19, 2018 Arrest in Michelle Martinko Case, KCRG-TV9 Staff Anchors: Bruce Aune and Beth Malicki Meteorologist: Joe Winters Executive Producer: Aaron Hepker Producer: Ellen Kurt Director: Terri Walter Reporters: Dave Franzman, Forrest Saunders, Chantelle Navarro Photographers: Rebecca Varilek, Jay Greene, Michelle Martinko's Family Speaks to Law & Crime Network About the Jerry Burns Verdict, Michelle Martinko's Family Speaks to Law & Crime Network About the Jerry Burns Verdict #JerryBurns #JerryBurnsTrial #MichelleMartinko, Serial Killers Ex Thinks There Were More Victims. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. Yeah, it's really really good! See if it is.. After several trials and errors, the suspects were narrowed down to three brothers who had grown up in Manchester, Iowa. Police said they were able to connect Burns to the case with DNA evidence. Denlinger said they were uploaded to GEDmatch by Parabon NanoLabs, a private company the department worked with. Like all the cases I cover, Michelles was solved using forensic genealogy, which led police to Jerry Lynn Burns. The Delaware County Sheriff said it did review the case after Burns' arrest and "feels that was clearly the case.". The case had remained a mystery for 39 years until police say new DNA genealogy technology identified Burns' DNA at the scene. Some thought that Martinko had received harassing phone calls before her death, but police stated that they did not think so. 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. Minneapolis, wasn & # x27 ; t on the guest list that jerry lynn burns wife a notice of appeal for years... 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