On cross examination, Spies asked Holst if he had expertise in psychology or forensic psychology. [6] In September 2020, Burns filed a notice of appeal. Jerry A. Burns, age 69, of Bryan, Texas went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 10:56 p.m. Over 40 years ago, teenager Michelle Martinko was stabbed to death outside a mall in Cedar Rapids . Gerald Edward "Jake" Merriner, 92, of Jane Lew passed away on Monday, February 27, 2023 in the Stonewall Jackson Hospital. 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 . Over 40 years ago, teenager Michelle Martinko was stabbed to death outside a mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. More than 40 years after Jerry Lynn Burns stabbed Michelle Martinko to death, a family and a community has closure. ), Press J to jump to the feed. Jim grew up . He was born in 1953 and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. In late June of 1995, Jodi Huisentruit, a young anchor at KIMT television in Mason City, Iowa, disappeared from the parking lot of her apartment building on the way to work, never to be seen again. The defense brought only one witness, a self-described forensic DNA consultant, who testified on the possibility that police could have mishandled the evidence. Ha ha. [2][3][4] Burns was arrested and, on February 24, 2020, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Martinko. I've been reading up on this case and was wondering if they profiled this guy? But where is this cold-blooded killer now? Jerry Burns. Hernando . Michelle Martinko, Kennedy High School yearbook photo, 1979. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. JERRY M. LYNN "Bear" Crown Point, Indiana Jerry M. "Bear" Lynn, age 59, of Crown Point, IN passed away on April 4, 2010. Prosecutors played a covertly recorded interview that investigators conducted with Jerry Lynn Burns in December of 2018. 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]. Please logout and login again. Prosecutor Nick Maybanks/Cedar Rapids Police Department, "Murder at the Mall: The Michelle Martinko Case,". The company also produced approximations of how the man would have aged in the years since the crime. Burns kept pointing to the swab, he testified, and saying, 'Test it. A few days later, the Saints fell. Law enforcement said Burns hasnt been able to explain why his DNA would be at the crime scene, nor does he remember committing the crime. 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. 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. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 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. [7] Martinko was the younger of two daughters of Albert F. Martinko and Janet Martinko (ne Zillig). "The family never gave up hope that this case would be solved," Jerman said in a statement Wednesday. (Supreme Court No. . In recent years, authorities began taking a closer look at a man named Jerry Burns, who was arrested and convicted in the 1979 abduction and murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. 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.. Some thought that Martinko had received harassing phone calls before her death, but police stated that they did not think so. Pat was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church, and enjoyed quilting, collecting teddy bears, gardening and farming with her husband. . or. What began to turn the case around was the emergence of DNA as a forensic tool for crime fighting in the late 1990s. 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 . He would have been around 25-years-old when he killed Michelle Martinko in December of 1979. 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. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. This technology helped the FBI arrest notorious serial killer, serial rapist, and burglar Joseph James DeAngelo (nicknamed Golden State Killer) in 2018. 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. [10] Police considered the killing to be "personal in nature" based on the number and location of stab wounds. 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 new technique, started this year with the "Golden State Killer," has identified over two dozen suspects. [4] Documents concluded that fewer than one in 100 billion people would match the DNA profile. 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. 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. DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWWL) - State prosecutors called a former cellmate of Jerry Burns in his murder trial, which continued Tuesday in Scott County. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette). People who have worked on this game have also collaborated on the creation of the following games: Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire, a group of 68 people. Through the use of advanced technologies, DNA samples from the offender were obtained. . Police sent the blood samples to CODIS the nationwide data base of DNA collected from arrested offenders but didn't get a hit. Currently, in his late 60s, he is going to spend the rest of his days behind bars. 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. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Nicholas Curran . While that tip did not yield any new leads, it did cause Det. 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. Ken and Don were not a match but Jerry Burns' DNA was a match, to an almost perfect scientific certainty. Sonny arrives at his restaurant and gives Dex, who is there, the night off. Dr. Obrecht Learns if She's a Bone Marrow Match for Willow Plus, Nikolas' Whereabouts Are Revealed. [1][5] Iowan law mandates a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first degree murder. Jerry Lynn Burns, 65, is set to face a jury in February, bringing momentum to a case that was left cold for years. 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. 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. [25] He refused to voluntarily provide a sample of DNA, but was compelled to do so with a search warrant. The case was solved, but there were lingering questions about Jerry Burns. 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. But he never asked for an attorney, Denlinger said. 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. Let's uncover where he is now in this article. I just began listening to the DNA:ID podcast. Your login session has expired. [2] That narrowed the suspects down to a set of three brothers, who had grown up in Manchester, Iowa. Now in his late 60s, Burns is currently behind bars and will stay there till he dies. "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. Vikings Ring of Honor Coach Jerry Burns passed away Wednesday at the age of 94. Allison said he and Burns had a good relationship at first but it eventually turned sour. Martinko then asked another acquaintance to go to the mall with her; that friend said yes at first but later changed her mind. The trial was then moved to February 2020. He lived in Manchester at the time of his arrest in 2020 and owned a powder coating business in the city. It wasn't until decades after the killing that investigators began to link the emotions of a motive with the science of DNA. Jerry Lynn Burns' DNA sample was collected from a plastic straw he drank soda with. 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. 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. Mail, proper postage prepaid, addressed to Jerry L. Burns, No. [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. . "Hmm, strange," Burns responded when Cedar Rapids Police Investigator Matthew Denlinger told him he was a suspect for Martinko's death. I've seen several articles that said he might be tied to other murders. "I talked to myself and didn't know what to do Then you have to pray.". Burns pleaded not guilty in 2019 and when his trial was supposed to begin in October of that year, his defense team requested additional time to review fresh pieces of evidence and gather witnesses. Allison also recounted a time when Burns tried to tear down a cellmate's bunk bed because he was snoring too loudly. 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. Familial matches let them narrow down the suspect list to three brothers from Manchester, Iowa. Denlinger said they were uploaded to GEDmatch by Parabon NanoLabs, a private company the department worked with. At the time of her death, police had found Martinko stabbed to death in her car in a local mall parking lot. Identities returned to Does. Jerry Burns . Investigators also showed Burns two renderings DNA labs had supplied them of possible suspects; he questioned their likeness to him. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two child. He was convicted of first-degree murder and received the mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. [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. [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 was married to his second wife at the time of his arrest. Could Jerry Burns have committed murders other than Michelle Martinko's? Michelle Martinko, pictured in a photo released by the Cedar Rapids Police Department, was stabbed to death in December 1979. This is what eventually helped authorities identify the culprit - Jerry Lynn Burns. Holst said that in reviewing Burns' computer, he found hundreds of searches and website visits - a pattern that happened several times a week. And I went 'bingo'.". During this time, according to the testimony, he made a reference to 'blacking out but didn't explain it. Updated on: August 4, 2021 / 2:29 PM Reporter covering state and federal courts. v. Jerry Lynn Burns. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two . Updated Sep 20, 2022 at 3:27pm. Unfortunately, Martinkos parents did not survive to see her killer brought to justice. A jailhouse informant also testified in the case Tuesday. When the detectives first investigated this case, they thought of the homicide as being personal in nature - based on the 10 stab wounds . 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. He said Burns had no memory of being at the crime scene. On the eve of December 19, 1979, an 18-year-old high school student named Michelle Martinko was discovered dead in her family's car outside a mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Subscribe to the Public Safety newsletter. "That was big, national news," said Denlinger. In 2017, Cedar Rapids police said they reached out to Parabon NanoLabs to help build a suspect profile based on the crime scene DNA. The victim was the younger of two daughters of Albert and Janet Martinko. [7] Eventually, more than 125 people would have their DNA swabbed and compared against samples taken from the scene. Jerry Burns. I am a brokenhearted mother.. [9] She was last seen almost 9p.m. outside of a jewelry store in the mall. The Realm, a group of 34 people. The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. To learn more about the murder of Michelle Martinko, watch Dateline: Unforgettable on December 22, at 10:00 pm on Oxygen 79. "I read the article and it talked about genetic genealogy. JERRY LYNN BURNS, Defendant-Appellant. Around 4 a.m., Martinko was found inside her familys Buick Electra. After Burns arrest, several viewers questioned whether Burns could be a suspect in the death of his wife, Patricia, in 2008. 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 Hundred, WV on April 24, 1930, a son of the late Robert Lee and Rebecca Taylor Merriner. Linn. We need somebody from their family to have tested in order to resolve these cases.". Works at Target Distribution Center. [2][16] At 2a.m., since Martinko had still not returned home, her father reported her missing. 24. Police had searched his computer after arresting him, and found a history of searches pertaining to nefarious subjects including the murder of blonde women, and pornographic matter involving blonde women. Fifty-five-year-old Brian "Farmer" Burns was reported missing to the Delaware County Sheriff's Office in Manchester, Iowa, on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013, and the sheriff's office is asking for the public's help in locating him. 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. Murderer Jerry Lynn Burns was not caught for almost 40 years. A DNA profile was developed from that evidence and entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but no matches were found. In her ruling, Judge Fae Hoover said the . 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