May 27, 2025 • 46 mins
Special Guest Episode:
Our friend Holly from the weekly true crime podcast, Crime with Holly, steps in to our feed today to share the story about Michelle Martinko. Cedar Rapids, Iowa was a safe place to raise a family in 1979. People trusted their neighbors, left their doors unlocked, and kids played outside until the streetlights came on. But all of that would change on December 19th, 1979 when 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was brutally stabbed to death. For 39 years the case would remain unsolved until genetic genealogy helped solve the mystery of who killed Michelle.
Connect with Holly:https://linktr.ee/CrimeaHolly
https://www.tiktok.com/@crimewithholly.podcast
https://www.instagram.com/crimeaholly/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimewithhollydiscussion/
Our friend Holly from the weekly true crime podcast, Crime with Holly, steps in to our feed today to share the story about Michelle Martinko. Cedar Rapids, Iowa was a safe place to raise a family in 1979. People trusted their neighbors, left their doors unlocked, and kids played outside until the streetlights came on. But all of that would change on December 19th, 1979 when 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was brutally stabbed to death. For 39 years the case would remain unsolved until genetic genealogy helped solve the mystery of who killed Michelle.
Connect with Holly:https://linktr.ee/CrimeaHolly
https://www.tiktok.com/@crimewithholly.podcast
https://www.instagram.com/crimeaholly/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/crimewithhollydiscussion/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Crime
with Holly. I'm your host, Holly, and I am happy
that you're here and back and ready for another episode.
Today's episode is a great reminder for us all that
you should never lose hope for a case to be solved.
With the advances in science and technology, more and more
(00:23):
cold cases are being solved, and today's case was solved
after thirty nine years thanks to genetic genealogy. Anytime I
see that a case has been solved through genetic genealogy,
it gives me so much hope for all of the
families that are left without answers. So, without further ado,
(00:44):
let's get into all of the details of today's case.
Today's case is on the murder of Michelle Martinko. Michelle
(01:17):
Marie Martinko was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on October sixth,
nineteen sixty one. She was quite the miracle baby because
her parents, Albert and Janet, had struggled with five miscarriages
before Michelle came along. Michelle had an older sister named
Janelle that was twelve years older than she was, so
(01:39):
growing up, Michelle was just kind of an only child.
At home with her sister being so much older. By
the time that Michelle was school aged, Janelle had moved
out of the family home in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids
is the second largest city in the state of Iowa,
and it's best known for its manufacturing, arts and culture,
(02:01):
and food. It is the world's largest corn processing city,
and back in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, Cedar
Rapids was considered a safe place to raise your family.
The Martinkos were like most American families. The kids would
play outside until the street lights came on. They kept
(02:22):
their front doors unlocked, They trusted their neighbors. The world
back then felt like a much safer place to be
in in comparison to today's world. Of course, we know that's
not the case. Evil was lurking in all corners, we
just didn't realize it. So when Michelle was born, her
sister Janelle said, everyone was just so happy. She was
(02:46):
I think the final peace to the family puzzle and
after so many losses, to finally have their baby that
they tried so hard for. Janet and Albert adored her
and she was so loved. At the age of twelve,
Michelle was diagnosed with scoliosis, which is a sideways curvature
(03:06):
of the spine that can cause the spine to look
like an S or even a C shape, and because
of that, she had to wear a brace that went
from her neck to her hips. Naturally, being twelve years old,
wearing a brace like that made her insecure. She felt
very different and self conscious about it, and she really
(03:28):
struggled over the next several years. But by the age
of fourteen, things were looking up for Michelle and she
was able to do away with the brace and continue
about her life. And that is when she really flourished
and things began to change for her. Michelle was growing
into a beautiful young woman. Now. Farah Fawcet was big
(03:52):
during this time, and Michelle had the gorgeous long blonde
hair that she styled like Farah's. She also was big
into dressing up and she was always dressed so fashionably,
and Michelle's sister Janelle and brother in law John said
to forty eight Hours that Michelle was just blissfully unaware
(04:13):
about how much attention that she was getting from young men.
She was just living her life. According to Little Village News,
Michelle excelled in school. While attending Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School,
she had great attendance was considered a loyal friend. She
was very active with choir. She performed in theater productions
(04:36):
and made the baton twirling team as a sophomore, which
was practically unheard of. Apparently, at the age of fifteen,
she caught the eye of a boy that was a
year older than she was, and his name was Andy Sidell.
They met while they were out roller skating at the
local roller rink, and sparks began to fly almost immediately.
(05:00):
Andy was a handsome young man with a flashy red
convertible sports car, and he quite literally swept Michelle off
her feet. The two were together for two years before
they broke up, and from what I gathered, it was
Michelle who broke the relationship off because she didn't want
to be in a committed relationship. Andy did not take
(05:23):
the breakup well, and from the sounds of it, he
kind of spiraled. He wanted to know Michelle's every move,
who she was talking to, who she was dating, why
she was seeing that person, and tried to stay in
communication with her friends so that he always had a
sense about what she had going on in her life
and he just wouldn't stay away. After the breakup with Andy,
(05:47):
Michelle dated Mike Wyrick briefly, and of course Andy wasn't
happy about that, but from what I could tell, their
relationship was brief and wasn't very serious. December nineteen seventy nine,
Michelle was eighteen years old and a senior in high school.
She had dreams of studying interior design at Iowa State
(06:09):
University after graduation. She had her entire life ahead of her.
On December nineteenth, nineteen seventy nine, Michelle attended a choir
banquet at the downtown Sheridan Hotel, where she wore a cute,
knee length, thin strapped black dress. After the banquet, she
invited Jane Hansen to go shopping with her at the
(06:32):
Westdale Mall on the south side of Cedar Rapids. This
mall had just opened less than two weeks before and
was a hot spot for teens and young adults to
shop and hang out. The mall sported all kinds of
popular stores like J. C. Penny, Gap, Sam Goodie, Montgomery Ward,
and so many others, and it also included a four
(06:55):
screen movie theater. Michelle was on a mission to purchase
a new coat, and she had brought one hundred and
eighty six dollars with her to spend. Unfortunately, Jane Hansen
had to decline the offer to join because she needed
to get home to catch up on some homework. Michelle
went to the mall alone and parked the family's Tan
(07:18):
nineteen seventy two buick in the northwest section of the
Westdale Mall parking lot near the JC Penny. While inside
the mall shopping, she ran into a few people that
she knew, saying hi before going into some stores. She
also ran into Tracy Price, and he saw that she
was openly carrying her cash around in her hands. He
(07:40):
told her that she should probably put the money away,
since that was a lot of money to just be
walking around holding in your hands, and that someone could
rob her. Michelle put the money away and kept about
her shopping, but she ended up deciding against purchasing the
coat and was getting ready to leave the mall when
she saw her friend Kurt Thomas, who was working at
(08:02):
a men's clothing store. The two were happy to see
each other and were chatting it up. Kurt walked Michelle
to the mall exit, where he watched her bundle up
and waved her goodbye as she headed out into the
dark parking lot. Briefly, she turned around to look at
him at the door, where she smiled her big, beautiful
Michelle smile and said goodbye once more. Kurt smiled back
(08:27):
and turned to go back to work, not knowing that
he would be the last person to see Michelle alive.
When Michelle didn't return home that night, her parents called
the police at around two am to report their daughter
as missing, and it was just two hours later that
the family buick would be found still in the parking
lot of the Westdale Mall. When police approached the car,
(08:51):
they discovered a brutal and bloody scene. Inside the car,
they found the lifeless body of eighteen year old Michelle
Martinkao lying on her back, slumped over the passenger seat
and leaning against the car door. Michelle had been stabbed
twenty nine times in the face, neck, and chest. She
(09:13):
also had defensive wounds all over her hands and arms
from when she tried to fight off her attacker. In
the backseat of the car, they found some items that
she had purchased at the mall and her purse still
contained a large amount of cash inside, leading the investigators
to believe that robbery wasn't a motive. Because there was
(09:34):
no blood on the ground outside of the car, they
believed that Michelle had approached her car, put her belongings
in the back, and climbed inside. While sitting inside of
the car, they think that the attacker came up and
opened the door, pushing her further into the car and
began the brutal attack. Upon further examination, it did not
(09:55):
appear that Michelle had been sexually assaulted, and with the
amount of stab wo and their placement to her face
and neck and chest, the authorities were under the assumption
that this was a personal attack and likely someone that
knew Michelle. Now, there was no murder weapon found at
the scene, and they also didn't find any kind of fingerprints.
(10:18):
They did, however, find that there were some rubber glove
impressions that had been left inside of the car in
her blood, as well as outside of the car in dirt,
which means that whoever did this to Michelle was ready
and prepared to conceal their identity, leaving behind no fingerprints.
The mall parking lot also did not have surveillance cameras,
(10:41):
which doesn't come as a surprise because remember this was
nineteen seventy nine. Life seemed safer back then. They didn't
have CCTV footage on every corner like we do now.
There also had been no witnesses to the violent attack.
The police had nothing really to work with and were
left to assume that this was a personal, planned attack,
(11:03):
thought out by someone who knew Michelle. So they started
questioning everyone, and in small towns, rumors run rampant, and
a lot of people were looking at Andy Sidell or
Mark Wyrick as being potentially involved. Mark was brought in
for questioning, even though at the time of Michelle's murder
(11:24):
he was one hundred miles away at college, and at
first they didn't feel like he was being truthful with them.
They slapped down the crime scene photos in front of Mark,
demanding answers that he couldn't give, and Mark, who was innocent,
tells forty eight hours how horrific and hard that was
for him to not only be questioned about killing Michelle,
(11:46):
who he adored and thought was just the sweetest person
in the world, but to see those crime scene photos
like that. I am sure that those images will be
forever ingrained in his mind. Mark's alibi checked out, and
again he was one hundred miles away at college, but
he remained a person of interest anyway. Andy Sidell was
(12:10):
also interviewed and he told the police that he had
actually seen Michelle at the Westdale Mall that night. He
told them that he had been there purchasing Michelle a
Christmas gift and that the two saw each other and
chatted and had been friendly. He said that after shopping
at the mall, he went home, and his alibi was
confirmed by his mother, who also said that she was
(12:33):
at home with him after the mall had closed. As
we've seen in many many true crime stories, moms will
lie for their children, and even though his mom said
he was at home, the police didn't buy it and
kept Andy Sidell as pretty much the number one person
of interest in this case. Andy's behavior also after the
(12:56):
murder really stuck out to people. He was an absolute
mess at Michelle's funeral, and according to a woman named
Gail Dawson, who was close friends with Michelle, Andy was
almost inside of the casket at her funeral with his
arms around her and was just sobbing uncontrollably. Andy then
(13:18):
turns to Gail at some point during the funeral, and
he tells her that he needs to know who Michelle
loved when she died. Did she love him or did
she love Mike? Who did she love when she died?
The small town rumor mill was heavily leaning towards Andy
being involved, and Michelle's closest friends and family all thought
(13:41):
the same. He seemed like the only logical explanation and
that maybe he felt like if he couldn't have Michelle,
no one else could. Michelle's mother even wrote in journals
about several people that she thought had been involved in
her daughter's murder, and Anne d Sidell was at the
top of her list, but she also considered Kurt Thomas,
(14:05):
the person who saw Michelle before she walked into the
parking lot, as a potential suspect as well. Police also
questioned Kurt, and it was during this questioning the day
after the murder, that Kurt had even learned that Michelle
had been murdered, which he took hard, and even still
to this day, he carries a lot of guilt over
the fact that he didn't walk Michelle out to her
(14:27):
car that night. Had he done that, maybe in his mind,
she would still be alive today. But even though Andy
was at the top of the suspect list, police had
nothing to link him to the violent murder of his
ex girlfriend. After high school, Andy left town and joined
the Navy and moved on with his life. And as
(14:48):
the years went by and the case goes cold, anytime
the murder of Michelle Martinko came up, Andy's name would
as well. With nothing linking any xi one that Michelle
knew to the murder, police were forced to continue their
investigation and consider the possibility that this was a random attack.
(15:09):
Year after year, the local news stations would put out
a piece about Michelle and her murder in hopes that
it would generate new leads. Over one hundred people were
interviewed during the investigation, and tips were called in non
stop in the beginning, but eventually the calls would stop
and all leads had been followed. Sadly, Michelle's family, who
(15:33):
were left grieving, were victimized over the years. When prank
callers would call the home making fun of the situation,
Michelle's mom would answer the phone and the person on
the other line would say mother, mother, it's Michelle and
then laugh. People would pretend to be the killer, calling
and taunting them. And it's just so awful that even
(15:54):
to this day, families deal with this crap on the regular.
I don't know what kind of sick person out there
gets some sort of gratification from this. I don't know
what the motive is to rub salt in an open wound.
It's just disgusting that people like this exist in the world.
We deal with enough sickos, but to add people who
(16:16):
taunt victims and their families is just beyond words. Now,
Michelle's family never thought that her case would be solved,
and the case was handed from one investigator to the
next and they all came up empty handed. Now, as
we know, science technology, DNA, all the things have evolved
(16:37):
since nineteen seventy nine when Michelle was murdered, DNA testing
wasn't a thing, and wasn't until sometime in the nineteen eighties,
with the first criminal case using DNA in nineteen eighty six.
So in two thousand and five, a man by the
name of Doug Larison was in charge of Michelle's case,
(16:58):
and surprisingly he actually went to high school with Michelle,
but they weren't close either way, though, when he took
the case over, he felt this strong sense of responsibility
to help get this case solved. While combing over all
of the information, he found that a detective earlier had
sent blood scrapings that had been taken from the gearshift
(17:18):
of the car out for testing, but nobody had followed
up to get those results, and the results had sat
untouched in the stack of files for this case. When
Detective Larison was going over everything and found that report,
he made a huge discovery. Not only did this gearshift
(17:39):
have the DNA on it, it had mail DNA on it,
leading Detective Larison to believe that the killer had likely
cut himself during the violent attack and left his very
own blood behind at the scene. After this discovery, Detective
Larison then sent Michelle's dress that had been elected and
(18:00):
safely secured in an evidence locker for all these years,
out for more testing, and on that dress they found
a spot of blood that had a full male DNA
profile that was consistent with the male DNA profile that
was found on the gearshifter. Talk about striking gold. They
felt like if they could figure out whose blood was
(18:23):
left behind on her dress, and car they would have
their killer. According to the Gazette, the DNA was then
uploaded into COTIS and hopes that the killer had been
charged with a felony and already in the system. I
think everyone knows what CODIS is, but if you're fairly
new to true crime, CODIS stands for the Combined DNA
(18:43):
Index System pretty much. It's a computer program that was
founded by the FBI that stores and compares DNA profiles
from convicted criminals, crime scenes, and missing people nationwide. When
they loaded this unidentified male DNA in to COTIS, they
did not get a match. Police also started asking for
(19:05):
swabs from everyone that had previously been interviewed, including Michelle's
two ex boyfriends, Andy and Mark. Everyone waited on pens
and needles for the results to come back, certain that
they would point to Andy Sidell and when the authorities
told the family that Andy had been ruled out, they
(19:26):
were all shocked. By this time, Michelle's parents had both
passed away, and they went to their graves believing that
Andy had taken their daughter's life. This was incredibly hard
news to process for her remaining family. Who else could
have wanted Michelle dead? One by one, the DNA tests
(19:49):
came back, and one by one, each person was ruled out.
With no new leads, all possible suspects having been tested,
the case went cold once again and remained on ice
for another ten years. Michelle Martinko's case had been at
a standstill for far too long, thirty six years since
(20:13):
her brutal slaying and ten years since DNA evidence proved
that a male DNA profile had been found on her dress.
The case was once again passed off to a new
set of eyes, this time landing in the lap of
Detective Matt Denlinger in twenty fifteen. What's really neat about
(20:34):
this case is that Matt's father, Harvey Denlinger, had worked
on this case back in nineteen seventy nine when he
helped interview several of the high school students, and he
also helped in canvassing of the area when the police
were searching for a suspect. Matt Denlinger was only five
years old at the time of the murder, but growing
(20:54):
up he remembers hearing about the case and would often
visit the Westdale Mall, and he told the Gazette that
the whole city was affected by this case, and he
was warned by his parents when he would be dropped
off at the mall to not wander around where he
shouldn't be and to not go outside of the mall
until it was the designated time for him to be
(21:15):
picked up. When Matt Denlinger took over the case, he
knew that he wanted to continue pursuing that DNA evidence.
It was about eight months into him working on the
investigation that he knew that he needed to switch directions.
At this time, they were trying to swab pretty much
everyone at random and compare their DNA and each time
(21:37):
they were coming up empty. And according to the Gazette,
it wasn't until Detective Denlinger bought his wife an Ancestry
DNA kit for Christmas that an idea struck. And it
wasn't even his idea to begin with. His wife, Nicole
asked him, what if you could do this with the
Martinko case. So he calls up the officials at Ancestiy
(22:00):
and he asks them if he can take his suspects
DNA profile and upload it into their system, but they
declined and said that's not what their services provides. But
the State Crime Lab then suggested calling private labs and
that's when Detective Denlinger got in touch with a lab
in Utah and they pointed him in the direction of
(22:22):
Parabond Nano Labs that is located in Virginia. This company
helps law enforcement use DNA to then create a prediction
of what a suspect might look like based upon their
DNA profile. This includes skin color, hair color, eye color,
facial structures, and so much more. And they call this
(22:45):
process snapshot. And this process is not cheap to do.
It costs about five thousand dollars per sample to do,
and police departments aren't filled with unlimited funds to just
follow the these types of ideas on a whim. Detective
Denlinger had to create a presentation to present to his
(23:06):
supervisors in an attempt to sell them on this idea
to allow him to use department funds for this snapshot
DNA process, and he was convincing enough that they agreed.
According to the Gazette, by twenty seventeen, they had these
images back that had been generated from the DNA profile
and they shared them with the public in a press conference.
(23:30):
After those were pumped out into the media, the department
received hundreds of new tips and leads and the authorities
were once again busy collecting new DNA samples from potential suspects.
In total, they collected one hundred and twenty five new
DNA samples and still none were a match to their suspect.
(23:54):
But what they did learn was that their suspect was
likely a white male with blonde hair and blue eyes. Guy.
Another year would go by, and then the Golden State
Killer was arrested in the spring of twenty eighteen with
the help of genetic genealogy, and as soon as Detective
Denlinger heard how they solved the decades old Golden State
(24:16):
Killer case, he knew that this was going to be
how he would solve the Michelle Martinko case. Detective Denlinger
then worked with Pair Bond Labs again and they took
the sample from the snapshot images to upload into jedmatch
dot com. Now this website can be used by anyone
and you can upload your DNA file and people do
(24:39):
this to help them kind of build their own family
tree if things like ancestry is not working. But jedmatch
is also used by law enforcement to help solve crimes.
Anyone can sign up for free to use jetmatch and
according to their website. You can choose to opt in
and enable law enforcement to solve theolent crimes and exonerate
(25:01):
the falsely accused. So if you've previously done ancestry or
twenty three and meters, you can download your DNA profile
and upload it. I will link the website in the
description of this episode, so if you want to look
more into it, you can. After uploading the suspects DNA
into jedmatch. In July twenty eighteen, they got their report
(25:24):
back that there was a DNA match for a relative.
This relative was a woman named Brandy Jennings and she
lived in Washington State. From there, they were able to
build her family tree using birth records, marriage records, genealogical records,
gravestone records. You named it, they used it, and it
(25:46):
was in October twenty eighteen. They finally narrowed it down
to three brothers who were second cousins to Brandy who
lived in Iowa. Their names were Donald, Jared, and Kenneth Burns. Now,
they had to learn everything that they could about these
three brothers, and they were pleased to find that all
(26:09):
three of them were still alive. They started to game
plan how they would collect their DNA to compare to
the DNA found in Michelle's car and on her dress,
and Detective Denlinger made sure to keep his lips tight.
He only let a select few individuals know what they
were doing and that they had narrowed it down to
(26:31):
these three guys. They didn't want it to get leaked
out to the press at all that they were onto something,
and they didn't want these guys to somehow be tipped
off that something was coming. All three of these men
grew up in Manchester, Iowa, which is about forty five
minutes drive from Cedar Rapids. Two of them still lived
in Manchester, while one brother had moved to Davenport. Detectives
(26:55):
couldn't find a connection to any of these three men
and Michelle, nor did they find a connection to the
Westdale mall. All three brothers were business owners and none
of them had a criminal history, so they tried their
best to decide which brother to start with, and they
decided Kenneth seemed like the most likely of the three.
(27:17):
Detectives followed Kenneth around for the better part of a day,
and come lunchtime, he stopped in at a golf course
for a bite to eat. After leaving, the detectives collected
the straw he had been drinking from and sent it
back to the Iowa State Crime Lab in Anchony. They
made the martinkoqus top priority and had results from the
(27:37):
strawback within a few days. Kenneth Burns was not a match.
Detectives then traveled to Davenport to follow Donald around, where
they collected a glass he had used, as well as
the toothbrush that they had retrieved from his garbage at home.
He also was not a match, so they went back
(27:59):
to Manchester to start watching the final brother, Jerry, who
they originally thought was the least likely to have committed
this murder. They followed Jerry to a pizza ranch, which
is a buffet style restaurant, and they watched, and they waited.
While there, he was using a straw with his drink,
(28:19):
and as soon as he got up to leave, the
detectives moved in, quickly swiping the straw out of the
cup before leaving themselves. They rushed that straw to the
crime lab, and this time, after thirty nine years of waiting,
they got a match. Instead of immediately arresting Jerry, Detective Denlinger,
(28:40):
as well as another retired detective who had previously worked
on the case, traveled back to Manchester on December nineteenth
to visit with Jerry to see what he had to say.
They arrived at Jerry's business and walked in and introduced
themselves to the now sixty four year old Jerry Burns.
They cutched straight to the chase and told him that
(29:01):
they worked for the Cedar Rapids Police Department in the
Cold Case Unit and they wanted to know if he
had heard of Michelle Martinko's case. He agreed that he
had seen it on the news, and when shown a
picture of Michelle, they asked him if she was someone
that he recognized or had seen before. He said no,
and he was very calm in his demeanor. They then
(29:24):
told him that they were there because they had a
warrant to collect a sample of his DNA. After collecting
their sample, they told Jerry that they knew that the
sample that they took from his mouth was going to
match the DNA that they had found on Michelle Martinko's dress.
And Jerry just sat there very blank faced and said,
(29:46):
oh really, Now, I don't know about y'all, but if
someone told me that a sample that they just took
was going to match a DNA that they had for
a murder case. I would have told the authorities that
they were out out of their damn minds. I would
have said absolutely there was no way, shape and form
that I had been involved. I would have been absolutely
(30:08):
dumbfounded and asking a bazillion questions and demanding answers on
why they would have even considered me as a suspect.
But Jerry Burns, he just sat there, just quiet. He
was straight faced, and all he said was, oh, really,
and then he finally, very calmly asks why would that be?
(30:31):
I feel like an innocent person would have reacted way
differently to hear that they were a suspect in a
nearly four decade old murder case. Maybe you guys can
weigh in on how you would have reacted in the comments.
I just know I would have been completely caught off
guard and would have been demanding answers right then, but
(30:54):
Jerry remained calm. The authorities picked that specific day to
is it Jerry because it marked the thirty ninth anniversary
of Michelle's murder. They asked him what day it was,
and he said December nineteenth. They asked him if he
killed someone on that day many years ago, and all
(31:16):
he could reply with was test the DNA. Eventually, he
did state that he wasn't there that night and he
didn't do it, but again he said it with a
very blank face and didn't ask any questions. They arrested
him and placed him in the back of the cop
car and on the drive from Manchester to Cedar Rapids,
(31:38):
Detective Denlinger sat in the back with him and he
read in his rights before attempting to ask more questions.
While on the drive, Detective Denlinger asked Jerry if he
thought that this was possible, that this happened and he
just didn't remember it, and Jerry replied that he believed
it was possible to do something like that and then
(31:59):
block it out of your memories, which that's kind of
a weird thing to say. And another thing to point
out about this video from the nearly hour car ride
back to Cedar Rapids is that Jerry never once said
that he didn't do it or he didn't kill her.
So let's talk briefly about Jerry Lynn Burns. He was
(32:21):
born on December twenty third, nineteen fifty three, and at
the time of Michelle's murder, he was twenty five years old.
Like I mentioned earlier, he grew up in Manchester, Iowa,
and he graduated from West Delaware High School in nineteen
seventy two. According to Wikipedia, he owned a powder coating
business in Manchester. He had been married to a woman
(32:44):
named Patricia, who died by suicide in two thousand and eight,
and had three children with her. When Jerry's children learned
the news of their father's arrest, they were shocked to
hear that he was even considered a person of interest
in such a horrific case, and to this day they
stand behind their dad and do not believe that he
(33:06):
was involved in Michelle's murder. Jerry's family hired the prominent
Iowa city lawyer named Leon Spees to represent him, and
Leon says that there was no way that his client
committed this murder. In February twenty twenty, the trial got
underway and instead of being in Cedar Rapids, the judge
(33:26):
granted a change in venue and the trial was relocated
to Davenport, Iowa. The prosecution put on an amazing display
of evidence and called witnesses to testify, including Michelle's ex
boyfriend Andy Sidell and Mark Wyrick, which was tough for
both of these men. They also had put Kurt Thomas
(33:46):
on the stand, who was the last known person to
have seen Michelle alive. He told the details of the
night and how she was so happy with her big
smile as she waved goodbye. And I just want to say,
and I know I I kind of touched on it earlier.
I really really feel for Kurt. He was on the
show Killer Cases for this case, and he talks about
(34:09):
how Michelle's murder has absolutely consumed him. He talks about
the amount of guilt he lives with every single day
because he didn't walk Michelle out to her car that night.
Kurt is filled with so many what ifs and believes
that if he had walked her out, things would have
turned out differently. And I know it's obvious, but I
(34:31):
feel like I need to say anyway, this was not
Kurt's fault at all. Nobody knew that someone could be
prowling the parking lot looking for an innocent victim to kill.
It hurts my heart knowing that he is haunted by
what happened that night and that he carries so much
guilt over something that he had no way of knowing
was going to happen. My heart just goes out to
(34:52):
him so much. The last witness the prosecution put on
the stand was a surprise and was an inmate that
had been in the jail with Jerry named Michael Allison.
Michael claimed that he and Jerry became close in jail,
and they had become so close that Jerry referred to
Michael as his son. He also autographed a newspaper for
(35:16):
Michael where the front page story was about the Michelle
Martinko case. Now, while on the stand, Michael told the
jury that Jerry had allegedly told him that no matter
what happens with his trial, he wins either way because
he got the opportunity to live out in the world
with his family as a freeman for all those years.
(35:37):
He also said that while the two were playing cards,
Jerry had made a comment to Michael telling him that
if he kept beating him at cards, he was going
to have to take him to the mall. Now, jail
informants will say a lot of things for a lot
of different reasons, So take Michael Allison's testimony for what
you will. Defense however, was not trying to dispute that
(36:02):
Jerry's DNA had been at the scene of the crime.
They believed that it was, but they called their only
defense witness to the stand, named doctor Michael Spence, who
told the jury about the DNA transfer theory. He states
that it's a possibility that the DNA could have been
left behind by a transfer, meaning that the defense wanted
(36:27):
the jury to believe that while Michelle had been shopping
at the Westdale Mall, a place that Jerry Burns and
his family had visited many times before, that Michelle had
picked up his DNA off of something that she had touched,
whether it was something in a store or when she
sat down in the food court, she touched something that
(36:48):
he had previously touched, and that is how the DNA
wound up on her dress. Nine days after the trial began,
the prosecution and defense gave their closing arguments. The prosecution
said that there was no way that the DNA was
transferred like the defense claimed, and the defense said that
(37:10):
there was no way that Jerry Burns, a married man
and a father to two young children, had left his
family on that night to drive to Cedar Rapids armed
with a knife and rubber gloves to visit Westdale Mall
to kill a random stranger before driving back home. Jerry
(37:33):
Burns had no criminal history before or after this murder.
He had no connection to Michelle Martinko. The defense said
that he had no reason or motive to want to
murder an innocent young woman. The jury was released to
deliberate and just after three hours they finally reached their
(37:57):
verdict guilty of murder in the first degree. Here is
where I want to mention some evidence that the prosecution
was not allowed to show in court to the jury,
and they felt like this evidence would have proved a motive.
They found after seeing Jerry's electronic devices, internet searches such
(38:21):
as blonde molested after being strangled, as well as searches
for sex with freshly dead person. Leon Spiez, his defense attorney,
successfully fought against the evidence being used in the trial
and he states that he didn't think that this was
(38:43):
strong evidence of a motive, and with these searches not
allowed in the trial, Spies was able to give that
closing argument that there was no motive for his client
to murder Michelle Martinko. I am curious to hear what
you guys think about the tidbit that wasn't allowed to
be used in court. Do you think that it proves
(39:05):
that Jerry had a sexual motive for killing Michelle? Now,
these internet searches did obviously take place well after Michelle's murder,
but it does show that he was interested in some
interesting things. Michelle Martinko fought for her life and because
of that she likely caused Jerry Burns to slip with
(39:26):
the knife, cutting himself, leaving behind his blood as well.
She was a fighter until the end. Her sister and
brother in law felt so much relief when the verdict
was read, and it was a long, hard fight for them.
Thirty nine years is a long time to not have
answers and to know that a killer is walking among them.
(39:50):
Jerry's family, on the other hand, fully believe that he
is innocent and that they got the wrong guy. They
believe the transfer theory or that it was a pop
possibility that the buick Michelle had been driving had been
at the dealership where Jerry once worked and that is
how his DNA got on the gear shifter. But they
(40:10):
one hundred percent do not believe that he is guilty
with the verdict also came a lot of questions from
people in the community. They started to wonder if other
unsolved murders or disappearances happened to be related somehow to
Jerry Burns. Detective Denlinger says that to this day he
gets calls about other cases and he is open to
(40:33):
the idea that Jerry was potentially involved in other cases.
One case that I saw that people speculate his involvement
in is the mysterious disappearance of a young TV news
anchor named Jody who's intrude, who went missing in nineteen
ninety five. When I saw this theory that he was involved,
(40:53):
I immediately got goosebumps. Jody went missing from Mason City, Iowa,
two hours away from Manchester, and Michelle Martinko was murdered
in Cedar Rapids an hour away from Manchester. I don't
feel like it's a far stretch to think that someone
who is willing to drive an hour away to murder
someone wouldn't be willing to drive two hours away to
(41:17):
murder someone. And if you put a side by side
picture of Jody and Michelle, I'm not gonna lie. They
kind of resemble each other. Both were beautiful young women
with blonde hair and big, beautiful smiles. Like I said,
I got goosebumps, and even now talking about the possibility
sends a chill down my spine. I have looked into
(41:39):
Jody's case several times to cover for a Missing Monday,
and after this has popped up, I feel like that's
going to have to be my next missing Monday case now,
so be on the lookout for that, because I promise
it is coming. I will say that there has been
no evidence linking Jerry to Jody's case at this time,
(42:00):
and I had seen that the Cedar Rapids Police Department
won't comment on whether they're looking into it. But I
also saw them say that they weren't looking into it either,
So I'm not sure, but I do hope that whoever
is in charge of Jody's case they have considered him
as a possibility, because I have a hard time believing
that someone who could violently murder someone like Jerry did
(42:23):
to Michelle. I have a hard time believing that they
have never killed again, or even killed before. Now. I
have one more tidbit to add here that also blew
my freaking mind. On December nineteenth, twenty thirteen, thirty four
years to the day after Michelle's murder, Jerry's cousin, Brian Burns,
(42:47):
went missing, and his remains wouldn't be found for a
full decade later, when pheasant hunters found them in a
field just a mile south of Brian's home in Manchester, Iowa. Now,
the authorities have never said Jerry and Brian's disappearance were connected,
but it really makes you wonder what the heck happened. Now.
(43:09):
I have some theories that have zero evidence to back
them on this part of the story, and I'll just
keep those to myself. But holy moly, what a turn
of events. So with the pandemic, Jerry's sentencing was postponed,
and finally, on August seventh, twenty twenty, he was sentenced
to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jerry
(43:32):
has maintained his innocence, and in January of twenty twenty one,
he hired the famous attorney Kathleen Zelner that represented Stephen
Avery and is widely known for her role in the
making a Murdered documentary on Netflix, according to the Des
Moines Register. Since then, Jerry has filed an appeal arguing
(43:55):
that the police violated his constitutional rights in obtaining the
DNA sample that ultimately tied him to blood found at
the scene. His attempt to overturn his conviction was denied.
Jerry Burns, who is now in his seventies, is currently
serving his sentence at the Iowa Department of Corrections, and
(44:16):
Michel Martinko will forever be eighteen, a beautiful and vibrant
young woman with the world at her fingertips, whose life
was cut short before she could even graduate high school. Crimesters,
make sure that you're a part of my private Facebook group.
You can find it by searching Crime with Holly podcast
(44:37):
discussion group. In there, I share all information and pictures
pertaining to the cases that I cover, and I also
encourage all members to share all things true crime. You
can find me on Instagram to keep up with what
I'm doing in life, as well as the other true
crime things that I share at Crime a Holly, and
(44:57):
if you would like more true crime con you can
find me on TikTok at Crime with Holly dot podcast.
If you're a Spotify listener, make sure you leave a
comment about your thoughts on this case, and if you
haven't yet, be sure to leave a review on your
preferred podcast platform. Not only does it make my day
(45:19):
to see you guys leaving a positive review letting me
know that you love the show, but it also helps
me grow and helps others find the show as well.
Thank you, guys so much for listening to today's episode.
Until next time, be aware and take care. Bye bye
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Crime
with Holly. I'm your host, Holly, and I am happy
that you're here and back and ready for another episode.
Today's episode is a great reminder for us all that
you should never lose hope for a case to be solved.
With the advances in science and technology, more and more
(00:23):
cold cases are being solved, and today's case was solved
after thirty nine years thanks to genetic genealogy. Anytime I
see that a case has been solved through genetic genealogy,
it gives me so much hope for all of the
families that are left without answers. So, without further ado,
(00:44):
let's get into all of the details of today's case.
Today's case is on the murder of Michelle Martinko. Michelle
(01:17):
Marie Martinko was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on October sixth,
nineteen sixty one. She was quite the miracle baby because
her parents, Albert and Janet, had struggled with five miscarriages
before Michelle came along. Michelle had an older sister named
Janelle that was twelve years older than she was, so
(01:39):
growing up, Michelle was just kind of an only child.
At home with her sister being so much older. By
the time that Michelle was school aged, Janelle had moved
out of the family home in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids
is the second largest city in the state of Iowa,
and it's best known for its manufacturing, arts and culture,
(02:01):
and food. It is the world's largest corn processing city,
and back in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, Cedar
Rapids was considered a safe place to raise your family.
The Martinkos were like most American families. The kids would
play outside until the street lights came on. They kept
(02:22):
their front doors unlocked, They trusted their neighbors. The world
back then felt like a much safer place to be
in in comparison to today's world. Of course, we know that's
not the case. Evil was lurking in all corners, we
just didn't realize it. So when Michelle was born, her
sister Janelle said, everyone was just so happy. She was
(02:46):
I think the final peace to the family puzzle and
after so many losses, to finally have their baby that
they tried so hard for. Janet and Albert adored her
and she was so loved. At the age of twelve,
Michelle was diagnosed with scoliosis, which is a sideways curvature
(03:06):
of the spine that can cause the spine to look
like an S or even a C shape, and because
of that, she had to wear a brace that went
from her neck to her hips. Naturally, being twelve years old,
wearing a brace like that made her insecure. She felt
very different and self conscious about it, and she really
(03:28):
struggled over the next several years. But by the age
of fourteen, things were looking up for Michelle and she
was able to do away with the brace and continue
about her life. And that is when she really flourished
and things began to change for her. Michelle was growing
into a beautiful young woman. Now. Farah Fawcet was big
(03:52):
during this time, and Michelle had the gorgeous long blonde
hair that she styled like Farah's. She also was big
into dressing up and she was always dressed so fashionably,
and Michelle's sister Janelle and brother in law John said
to forty eight Hours that Michelle was just blissfully unaware
(04:13):
about how much attention that she was getting from young men.
She was just living her life. According to Little Village News,
Michelle excelled in school. While attending Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School,
she had great attendance was considered a loyal friend. She
was very active with choir. She performed in theater productions
(04:36):
and made the baton twirling team as a sophomore, which
was practically unheard of. Apparently, at the age of fifteen,
she caught the eye of a boy that was a
year older than she was, and his name was Andy Sidell.
They met while they were out roller skating at the
local roller rink, and sparks began to fly almost immediately.
(05:00):
Andy was a handsome young man with a flashy red
convertible sports car, and he quite literally swept Michelle off
her feet. The two were together for two years before
they broke up, and from what I gathered, it was
Michelle who broke the relationship off because she didn't want
to be in a committed relationship. Andy did not take
(05:23):
the breakup well, and from the sounds of it, he
kind of spiraled. He wanted to know Michelle's every move,
who she was talking to, who she was dating, why
she was seeing that person, and tried to stay in
communication with her friends so that he always had a
sense about what she had going on in her life
and he just wouldn't stay away. After the breakup with Andy,
(05:47):
Michelle dated Mike Wyrick briefly, and of course Andy wasn't
happy about that, but from what I could tell, their
relationship was brief and wasn't very serious. December nineteen seventy nine,
Michelle was eighteen years old and a senior in high school.
She had dreams of studying interior design at Iowa State
(06:09):
University after graduation. She had her entire life ahead of her.
On December nineteenth, nineteen seventy nine, Michelle attended a choir
banquet at the downtown Sheridan Hotel, where she wore a cute,
knee length, thin strapped black dress. After the banquet, she
invited Jane Hansen to go shopping with her at the
(06:32):
Westdale Mall on the south side of Cedar Rapids. This
mall had just opened less than two weeks before and
was a hot spot for teens and young adults to
shop and hang out. The mall sported all kinds of
popular stores like J. C. Penny, Gap, Sam Goodie, Montgomery Ward,
and so many others, and it also included a four
(06:55):
screen movie theater. Michelle was on a mission to purchase
a new coat, and she had brought one hundred and
eighty six dollars with her to spend. Unfortunately, Jane Hansen
had to decline the offer to join because she needed
to get home to catch up on some homework. Michelle
went to the mall alone and parked the family's Tan
(07:18):
nineteen seventy two buick in the northwest section of the
Westdale Mall parking lot near the JC Penny. While inside
the mall shopping, she ran into a few people that
she knew, saying hi before going into some stores. She
also ran into Tracy Price, and he saw that she
was openly carrying her cash around in her hands. He
(07:40):
told her that she should probably put the money away,
since that was a lot of money to just be
walking around holding in your hands, and that someone could
rob her. Michelle put the money away and kept about
her shopping, but she ended up deciding against purchasing the
coat and was getting ready to leave the mall when
she saw her friend Kurt Thomas, who was working at
(08:02):
a men's clothing store. The two were happy to see
each other and were chatting it up. Kurt walked Michelle
to the mall exit, where he watched her bundle up
and waved her goodbye as she headed out into the
dark parking lot. Briefly, she turned around to look at
him at the door, where she smiled her big, beautiful
Michelle smile and said goodbye once more. Kurt smiled back
(08:27):
and turned to go back to work, not knowing that
he would be the last person to see Michelle alive.
When Michelle didn't return home that night, her parents called
the police at around two am to report their daughter
as missing, and it was just two hours later that
the family buick would be found still in the parking
lot of the Westdale Mall. When police approached the car,
(08:51):
they discovered a brutal and bloody scene. Inside the car,
they found the lifeless body of eighteen year old Michelle
Martinkao lying on her back, slumped over the passenger seat
and leaning against the car door. Michelle had been stabbed
twenty nine times in the face, neck, and chest. She
(09:13):
also had defensive wounds all over her hands and arms
from when she tried to fight off her attacker. In
the backseat of the car, they found some items that
she had purchased at the mall and her purse still
contained a large amount of cash inside, leading the investigators
to believe that robbery wasn't a motive. Because there was
(09:34):
no blood on the ground outside of the car, they
believed that Michelle had approached her car, put her belongings
in the back, and climbed inside. While sitting inside of
the car, they think that the attacker came up and
opened the door, pushing her further into the car and
began the brutal attack. Upon further examination, it did not
(09:55):
appear that Michelle had been sexually assaulted, and with the
amount of stab wo and their placement to her face
and neck and chest, the authorities were under the assumption
that this was a personal attack and likely someone that
knew Michelle. Now, there was no murder weapon found at
the scene, and they also didn't find any kind of fingerprints.
(10:18):
They did, however, find that there were some rubber glove
impressions that had been left inside of the car in
her blood, as well as outside of the car in dirt,
which means that whoever did this to Michelle was ready
and prepared to conceal their identity, leaving behind no fingerprints.
The mall parking lot also did not have surveillance cameras,
(10:41):
which doesn't come as a surprise because remember this was
nineteen seventy nine. Life seemed safer back then. They didn't
have CCTV footage on every corner like we do now.
There also had been no witnesses to the violent attack.
The police had nothing really to work with and were
left to assume that this was a personal, planned attack,
(11:03):
thought out by someone who knew Michelle. So they started
questioning everyone, and in small towns, rumors run rampant, and
a lot of people were looking at Andy Sidell or
Mark Wyrick as being potentially involved. Mark was brought in
for questioning, even though at the time of Michelle's murder
(11:24):
he was one hundred miles away at college, and at
first they didn't feel like he was being truthful with them.
They slapped down the crime scene photos in front of Mark,
demanding answers that he couldn't give, and Mark, who was innocent,
tells forty eight hours how horrific and hard that was
for him to not only be questioned about killing Michelle,
(11:46):
who he adored and thought was just the sweetest person
in the world, but to see those crime scene photos
like that. I am sure that those images will be
forever ingrained in his mind. Mark's alibi checked out, and
again he was one hundred miles away at college, but
he remained a person of interest anyway. Andy Sidell was
(12:10):
also interviewed and he told the police that he had
actually seen Michelle at the Westdale Mall that night. He
told them that he had been there purchasing Michelle a
Christmas gift and that the two saw each other and
chatted and had been friendly. He said that after shopping
at the mall, he went home, and his alibi was
confirmed by his mother, who also said that she was
(12:33):
at home with him after the mall had closed. As
we've seen in many many true crime stories, moms will
lie for their children, and even though his mom said
he was at home, the police didn't buy it and
kept Andy Sidell as pretty much the number one person
of interest in this case. Andy's behavior also after the
(12:56):
murder really stuck out to people. He was an absolute
mess at Michelle's funeral, and according to a woman named
Gail Dawson, who was close friends with Michelle, Andy was
almost inside of the casket at her funeral with his
arms around her and was just sobbing uncontrollably. Andy then
(13:18):
turns to Gail at some point during the funeral, and
he tells her that he needs to know who Michelle
loved when she died. Did she love him or did
she love Mike? Who did she love when she died?
The small town rumor mill was heavily leaning towards Andy
being involved, and Michelle's closest friends and family all thought
(13:41):
the same. He seemed like the only logical explanation and
that maybe he felt like if he couldn't have Michelle,
no one else could. Michelle's mother even wrote in journals
about several people that she thought had been involved in
her daughter's murder, and Anne d Sidell was at the
top of her list, but she also considered Kurt Thomas,
(14:05):
the person who saw Michelle before she walked into the
parking lot, as a potential suspect as well. Police also
questioned Kurt, and it was during this questioning the day
after the murder, that Kurt had even learned that Michelle
had been murdered, which he took hard, and even still
to this day, he carries a lot of guilt over
the fact that he didn't walk Michelle out to her
(14:27):
car that night. Had he done that, maybe in his mind,
she would still be alive today. But even though Andy
was at the top of the suspect list, police had
nothing to link him to the violent murder of his
ex girlfriend. After high school, Andy left town and joined
the Navy and moved on with his life. And as
(14:48):
the years went by and the case goes cold, anytime
the murder of Michelle Martinko came up, Andy's name would
as well. With nothing linking any xi one that Michelle
knew to the murder, police were forced to continue their
investigation and consider the possibility that this was a random attack.
(15:09):
Year after year, the local news stations would put out
a piece about Michelle and her murder in hopes that
it would generate new leads. Over one hundred people were
interviewed during the investigation, and tips were called in non
stop in the beginning, but eventually the calls would stop
and all leads had been followed. Sadly, Michelle's family, who
(15:33):
were left grieving, were victimized over the years. When prank
callers would call the home making fun of the situation,
Michelle's mom would answer the phone and the person on
the other line would say mother, mother, it's Michelle and
then laugh. People would pretend to be the killer, calling
and taunting them. And it's just so awful that even
(15:54):
to this day, families deal with this crap on the regular.
I don't know what kind of sick person out there
gets some sort of gratification from this. I don't know
what the motive is to rub salt in an open wound.
It's just disgusting that people like this exist in the world.
We deal with enough sickos, but to add people who
(16:16):
taunt victims and their families is just beyond words. Now,
Michelle's family never thought that her case would be solved,
and the case was handed from one investigator to the
next and they all came up empty handed. Now, as
we know, science technology, DNA, all the things have evolved
(16:37):
since nineteen seventy nine when Michelle was murdered, DNA testing
wasn't a thing, and wasn't until sometime in the nineteen eighties,
with the first criminal case using DNA in nineteen eighty six.
So in two thousand and five, a man by the
name of Doug Larison was in charge of Michelle's case,
(16:58):
and surprisingly he actually went to high school with Michelle,
but they weren't close either way, though, when he took
the case over, he felt this strong sense of responsibility
to help get this case solved. While combing over all
of the information, he found that a detective earlier had
sent blood scrapings that had been taken from the gearshift
(17:18):
of the car out for testing, but nobody had followed
up to get those results, and the results had sat
untouched in the stack of files for this case. When
Detective Larison was going over everything and found that report,
he made a huge discovery. Not only did this gearshift
(17:39):
have the DNA on it, it had mail DNA on it,
leading Detective Larison to believe that the killer had likely
cut himself during the violent attack and left his very
own blood behind at the scene. After this discovery, Detective
Larison then sent Michelle's dress that had been elected and
(18:00):
safely secured in an evidence locker for all these years,
out for more testing, and on that dress they found
a spot of blood that had a full male DNA
profile that was consistent with the male DNA profile that
was found on the gearshifter. Talk about striking gold. They
felt like if they could figure out whose blood was
(18:23):
left behind on her dress, and car they would have
their killer. According to the Gazette, the DNA was then
uploaded into COTIS and hopes that the killer had been
charged with a felony and already in the system. I
think everyone knows what CODIS is, but if you're fairly
new to true crime, CODIS stands for the Combined DNA
(18:43):
Index System pretty much. It's a computer program that was
founded by the FBI that stores and compares DNA profiles
from convicted criminals, crime scenes, and missing people nationwide. When
they loaded this unidentified male DNA in to COTIS, they
did not get a match. Police also started asking for
(19:05):
swabs from everyone that had previously been interviewed, including Michelle's
two ex boyfriends, Andy and Mark. Everyone waited on pens
and needles for the results to come back, certain that
they would point to Andy Sidell and when the authorities
told the family that Andy had been ruled out, they
(19:26):
were all shocked. By this time, Michelle's parents had both
passed away, and they went to their graves believing that
Andy had taken their daughter's life. This was incredibly hard
news to process for her remaining family. Who else could
have wanted Michelle dead? One by one, the DNA tests
(19:49):
came back, and one by one, each person was ruled out.
With no new leads, all possible suspects having been tested,
the case went cold once again and remained on ice
for another ten years. Michelle Martinko's case had been at
a standstill for far too long, thirty six years since
(20:13):
her brutal slaying and ten years since DNA evidence proved
that a male DNA profile had been found on her dress.
The case was once again passed off to a new
set of eyes, this time landing in the lap of
Detective Matt Denlinger in twenty fifteen. What's really neat about
(20:34):
this case is that Matt's father, Harvey Denlinger, had worked
on this case back in nineteen seventy nine when he
helped interview several of the high school students, and he
also helped in canvassing of the area when the police
were searching for a suspect. Matt Denlinger was only five
years old at the time of the murder, but growing
(20:54):
up he remembers hearing about the case and would often
visit the Westdale Mall, and he told the Gazette that
the whole city was affected by this case, and he
was warned by his parents when he would be dropped
off at the mall to not wander around where he
shouldn't be and to not go outside of the mall
until it was the designated time for him to be
(21:15):
picked up. When Matt Denlinger took over the case, he
knew that he wanted to continue pursuing that DNA evidence.
It was about eight months into him working on the
investigation that he knew that he needed to switch directions.
At this time, they were trying to swab pretty much
everyone at random and compare their DNA and each time
(21:37):
they were coming up empty. And according to the Gazette,
it wasn't until Detective Denlinger bought his wife an Ancestry
DNA kit for Christmas that an idea struck. And it
wasn't even his idea to begin with. His wife, Nicole
asked him, what if you could do this with the
Martinko case. So he calls up the officials at Ancestiy
(22:00):
and he asks them if he can take his suspects
DNA profile and upload it into their system, but they
declined and said that's not what their services provides. But
the State Crime Lab then suggested calling private labs and
that's when Detective Denlinger got in touch with a lab
in Utah and they pointed him in the direction of
(22:22):
Parabond Nano Labs that is located in Virginia. This company
helps law enforcement use DNA to then create a prediction
of what a suspect might look like based upon their
DNA profile. This includes skin color, hair color, eye color,
facial structures, and so much more. And they call this
(22:45):
process snapshot. And this process is not cheap to do.
It costs about five thousand dollars per sample to do,
and police departments aren't filled with unlimited funds to just
follow the these types of ideas on a whim. Detective
Denlinger had to create a presentation to present to his
(23:06):
supervisors in an attempt to sell them on this idea
to allow him to use department funds for this snapshot
DNA process, and he was convincing enough that they agreed.
According to the Gazette, by twenty seventeen, they had these
images back that had been generated from the DNA profile
and they shared them with the public in a press conference.
(23:30):
After those were pumped out into the media, the department
received hundreds of new tips and leads and the authorities
were once again busy collecting new DNA samples from potential suspects.
In total, they collected one hundred and twenty five new
DNA samples and still none were a match to their suspect.
(23:54):
But what they did learn was that their suspect was
likely a white male with blonde hair and blue eyes. Guy.
Another year would go by, and then the Golden State
Killer was arrested in the spring of twenty eighteen with
the help of genetic genealogy, and as soon as Detective
Denlinger heard how they solved the decades old Golden State
(24:16):
Killer case, he knew that this was going to be
how he would solve the Michelle Martinko case. Detective Denlinger
then worked with Pair Bond Labs again and they took
the sample from the snapshot images to upload into jedmatch
dot com. Now this website can be used by anyone
and you can upload your DNA file and people do
(24:39):
this to help them kind of build their own family
tree if things like ancestry is not working. But jedmatch
is also used by law enforcement to help solve crimes.
Anyone can sign up for free to use jetmatch and
according to their website. You can choose to opt in
and enable law enforcement to solve theolent crimes and exonerate
(25:01):
the falsely accused. So if you've previously done ancestry or
twenty three and meters, you can download your DNA profile
and upload it. I will link the website in the
description of this episode, so if you want to look
more into it, you can. After uploading the suspects DNA
into jedmatch. In July twenty eighteen, they got their report
(25:24):
back that there was a DNA match for a relative.
This relative was a woman named Brandy Jennings and she
lived in Washington State. From there, they were able to
build her family tree using birth records, marriage records, genealogical records,
gravestone records. You named it, they used it, and it
(25:46):
was in October twenty eighteen. They finally narrowed it down
to three brothers who were second cousins to Brandy who
lived in Iowa. Their names were Donald, Jared, and Kenneth Burns. Now,
they had to learn everything that they could about these
three brothers, and they were pleased to find that all
(26:09):
three of them were still alive. They started to game
plan how they would collect their DNA to compare to
the DNA found in Michelle's car and on her dress,
and Detective Denlinger made sure to keep his lips tight.
He only let a select few individuals know what they
were doing and that they had narrowed it down to
(26:31):
these three guys. They didn't want it to get leaked
out to the press at all that they were onto something,
and they didn't want these guys to somehow be tipped
off that something was coming. All three of these men
grew up in Manchester, Iowa, which is about forty five
minutes drive from Cedar Rapids. Two of them still lived
in Manchester, while one brother had moved to Davenport. Detectives
(26:55):
couldn't find a connection to any of these three men
and Michelle, nor did they find a connection to the
Westdale mall. All three brothers were business owners and none
of them had a criminal history, so they tried their
best to decide which brother to start with, and they
decided Kenneth seemed like the most likely of the three.
(27:17):
Detectives followed Kenneth around for the better part of a day,
and come lunchtime, he stopped in at a golf course
for a bite to eat. After leaving, the detectives collected
the straw he had been drinking from and sent it
back to the Iowa State Crime Lab in Anchony. They
made the martinkoqus top priority and had results from the
(27:37):
strawback within a few days. Kenneth Burns was not a match.
Detectives then traveled to Davenport to follow Donald around, where
they collected a glass he had used, as well as
the toothbrush that they had retrieved from his garbage at home.
He also was not a match, so they went back
(27:59):
to Manchester to start watching the final brother, Jerry, who
they originally thought was the least likely to have committed
this murder. They followed Jerry to a pizza ranch, which
is a buffet style restaurant, and they watched, and they waited.
While there, he was using a straw with his drink,
(28:19):
and as soon as he got up to leave, the
detectives moved in, quickly swiping the straw out of the
cup before leaving themselves. They rushed that straw to the
crime lab, and this time, after thirty nine years of waiting,
they got a match. Instead of immediately arresting Jerry, Detective Denlinger,
(28:40):
as well as another retired detective who had previously worked
on the case, traveled back to Manchester on December nineteenth
to visit with Jerry to see what he had to say.
They arrived at Jerry's business and walked in and introduced
themselves to the now sixty four year old Jerry Burns.
They cutched straight to the chase and told him that
(29:01):
they worked for the Cedar Rapids Police Department in the
Cold Case Unit and they wanted to know if he
had heard of Michelle Martinko's case. He agreed that he
had seen it on the news, and when shown a
picture of Michelle, they asked him if she was someone
that he recognized or had seen before. He said no,
and he was very calm in his demeanor. They then
(29:24):
told him that they were there because they had a
warrant to collect a sample of his DNA. After collecting
their sample, they told Jerry that they knew that the
sample that they took from his mouth was going to
match the DNA that they had found on Michelle Martinko's dress.
And Jerry just sat there very blank faced and said,
(29:46):
oh really, Now, I don't know about y'all, but if
someone told me that a sample that they just took
was going to match a DNA that they had for
a murder case. I would have told the authorities that
they were out out of their damn minds. I would
have said absolutely there was no way, shape and form
that I had been involved. I would have been absolutely
(30:08):
dumbfounded and asking a bazillion questions and demanding answers on
why they would have even considered me as a suspect.
But Jerry Burns, he just sat there, just quiet. He
was straight faced, and all he said was, oh, really,
and then he finally, very calmly asks why would that be?
(30:31):
I feel like an innocent person would have reacted way
differently to hear that they were a suspect in a
nearly four decade old murder case. Maybe you guys can
weigh in on how you would have reacted in the comments.
I just know I would have been completely caught off
guard and would have been demanding answers right then, but
(30:54):
Jerry remained calm. The authorities picked that specific day to
is it Jerry because it marked the thirty ninth anniversary
of Michelle's murder. They asked him what day it was,
and he said December nineteenth. They asked him if he
killed someone on that day many years ago, and all
(31:16):
he could reply with was test the DNA. Eventually, he
did state that he wasn't there that night and he
didn't do it, but again he said it with a
very blank face and didn't ask any questions. They arrested
him and placed him in the back of the cop
car and on the drive from Manchester to Cedar Rapids,
(31:38):
Detective Denlinger sat in the back with him and he
read in his rights before attempting to ask more questions.
While on the drive, Detective Denlinger asked Jerry if he
thought that this was possible, that this happened and he
just didn't remember it, and Jerry replied that he believed
it was possible to do something like that and then
(31:59):
block it out of your memories, which that's kind of
a weird thing to say. And another thing to point
out about this video from the nearly hour car ride
back to Cedar Rapids is that Jerry never once said
that he didn't do it or he didn't kill her.
So let's talk briefly about Jerry Lynn Burns. He was
(32:21):
born on December twenty third, nineteen fifty three, and at
the time of Michelle's murder, he was twenty five years old.
Like I mentioned earlier, he grew up in Manchester, Iowa,
and he graduated from West Delaware High School in nineteen
seventy two. According to Wikipedia, he owned a powder coating
business in Manchester. He had been married to a woman
(32:44):
named Patricia, who died by suicide in two thousand and eight,
and had three children with her. When Jerry's children learned
the news of their father's arrest, they were shocked to
hear that he was even considered a person of interest
in such a horrific case, and to this day they
stand behind their dad and do not believe that he
(33:06):
was involved in Michelle's murder. Jerry's family hired the prominent
Iowa city lawyer named Leon Spees to represent him, and
Leon says that there was no way that his client
committed this murder. In February twenty twenty, the trial got
underway and instead of being in Cedar Rapids, the judge
(33:26):
granted a change in venue and the trial was relocated
to Davenport, Iowa. The prosecution put on an amazing display
of evidence and called witnesses to testify, including Michelle's ex
boyfriend Andy Sidell and Mark Wyrick, which was tough for
both of these men. They also had put Kurt Thomas
(33:46):
on the stand, who was the last known person to
have seen Michelle alive. He told the details of the
night and how she was so happy with her big
smile as she waved goodbye. And I just want to say,
and I know I I kind of touched on it earlier.
I really really feel for Kurt. He was on the
show Killer Cases for this case, and he talks about
(34:09):
how Michelle's murder has absolutely consumed him. He talks about
the amount of guilt he lives with every single day
because he didn't walk Michelle out to her car that night.
Kurt is filled with so many what ifs and believes
that if he had walked her out, things would have
turned out differently. And I know it's obvious, but I
(34:31):
feel like I need to say anyway, this was not
Kurt's fault at all. Nobody knew that someone could be
prowling the parking lot looking for an innocent victim to kill.
It hurts my heart knowing that he is haunted by
what happened that night and that he carries so much
guilt over something that he had no way of knowing
was going to happen. My heart just goes out to
(34:52):
him so much. The last witness the prosecution put on
the stand was a surprise and was an inmate that
had been in the jail with Jerry named Michael Allison.
Michael claimed that he and Jerry became close in jail,
and they had become so close that Jerry referred to
Michael as his son. He also autographed a newspaper for
(35:16):
Michael where the front page story was about the Michelle
Martinko case. Now, while on the stand, Michael told the
jury that Jerry had allegedly told him that no matter
what happens with his trial, he wins either way because
he got the opportunity to live out in the world
with his family as a freeman for all those years.
(35:37):
He also said that while the two were playing cards,
Jerry had made a comment to Michael telling him that
if he kept beating him at cards, he was going
to have to take him to the mall. Now, jail
informants will say a lot of things for a lot
of different reasons, So take Michael Allison's testimony for what
you will. Defense however, was not trying to dispute that
(36:02):
Jerry's DNA had been at the scene of the crime.
They believed that it was, but they called their only
defense witness to the stand, named doctor Michael Spence, who
told the jury about the DNA transfer theory. He states
that it's a possibility that the DNA could have been
left behind by a transfer, meaning that the defense wanted
(36:27):
the jury to believe that while Michelle had been shopping
at the Westdale Mall, a place that Jerry Burns and
his family had visited many times before, that Michelle had
picked up his DNA off of something that she had touched,
whether it was something in a store or when she
sat down in the food court, she touched something that
(36:48):
he had previously touched, and that is how the DNA
wound up on her dress. Nine days after the trial began,
the prosecution and defense gave their closing arguments. The prosecution
said that there was no way that the DNA was
transferred like the defense claimed, and the defense said that
(37:10):
there was no way that Jerry Burns, a married man
and a father to two young children, had left his
family on that night to drive to Cedar Rapids armed
with a knife and rubber gloves to visit Westdale Mall
to kill a random stranger before driving back home. Jerry
(37:33):
Burns had no criminal history before or after this murder.
He had no connection to Michelle Martinko. The defense said
that he had no reason or motive to want to
murder an innocent young woman. The jury was released to
deliberate and just after three hours they finally reached their
(37:57):
verdict guilty of murder in the first degree. Here is
where I want to mention some evidence that the prosecution
was not allowed to show in court to the jury,
and they felt like this evidence would have proved a motive.
They found after seeing Jerry's electronic devices, internet searches such
(38:21):
as blonde molested after being strangled, as well as searches
for sex with freshly dead person. Leon Spiez, his defense attorney,
successfully fought against the evidence being used in the trial
and he states that he didn't think that this was
(38:43):
strong evidence of a motive, and with these searches not
allowed in the trial, Spies was able to give that
closing argument that there was no motive for his client
to murder Michelle Martinko. I am curious to hear what
you guys think about the tidbit that wasn't allowed to
be used in court. Do you think that it proves
(39:05):
that Jerry had a sexual motive for killing Michelle? Now,
these internet searches did obviously take place well after Michelle's murder,
but it does show that he was interested in some
interesting things. Michelle Martinko fought for her life and because
of that she likely caused Jerry Burns to slip with
(39:26):
the knife, cutting himself, leaving behind his blood as well.
She was a fighter until the end. Her sister and
brother in law felt so much relief when the verdict
was read, and it was a long, hard fight for them.
Thirty nine years is a long time to not have
answers and to know that a killer is walking among them.
(39:50):
Jerry's family, on the other hand, fully believe that he
is innocent and that they got the wrong guy. They
believe the transfer theory or that it was a pop
possibility that the buick Michelle had been driving had been
at the dealership where Jerry once worked and that is
how his DNA got on the gear shifter. But they
(40:10):
one hundred percent do not believe that he is guilty
with the verdict also came a lot of questions from
people in the community. They started to wonder if other
unsolved murders or disappearances happened to be related somehow to
Jerry Burns. Detective Denlinger says that to this day he
gets calls about other cases and he is open to
(40:33):
the idea that Jerry was potentially involved in other cases.
One case that I saw that people speculate his involvement
in is the mysterious disappearance of a young TV news
anchor named Jody who's intrude, who went missing in nineteen
ninety five. When I saw this theory that he was involved,
(40:53):
I immediately got goosebumps. Jody went missing from Mason City, Iowa,
two hours away from Manchester, and Michelle Martinko was murdered
in Cedar Rapids an hour away from Manchester. I don't
feel like it's a far stretch to think that someone
who is willing to drive an hour away to murder
someone wouldn't be willing to drive two hours away to
(41:17):
murder someone. And if you put a side by side
picture of Jody and Michelle, I'm not gonna lie. They
kind of resemble each other. Both were beautiful young women
with blonde hair and big, beautiful smiles. Like I said,
I got goosebumps, and even now talking about the possibility
sends a chill down my spine. I have looked into
(41:39):
Jody's case several times to cover for a Missing Monday,
and after this has popped up, I feel like that's
going to have to be my next missing Monday case now,
so be on the lookout for that, because I promise
it is coming. I will say that there has been
no evidence linking Jerry to Jody's case at this time,
(42:00):
and I had seen that the Cedar Rapids Police Department
won't comment on whether they're looking into it. But I
also saw them say that they weren't looking into it either,
So I'm not sure, but I do hope that whoever
is in charge of Jody's case they have considered him
as a possibility, because I have a hard time believing
that someone who could violently murder someone like Jerry did
(42:23):
to Michelle. I have a hard time believing that they
have never killed again, or even killed before. Now. I
have one more tidbit to add here that also blew
my freaking mind. On December nineteenth, twenty thirteen, thirty four
years to the day after Michelle's murder, Jerry's cousin, Brian Burns,
(42:47):
went missing, and his remains wouldn't be found for a
full decade later, when pheasant hunters found them in a
field just a mile south of Brian's home in Manchester, Iowa. Now,
the authorities have never said Jerry and Brian's disappearance were connected,
but it really makes you wonder what the heck happened. Now.
(43:09):
I have some theories that have zero evidence to back
them on this part of the story, and I'll just
keep those to myself. But holy moly, what a turn
of events. So with the pandemic, Jerry's sentencing was postponed,
and finally, on August seventh, twenty twenty, he was sentenced
to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jerry
(43:32):
has maintained his innocence, and in January of twenty twenty one,
he hired the famous attorney Kathleen Zelner that represented Stephen
Avery and is widely known for her role in the
making a Murdered documentary on Netflix, according to the Des
Moines Register. Since then, Jerry has filed an appeal arguing
(43:55):
that the police violated his constitutional rights in obtaining the
DNA sample that ultimately tied him to blood found at
the scene. His attempt to overturn his conviction was denied.
Jerry Burns, who is now in his seventies, is currently
serving his sentence at the Iowa Department of Corrections, and
(44:16):
Michel Martinko will forever be eighteen, a beautiful and vibrant
young woman with the world at her fingertips, whose life
was cut short before she could even graduate high school. Crimesters,
make sure that you're a part of my private Facebook group.
You can find it by searching Crime with Holly podcast
(44:37):
discussion group. In there, I share all information and pictures
pertaining to the cases that I cover, and I also
encourage all members to share all things true crime. You
can find me on Instagram to keep up with what
I'm doing in life, as well as the other true
crime things that I share at Crime a Holly, and
(44:57):
if you would like more true crime con you can
find me on TikTok at Crime with Holly dot podcast.
If you're a Spotify listener, make sure you leave a
comment about your thoughts on this case, and if you
haven't yet, be sure to leave a review on your
preferred podcast platform. Not only does it make my day
(45:19):
to see you guys leaving a positive review letting me
know that you love the show, but it also helps
me grow and helps others find the show as well.
Thank you, guys so much for listening to today's episode.
Until next time, be aware and take care. Bye bye
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