DNA evidence leads police to charge Iowa man with murder in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko (with clip)
Dec. 20, 2018
"Exactly 39 years after Michelle Marie Martinko was killed and left in her family's car in a Cedar Rapids mall parking lot, police arrested and charged a Manchester man with first-degree murder.
Police arrested Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, on Wednesday morning in the decades-old fatal stabbing. Burns, who was 25 when Martinko died, will make his first court appearance Thursday morning in Linn County.
In a statement announcing the arrest, police said Burns was questioned at his job Wednesday in Manchester and denied killing Martinko. He could not offer a "plausible explanation" for why his DNA was found at the crime scene, authorities said....
Burns was held Wednesday night at the Linn County Jail, records show. He did not yet have an attorney listed in court records who could be reached for comment. ..."
DNA evidence leads police to charge Iowa man with murder in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko
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Mitch FickVerified account @MCFick 16h16 hours ago
This is a picture of Jerry Burns' yearbook photo (taken by
@EvaCBS2Iowa) from West Delaware High School in 1972, seven years before the death of Michelle Martinko. Burns was charged with Martinko's murder this morning, exactly 39 years after her body was found.
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(New composites of the man suspected of killing Michelle Martinko created by Parabon Snapshot. From the left, the renderings show the suspect at age 25, the suspect at age 25 with long hair, and the suspect at age 50. [Photos courtesy CRPD])
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