Posted on 12/20/2018 2:14:39 PM PST by ETL
Thirty-nine years to the day that a woman was killed and left in her family's car in the parking lot of an Iowa mall, officials announced Wednesday a suspect was arrested in her murder after DNA at the crime scene was reexamined.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department said Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested at his job in Manchester after "persistent and determined" investigative work that included a scientific DNA analysis for the killing of Michelle Martinko.
"The family never gave up hope that this case would be solved," Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said. "Today’s announcement makes it clear that this Police Department and our investigators never gave up on this case either."
Martinko was 18 when she was found dead in the parking lot of the Cedar Rapid's Westdale Mall shortly after 4 a.m. on Dec. 20, 1979. The teenager had driven to the mall to shop for a new winter coat the previous day following a school banquet.
After her parents reported her missing at 2 a.m., police discovered the teen's body in her vehicle about four hours later. The medical examiner's office said the teen was stabbed at least 8 times and had wounds on her hands, which indicated she fought her killer, according to The Des Moines Register.
Investigators had worked to solve the case for decades, and on Oct. 2, 2006, investigators announced new evidence, the suspect’s DNA, was developed in the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Don't know the date.
Offender: Unsolved
Age: 18 years old
Case #: 85-06117
County: Linn
City: Cedar Rapids
Date of Crime: December 19, 1979
At 4 AM on Thursday, December 20, 1979, police found 18-year-old Michelle Marie Martinko – her face and chest stabbed repeatedly – in her family’s tan 1972 Buick 4-door in Cedar Rapids’ Westdale Mall parking lot. The Kennedy High School senior had driven to the newly opened mall after a school choir banquet to shop for a new winter coat.
According to police, the girl’s parents, Albert and Janet Martinko, had reported their daughter missing at 2 AM. The parents called later and said they’d learned Michelle had gone to Westdale, and officers were dispatched to search that area. They found the car parked in the northeast section of the parking lot of Westdale Mall.
Wounds on the teen’s hands showed she fought her killer, but the medical examiner’s office said Michelle was found fully clothed and had not been molested. Detectives found no weapon or fingerprints to identify her killer, but said Michelle had not been robbed. Based on the number of stab wounds – particularly to the young woman’s face – police considered the homicide personal in nature.
Kennedy High’s principal said that Michelle would have been at the annual Kennedy Concert Choir banquet at the Sheraton Inn until around 7 PM. He said Michelle was seen at the shopping mall about a half hour later.
Police said they had few leads and appealed to the public for help. “We know that she was all right up to about 8 PM, but we don’t know what happened after that,” said the police. “So we are asking that if anyone saw her after that, if anyone saw someone with her, call us. If there’s any information at all, call us.”
On June 19, 1980, police released a composite sketch of the man they believed stabbed Michelle. Police developed the sketch based on descriptions provided by two witnesses. The sketch indicated a white male in his late teens or early 20s, weighing between 165 and 175 pounds, and standing about 6 feet tall. During the original investigation, detectives compiled a list of more than 80 potential suspects. More than 60 were tested and eliminated.
Using new technology, the Cedar Rapids Police Department was able to procure the suspect’s DNA in 2006. At a news conference held October 2, 2006, investigators announced they had developed new evidence in the 1979 murder and asked the public for assistance in identifying a male with a cut on his hand during the time of the murder.
In the two years following the announcement, police received a number of calls, a few which provided new information that helped eliminate a few more suspects. None of the leads produced, however, uncovered a DNA match to the blood sample. Police believe the blood that was found came from a cut on the killer’s hand.
Albert and Janet Martinko died believing they knew who killed their daughter, but there was no evidence tying that man to the crime. If you have any information regarding Michelle’s unsolved murder, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515.725.6010.
https://www.thedarksideofamerica.com/unsolved-michelle-martinko.html
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Short rope tall tree.
No kidding......
How long before “23 and ME” pulls a FACEBOOK and becomes a source for solving this kind of thing....
Between Face and Twit and 23&me there exists a wonderful repository to be combed each and every day/way....
It says her parents died believing they knew who’d murdered their daughter. Did they suspect this guy? If so, why? Was he a friend of the family? An old boyfriend?
Other than DNA at the crime scene , No motive given, no sexual assault, whats the connection between these 2?
CEDAR RAPIDS — Every year, Christmas brings it all back for Janelle Stonebraker. And it’s been 30 years.
About 4 a.m. Dec. 20, 1979, police discovered the body of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot at Westdale Mall. Beautiful and musical, the Kennedy High School senior had been stabbed to death in the family Buick. The case shook Cedar Rapids, and never has been solved.
“I think more of the season than the exact date,” said Stonebraker, Martinko’s sister. “But it’s always with us.”
Stonebraker, 60, was 12 years older than her sister and lived in the Quad Cities with her husband, John. Michelle had been the flower girl in their wedding.
Martinko, 18, had driven to the newly opened mall the night of Dec. 19, 1979, to shop for a winter coat after a school choir banquet. Her body was found early the next morning with multiple stab wounds to her face and chest. Wounds on her hands showed she had fought her killer, but she was not sexually assaulted or robbed. Detectives found no weapon, fingerprints or anything else to identify the killer, and the investigation stalled.
Her parents, Janet and Albert Martinko of Cedar Rapids, never recovered from their younger daughter’s death, Stonebraker said.
“My mother was a very emotional person, she felt everything deeply, and it destroyed her,” Stonebraker said. “My father was consumed with anger, wanted to get the person. My mother just missed Michelle. It absolutely destroyed their lives.”
Michelle was born when her mother was 44. She was a “gift” to the family, Stonebraker said, after her parents had spent years trying to have a second child.
Before the murder, Janet Martinko had been a lively, outgoing woman. Afterward, she didn’t want to be seen in public. She was reluctant even to go to the grocery store. Both Martinkos plunged themselves into painful seclusion and suffered from health problems until their deaths — Al in 1995, Janet in 1998. They went to their graves believing an ex-boyfriend of Michelle’s had killed her, Stonebraker said.
It turned out they were wrong.
In 2006, Doug Larison was the cold case detective for the Cedar Rapids Police Department. He got a tip about a suspicious person connected to the 27-year-old case. Though the tip didn’t produce any solid leads, it gave Larison the chance to take another look at the case file.
He found something no one else had found: The killer’s blood. Though he won’t say where he found it, or how he knows it belongs to the killer, Larison is certain the blood came from a cut on the killer’s hand, and that the killer was a man. Police had the state crime lab extract DNA from the blood and file it in the national computer database of DNA profiles. Of 80 suspects, 60 have been tested and none has been a DNA match. The ex-boyfriend was exonerated.
“It’s not hopeless,” Larison said. “Having the killer’s DNA, having the killer’s blood, is like having the killer himself.”
The best hope for justice is that the Iowa Criminalistics Laboratory in Ankeny will get word of a DNA match between the blood and someone who is arrested in the future. The national database has 5 million DNA profiles on file, but more are added every day.
“I would love to make that call,” Bruce Reeve, administrator of the state crime lab, said.
Martinko was a tall, willowy girl with definite plans to attend Iowa State University and study fashion design, her sister said. She worked at a clothing store in Westdale, sang in the choir, acted in plays and performed in musicals. She was popular with boys but had “kind of a rough time with girls” over one of the boys she started dating in the months before she died, her sister said.
Elizabeth Nemeth of Fairfax, whose maiden name was Laymon, was a year behind Martinko in school but performed with her in choir and drama. The two sometimes drove together to Hardee’s on Center Point Road NE for lunch. She said Martinko didn’t play sports and wasn’t a cheerleader. She had a great sense of humor and was well-liked.
“She was just an ordinary, very pretty, funny girl,” Nemeth, 46, said.
Nemeth remembers the way the media descended on Kennedy High School the day Martinko’s body was discovered, and said she didn’t find out what happened until choir class when Martinko didn’t show up.
Even though they weren’t best friends, Nemeth said Martinko’s death was life-changing for her. Partly it was the brutality. Partly it was that the murderer seemed to have been so dispassionate. He or she just killed. Nothing else.
Nemeth said she became a stickler for meeting her parents’ curfews after the murder. She stopped complaining about her father’s rules. She has told her four children about the murder to show them these things don’t just happen in movies, or big cities, or to bad people.
“It made a difference in how I parented my children. It made a difference in me as a teenager,” Nemeth said. “I can’t fathom it, still.”
https://www.thegazette.com/2009/12/20/30-years-ago-murder-of-teen-haunts-those-who-knew-her
The parents reportedly suspected him. Investigators said the murder appeared to be "personal" in nature...
______________
"Wounds on the teen’s hands showed she fought her killer, but the medical examiner’s office said Michelle was found fully clothed and had not been molested.
Detectives found no weapon or fingerprints to identify her killer, but said Michelle had not been robbed.
Based on the number of stab wounds – particularly to the young woman’s face – police considered the homicide personal in nature."
Albert and Janet Martinko died believing they knew who killed their daughter, but there was no evidence tying that man to the crime.
https://www.thedarksideofamerica.com/unsolved-michelle-martinko.html
Another BTK serial killer? There are lots of unsolved murders in eastern Iowa.
The story says the parents suspected an ex-boyfriend, but that ex-boyfriend was not this guy.
____________
"Before the murder, Janet Martinko had been a lively, outgoing woman. Afterward, she didn’t want to be seen in public. She was reluctant even to go to the grocery store. Both Martinkos plunged themselves into painful seclusion and suffered from health problems until their deaths — Al in 1995, Janet in 1998. They went to their graves believing an ex-boyfriend of Michelle’s had killed her, Stonebraker said.
It turned out they were wrong.
In 2006, Doug Larison was the cold case detective for the Cedar Rapids Police Department. He got a tip about a suspicious person connected to the 27-year-old case. Though the tip didn’t produce any solid leads, it gave Larison the chance to take another look at the case file.
He found something no one else had found: The killer’s blood. Though he won’t say where he found it, or how he knows it belongs to the killer, Larison is certain the blood came from a cut on the killer’s hand, and that the killer was a man.
Police had the state crime lab extract DNA from the blood and file it in the national computer database of DNA profiles. Of 80 suspects, 60 have been tested and none has been a DNA match. The ex-boyfriend was exonerated."
https://www.thegazette.com/2009/12/20/30-years-ago-murder-of-teen-haunts-those-who-knew-her
They knew but could never prove it.
Pays to read article and posts
The story says the parents suspected an ex-boyfriend, but that ex-boyfriend was not this guy.
Yes, I think I got confused there.
This guy would have been 25 (64 now, murder exactly 39 years ago) at the time. And the victim was 18. 7-year gap. Unlikely he was a boyfriend, but not impossible.
“Other than DNA at the crime scene , No motive given, no sexual assault, whats the connection between these 2?”
yeah, DNA all by itself with zero other evidence is unlikely to convict ...
Interesting, though, because there was a fairly well detailed eyewitness report and sketch drawn. Surely, the parents knew of these as they said they thought the ex-boyfriend committed the murder.
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