Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old high school senior, was stabbed to death on December 19, 1979, in the parking lot of Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She had gone to buy a coat after a choir banquet and was found around 4 a.m. the next day in her family’s Buick Electra, collapsed in the passenger area with 29 stab wounds to her face, neck, and chest, plus defensive wounds on her hands. No robbery occurred despite $186 in her purse, and she was not sexually assaulted; evidence like rubber glove marks suggested a calculated attacker.​
Case Goes Cold
Investigators initially questioned friends and an ex-boyfriend, but alibis cleared them, leaving the case unsolved by 1986. A key break came in 2006 when cold case detective Doug Larison rediscovered blood evidence from the car’s gear shift and her dress, revealing male DNA that went untested for years. The case stalled further until advanced familial DNA analysis in 2018 linked it to Jerry Lynn Burns from Manchester, Iowa, via covert samples like a discarded cup.​
Arrest and Conviction
Burns was arrested on the 39th anniversary in 2018 and convicted of first-degree murder in February 2020 after a trial in Davenport, Iowa. He received a mandatory life sentence without parole in August 2020, despite claiming no knowledge of Martinko; his DNA matched perfectly, and he offered no explanation. Burns showed little emotion during interrogation, repeatedly saying “Test the DNA,” which confirmed the match. As of recent reports, he remains imprisoned, with no successful appeals noted.
