Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old high school senior, was stabbed to death in her family’s car in the Westdale Mall parking lot in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on December 19, 1979. The case remained unsolved for nearly 40 years until DNA evidence identified Jerry Lynn Burns as her killer, leading to his 2018 arrest and 2020 conviction.​
Crime Details
Martinko attended a choir banquet before heading to the mall around 7:30 p.m. to buy a coat with $186 cash from her mother. Her body, with 29 stab wounds to the face, neck, and chest plus defensive hand injuries, was found at 4 a.m. the next day slumped in the passenger well. No robbery or sexual assault occurred, and rubber glove marks suggested a calculated attack; she had voiced fears of being followed.​
Investigation Breakthrough
Early leads like an ex-boyfriend cleared quickly, stalling the case by 1986. In 2006, Detective Doug Larison rediscovered overlooked blood on the gear shift and her dress, yielding male DNA. Genetic genealogy in 2018 matched it to Burns via a relative’s ancestry database, narrowing to three Iowa brothers; covert samples confirmed Burns.​
Trial and Outcome
Arrested on the 39th anniversary, the reserved business owner from Manchester denied knowing Martinko. Despite friends’ disbelief, jurors convicted him of first-degree murder in 2020 after a Linn County trial, sentencing him to life without parole. He remains imprisoned as of 2025.​
