It was a few days before Christmas and the scene was Westdale Mall. A young girl by the name of Michelle Martinko headed to the mall to go and pick up a coat her mom had put on layaway for her allegedly. Martinko was extremely musical, loved by her classmates, and involved with her school choir. Martinko had not known that December 19, 1979, would be her last day on Earth.
She told one of her ex-boyfriends that she was being stalked by a man at her job. Unfortunately, she had no description of this man or name.
On December 20th, Martinko's body was found in her Buick parked in a parking garage near JC Penney.
She had been stabbed 26 times and the slice that killed her was the one through the heart allegedly.
She bled to death.
According to Harvey Denlinger, an investigator named to the case, "I had never seen anybody stabbed that many times. Something like that wasn't heard of around here."
One thing that stood out was that Martinko had defensive slice wounds on her hand and body.
The question was could her potential wounds have led to an outcome of finding out who her killer was?
Investigators and police worked tirelessly to find a lead to Martinko's murder. No fingerprints, no leads or witnesses. They questioned her ex-boyfriend Andy Seidel but he was cleared.
Denlinger's son Matt was also an investigator and was brought on to the case. In 2005, Detective Doug Larison was put in charge of this case. He had gone to high school with Michelle. With new DNA technology, Larison was starting to put some ideas together.
Martinko had worn a dress the night of the murder and there had been a blood spot on it. In addition, the gearshift on her Buick had some blood stains on it. These blood samples were sent out to Virginia to be tested with new techniques. With Genetic Genealogy, the investigators were able to narrow down the samples to a male.
The samples matched three brothers from the area with the last name of Burns. Two were ruled out immediately except Jerry Burns. His DNA was a match and investigators started zeroing in on him.
Don't forget those cuts on Martinko's hand that allowed her blood and his to be exposed. Again, did she solve her own crime?
Burns was arrested on December 19, 2018, and put into jail. He pleaded not guilty to Martinko's murder. Burn's attorney Leon Spies questioned the integrity of the DNA evidence by saying it wasn't foolproof.
During trial, Prosecutor Nick Maybanks called Burn's cell mate Michael Allison to testify. Allison did and said that Burns had made a weird comment about the mall to him. This was used against Burns in addition to all the DNA evidence.
Within three hours of deliberation, the jury found Burns guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life by the 6th Judicial Judge Fae Hoover.
For the town of Cedar Rapids, IA, Michelle Martinko's murder was the most haunting crime that ever occurred there. Thankfully, it was solved with new DNA technology and science.
Heidi
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