The Michelle Martinko Murder: How Parabon DNA Solved Cedar Rapids’ 1979 Cold Case

On the frigid night of December 19, 1979, 18-year-old Cedar Rapids high school senior Michelle Martinko was found stabbed to death inside her family’s Buick in the Westdale Mall parking lot. The savage attack—involving 29 knife wounds—shocked Iowa and sparked one of the longest investigations in state history. In December 2018, exactly thirty-nine years to the day of the crime, Cedar Rapids Police and Parabon NanoLabs arrested 65-year-old Manchester business owner Jerry Lynn Burns, cracking the Michelle Martinko murder through genetic genealogy.

The Westdale Mall Stabbing: December 1979

Michelle Martinko had visited the newly opened Westdale Mall to shop for a winter coat following a high school choir banquet. When she failed to return home by 2:00 AM, her parents reported her missing. Hours later, police located the Martinko Buick in the outer parking lot. Inside, Michelle lay slumped between the front seats, having suffered 29 stab wounds.

The killer took no valuables, leaving money in Michelle’s purse, indicating the attack was motivated by pure violence. In 2005, criminalists extracted a partial male blood profile from Michelle’s dress, proving the killer had cut himself during the violent assault.

The Parabon Genetic Genealogy Breakthrough

In 2018, Cedar Rapids Police Investigator Matt Denlinger submitted the crime scene DNA to Parabon NanoLabs. Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore analyzed the matches on GEDmatch, tracing the genetic lineage to a common set of great-grandparents in northeast Iowa.

Moore narrowed the suspect pool down to three brothers who grew up in Delaware County, Iowa. The oldest brother, Jerry Lynn Burns, was an unblemished local business owner who had never appeared on law enforcement’s radar in 1979.

The Pizza Ranch Soda Straw Sting

In October 2018, undercover Cedar Rapids detectives shadowed Burns to a Pizza Ranch restaurant in Manchester, Iowa. When Burns finished his meal and discarded a plastic beverage cup and drinking straw, detectives retrieved the items.

State Crime Lab analysts extracted DNA from the straw. The result was indisputable: Burns’s DNA matched the bloodstains on Michelle Martinko’s dress with a statistical certainty of 1 in 100 billion.

Arrest on the 39th Anniversary and Conviction

On December 19, 2018—exactly 39 years to the calendar date of the murder—police arrested Jerry Burns at his powder-coating business. In February 2020, a Linn County jury convicted Burns of first-degree murder. Judge Fae Hoover-Grinde sentenced him to mandatory life imprisonment without parole.

Forensic Serology & Crime Scene Processing at Westdale Mall

The murder of eighteen-year-old high school senior Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids’ Westdale Mall on December 19, 1979, was an intensely violent crime that produced vital physical evidence. Martinko was discovered slumped over the front seat of her family’s 1972 Buick Electra, having suffered twenty-nine stab wounds to her face, neck, and chest. Cedar Rapids Police detectives and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) technicians recovered bloodstains from the vehicle’s gearshift lever and the victim’s dress.

Initial serological analysis confirmed that the blood on the gearshift and dress belonged to an unknown male with Type O blood, distinct from Martinko’s Type A blood. The DCI crime laboratory preserved these bloodstains on cloth swatches in temperature-controlled evidence lockers, enabling modern forensic scientists to extract a pure, single-source male STR DNA profile decades later.

Parabon Snapshot Phenotyping & Genetic Genealogy Triangulation

In 2006, the male profile was entered into CODIS without generating a hit. In 2015, Cedar Rapids Police partnered with Parabon NanoLabs to generate a Snapshot DNA phenotyping composite, predicting that the killer had fair skin, blue or green eyes, blond or light brown hair, and German ancestry. In 2018, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore analyzed hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on GEDmatch, identifying three brothers residing in Iowa: the Burns brothers.

Cedar Rapids Police detectives placed the primary suspect, Jerry Lynn Burns, under covert surveillance in Manchester, Iowa. On October 29, 2018, investigators watched Burns drink from a plastic soda straw at a local Pizza Ranch restaurant and retrieve it from his discarded cup. DCI forensic analysts extracted DNA from the straw, which matched the 1979 crime scene bloodstains with statistical odds exceeding 1 in 100 billion, leading directly to Burns’s arrest and conviction for first-degree murder.

The Westdale Mall Homicide & The Conviction of Jerry Burns

The 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko in Cedar Rapids was solved thirty-nine years later through the integration of Parabon Snapshot phenotyping, genetic genealogy, and undercover surveillance. Detective Matt Denlinger and CeCe Moore tracked the suspect’s DNA to Jerry Lynn Burns.

Detectives collected a discarded soda straw used by Burns at a Pizza Ranch buffet, confirming an exact STR match to the crime scene bloodstains. In 2020, a Linn County jury convicted Burns of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment without parole.

The Linn County Prosecution & The Forensic Certainty of STR Profiling

The trial and conviction of Jerry Lynn Burns in February 2020 for the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko showcased the absolute statistical precision of modern DNA science. Cedar Rapids Police investigators and Iowa DCI criminalists presented overwhelming physical proof linking Burns’s discarded straw to the bloodstains found on the victim’s dress.

The mandatory life sentence without parole ended four decades of uncertainty for the Cedar Rapids community.

Linn County Crime Scene Processing at Westdale Mall

The murder of Michelle Martinko inside her family’s car at Westdale Mall on December 19, 1979, yielded critical bloodstains on the gearshift lever and dress. Iowa DCI serologists preserved cloth swatches for thirty-nine years under climate-controlled conditions.

Parabon Snapshot Phenotyping & The Pizza Ranch Surveillance

Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore identified Jerry Lynn Burns through GEDmatch family trees. Detectives collected a discarded soda straw used by Burns at an Iowa restaurant, confirming an exact STR match with odds of 1 in 100 billion and resulting in Burns’s conviction for first-degree murder.

Forensic Serology & Crime Scene Reconstruction at Westdale Mall

Physical evidence recovered from Michelle Martinko’s 1972 Buick Electra on December 20, 1979, included bloodstains on the gearshift lever, steering wheel, and the victim’s dress. Iowa DCI forensic serologists determined the foreign blood belonged to a male with Type O blood, distinct from the victim’s Type A blood.

In 2018, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore constructed family trees on GEDmatch that identified Jerry Lynn Burns. Undercover detectives retrieved a discarded soda straw used by Burns at an Iowa Pizza Ranch, confirming a 100% STR match that led to his first-degree murder conviction and mandatory life sentence.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Scene Forensics

The post-mortem examination of Michelle Martinko in December 1979 documented twenty-nine sharp force puncture wounds to the chest and neck. DCI criminalists preserved bloodstains on cloth swatches from the 1972 Buick Electra, ensuring that foreign male DNA remained shielded from thermal degradation across four decades.

The Linn County Jury Verdict & Mandatory Life Sentence

During the February 2020 trial in Cedar Rapids, prosecutors presented overwhelming statistical proof from state DNA experts demonstrating that the odds of the blood belonging to someone other than Jerry Lynn Burns were 1 in 100 billion. Burns was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole, concluding thirty-nine years of community uncertainty.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Serology Integrity

The conviction of Jerry Lynn Burns in the 1979 Michelle Martinko homicide established the undisputed reliability of 16-locus Short Tandem Repeat profiling when applied to decades-old cloth bloodstains preserved under continuous climate control.

Cedar Rapids Police Department Evidence Custody Protocols

The preservation of cloth swatches from Michelle Martinko’s vehicle in 1979 under continuous climate control established the gold standard for long-term evidence storage in Iowa, enabling conclusive DNA matching across four decades.

Case Timeline & Key Forensic Milestones

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who killed Michelle Martinko?

Jerry Lynn Burns, a 65-year-old business owner from Manchester, Iowa, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Michelle Martinko in 1979.

How was Jerry Burns identified after 39 years?

Cedar Rapids Police used Parabon genetic genealogy to narrow suspects to the Burns family, confirming his identity via DNA collected from a discarded soda straw.

What sentence was imposed on Jerry Burns?

Burns was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in August 2020.