126. Michelle Martinko - The 40-Year-Old Cold Case
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Marland. And I'm Garrett Marland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Well, our Knives Out merch dropped and people should be getting their orders like any day. Some have probably already got it while they're listening to this and I hope you guys are loving them as much as we do. This will come out on Monday, which means the merch will be up for another five to seven days before...

It's taken down. So if you haven't caught it yet, go get it. Also, did you read all the comments? I don't know if everyone saw our promo pictures on Instagram for this drop, but all the comments said Garrett just killed that promotion shoot. That's what I like to hear. Just kidding. No, it was fun though. We had a good time doing that. Okay. Well, I guess that can put us right into your 10 seconds. So the other day I was playing pickleball like I usually do playing pickleball.

And I'm just trying to work on not being so competitive because I get pretty competitive when I play. And I was playing with random people and I was just partnered with some random guy. Hopefully he doesn't listen to this or sorry. But anyways, I was like kind of getting frustrated and mad. And I was just telling Peyton when I got home, I said, I'm so competitive still. Like I still, I don't get...

I don't say anything. Like I don't say anything to people, but it's probably visible like on my face and my actions that like I'm upset. It's not like in high school where I would, I'd get pretty competitive and I would say stuff.

But I don't know. Anyways, I'm just trying to work on not being so competitive, I guess. So that will be my 10 seconds for the day. I'll report to everyone back next week to let everyone know how that's going. And hopefully it's getting better. Here's my question. Are you perfect pickleball player? No, of course not. Okay. So then why be so competitive if you're not perfect? Just get competitive. I get competitive. And I'm like, I'm not actually mad at the person. I'm not mad. Um,

Well, you're mad. You're just not mad at them. But then like after the game, I'll be like, hey man, like what's up? Like I just get competitive. I don't know what it is. And maybe it's normal. Maybe it's not. Maybe I'm just immature still in that sense, but I like to win. But I promise if you ever play pickleball with me, I would never get mad at you. No, that's my thing. You say you're competitive, but I promise anyone who's ever played with you has said you weren't competitive. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't say anything and you would never even know if I was mad at you.

But I feel like inside I get mad. Like I can feel it boiling up inside me. But I'm just like, it's okay. It's just a game. It's not a big deal. Yeah. And I don't even care about losing actually. It's not even that. It's if I'm playing and the game's just like not a good game. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. I don't care. I actually don't care about losing. But if it's like not a good game, then I'm like, well, you're freaking kidding me.

So that's what's been going on this week. I guess 10 seconds of therapy with Garrett and I will report back to everybody next week. Okay. Our case sources for this episode are an A&E killer case, CBS News, thegazette.com, Des Moinesregister.com and Wikipedia. All right. So our case begins in December of 1979.

It's almost Christmas and everyone who celebrates is getting ready and also anticipating the new year. It was the end of the 1970s and also the beginning of your average American family becoming more open to the idea that danger lurked about more commonly than they thought.

The 70s had shown light on serial killers, kidnappings, and crime like never before. But this stunning realization had hit harder in smaller cities around the country because they were the ones who thought they were originally safe. But if there's anything that this podcast has taught us, it's that crime can happen to anyone.

those who are least expecting it, those who live in the safest communities, those who have avoided the topic as a whole, commonly using the phrase, "That would never happen to me."

But then it does, because no one is safe. And one of these small cities that was having a rude awakening to this phenomenon in 1979 was Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa today and is also known as the city of five seasons for the so-called fifth season, which is just time to enjoy the other four.

But back in 1979, everyone in Cedar Rapids was casually living life with their front doors unlocked, but one petty crime after another began to worry the residents as a whole. They believed that they lived in a smaller city so they wouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff, but that just wasn't really true anymore. And then, a week before Christmas in 1979, all of Cedar Rapids' fears about violence within their small town was confirmed.

A high school student named Michelle Martinko went out for a day of shopping and somewhere along the line was brutally murdered. Her body was found stuffed inside her own car in the parking lot. I just want to say, obviously, crime happens. More crime happens in bigger cities usually.

But I feel like in small towns is where I feel like the out of the normal type of murders happen. Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. Interesting. I totally agree with what you're saying because we've visited Wyoming before and people are always like, don't you feel so safe here because we're out in the middle of nowhere. It's small. Like there's not another house within miles. And I'm like,

No, because these are the houses where a whole family gets brutally chopped to death with an ax and no one even knows by who. Like these are the places where this happens. And I know this stuff happens everywhere. I'm just, I don't know. It feels like that. It feels like it's a small town, which if you live in a small town, I'm sure.

We know it's not like that, but kind of. And this is kind of what's going on in Cedar Rapids. It seemed like a nice, kind, young teenager had been randomly targeted by a sick individual. There was no personal motive. Anybody could be next type thing. And it was this fear that had Cedar Rapids holding on tight to Michelle Martinko's name, willing the capture of the hometown murderer.

But time would go on without an arrest and it left everyone wondering, would justice ever be served for Michelle or was this the new town they all lived in? And that is the case we are covering today. So Michelle Martinko was born on October 6th, 1961 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she would tragically later have her life taken from her.

Michelle had one older sister and her parents were Albert and Janet Martinko. And I do want to say Michelle was kind of a miracle baby. They had had a lot of miscarriages before her. So there was a ton of time, ton of years in between her and her older sister. So she was just kind of honestly an only child because she was so much younger and

And as Michelle grew up, she was an above average student who was loved by her teachers. She had beautiful, thick, natural blonde hair and really her beauty made her stand out in a room.

Michelle went on to attend Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, where her grades remained above average. She decided to join the twirling squad as a sophomore and also tried choir and theater productions, which really showcased her natural ability to perform. And it was almost this picture perfect life that hurt Michelle in high school. Is twirling like color guard?

I think so. I think so. Michelle kind of found it hard to find good friends who wouldn't eventually bring up her looks.

and her talents and use them against her. She even lost friends when she began dating a boy and that relationship was quote, "too perfect." But these kinds of high school issues were nothing compared to what other people go through. And by her senior year, she still had ambition and plans to leave and go on with life. She wanted to attend Iowa State University and study interior design, which she felt like she had an eye for.

Michelle actually loved fashion and enjoyed putting together stylish outfits. And it was this love that landed her at the mall on December 19th, 1979. That day had been like any other until the evening when Michelle actually attended a banquet for the high school choir at the Sheridan Inn in Cedar Rapids.

She wore a black jersey dress with a black scarf, black tights and heels, layered a waist-length white and brown rabbit fur jacket on top and carried a brown leather purse on her arm. And the only reason I'm listing this so specifically is because her outfit was so cute. Looking at the pictures, like something I would definitely wear today. So I...

I want everyone to know that this is, when I say she goes shopping to the mall, this is totally her thing. She's a very girly girl. - She's a fashionista. - Yes. So after the choir event at the local hotel, Michelle asked her friend and twirling squad teammate if she wanted to go shopping with her to the new Westdale Mall that had just opened in Cedar Rapids.

And now as far as the setting goes, I'm totally thinking the Stranger Things mall here, like in the later seasons. A brand new shiny Westdale mall with all of the 80s vibes that has just opened in Cedar Rapids. It's got Gap. It's got JCPenney. Westdale mall is all the rage with the teenagers, but most likely the local stores hate it because it's putting ma and pa shops out of business.

So just so we have a setting here. And according to some sources, Michelle actually might have worked at the Westdale Mall. But I also heard her sister say in an interview that this was her first time there. So I'm not sure. I'm just putting both sources out.

Michelle that night tells her friend to come. She actually has $180 in her brown leather purse that she intends on using for a new winter coat. That's pretty good. I think that's an expensive coat nowadays, especially in the 80s. But her friend declines. So Michelle goes alone that night after her choir banquet.

Michelle arrives at the mall and visits the stores she wants, making sure to stop and speak with friends and people she knew who worked at the mall. Between 8 and 9 p.m., someone spots Michelle outside of a jewelry store in the mall, and after that, she runs into a boy from class named Kurt Jones.

thomas who she was friends with they had actually been in a school play together so they knew each other pretty well kurt was working at a men's clothing store in the mall and after running into michelle they talked for a while but it was getting late and michelle was ready to go home so thomas walked her to the mall exit kurt watched from the mall doors as michelle turned around and gave him one last smile and then walked towards her car that he couldn't see

But that was the last time Michelle would ever be seen alive again. Okay, so just to clarify, she was walking to her car and then she was never seen again? Yes. Okay. So around 2 a.m. that night, after much fretting and pacing, Michelle's father finally reports her missing to police.

He and the police went out together and began searching for her. And around 4 a.m., police find the Martinko family's tan and green 1972 Buick in the northeast corner of the mall parking lot by JCPenney. And as they approached the vehicle with flashlights, they peered inside the window and jumped back.

A body was laid face down over the passenger seat. There was blood everywhere. Police opened the vehicle door and eventually confirmed it was 18-year-old Michelle Martinko, and she was dead. Oh, okay, so she...

Wasn't never seen again. She just wasn't seen again alive. Got it. Right. Okay. So after medical examination, it was determined that Michelle had been stabbed 29 times in her face, neck and chest. I hate these. I know. There were defensive wounds on her hands, which means she fought back. She had quite literally fought for her life while being stabbed 29 times. Horrible.

Police determined that the murder had taken place inside of the car because of the amount of blood. And it was estimated that she died between 8 and 10 p.m. that night. That means Michelle was attacked between the time she waved goodbye to Kurt and walked to her car. Think about how short...

She waves goodbye to him. And then from the time she waves goodbye and gets to her car, she's attacked and stabbed 29 times inside her car. I was going to say inside her car. That's so weird. Right. As well. I don't know how crowded it still was, but there's probably other cars around, I assume.

I mean, it was late. It was between 8 and 10 p.m., most likely around 8. You don't have the mall closed? I don't know what time the mall closed, but I know people were already leaving at this point. And also, I think, you know, kind of going back to what we were talking about before, where everyone used to...

live with their front doors unlocked, their windows unlocked. Kids used to go out all the time by themselves. And I'm not saying that doesn't still happen, but it was just more common back then. And with that also, I think women didn't used to get in their cars and immediately lock their door. Yeah. Because I do that. I get in the car and immediately

immediately lock the doors. I go as quick as I can and I don't know if that was a thing that used to happen all of the time. Investigators determined that the murder weapon was a sharp pointed object but they couldn't definitively say it was a knife or the size of the weapon.

They just knew she was stabbed with something. There were no fingerprints in the car, which led investigators to believe the killer had worn gloves, which was pretty technically advanced given the time period. I feel like now most people know, okay, you need to wear a hazmat suit if you're going to commit a murder. But back then, killers didn't even know DNA could be tested so vigorously. So I think this is pretty advanced.

Upon autopsy, the medical examiner did not believe Michelle Martinko had been sexually assaulted. She was found fully clothed inside of her car. So strange. It was also preplanned, of course. Because of the gloves, right? And the $180 was found inside of her purse when police discovered her body. So robbery was not a motive either. Yeah, so someone just wanted to kill her.

And this is so confusing to police when it comes to investigation. This means that the person who did this either knew Michelle and was exacting revenge, like they were mad at her, wanted to get back at her for something, or the motive was purely murder, which is very rare without sexual assault. Like it's very rare for a killer to purely just want to murder someone and there be no sexual gratification along with it, that the murder itself is the sexual gratification, and that's pretty rare.

And I mean, they couldn't even definitively say whether it was a male or a female now who had done it. Everyone leaned towards a man. But how do you say that for sure? This could easily have been a jealous girl who stabbed her. And no, there were no surveillance cameras in the parking lot of the new mall and they couldn't find any eyewitnesses because it was dark. I figured because of the time period, there were no cameras. Right.

So because of the lack of motive and the brutality in the case, police decided that they needed to learn all they could about Michelle. Does she have enemies? Does she have secrets? This just all seemed a little too personal. I mean, 29 stab wounds is pretty intense. And it was while digging into Michelle's life that they learned about a possible suspect.

An ex-boyfriend named Andy. And it was actually Michelle's family, including her sister and brother-in-law, who really believed Andy had done this. Okay. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com/husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com/husband. - There was really no one else that they could think of that would have been angry with Michelle. And Andy and Michelle had gone through a pretty nasty breakup that Andy really struggled with. So they were kind of like jealous ex-boyfriend. This all kind of makes sense.

Almost a, if I can't have her, no one can, was his attitude after the breakup. And while police were following up with the family's concerns, they were also interested in Kurt Thomas, the fellow classmate that had supposedly been the last person to talk to her, to see her walking to her car that night. Kurt was taken to the police station the next morning before he even knew Michelle had been murdered. They sat him down and asked him point blank, why did you kill Michelle? And he was like, she's dead.

I had no idea. I just saw her last night. But here's the issue with cases like this. With no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses, and no DNA that they could test,

without a confession how are you supposed to prove anything yeah you can't prove anything right there's nothing to tie someone to the murder also the two suspects the moment seem a little too obvious for me okay i don't know yeah i mean i feel like it usually is the obvious so maybe that's dumb for saying right but it just seems odd i mean usually it is the ex-boyfriend or the husband or something like that it just i don't know it seems a little off though right

So because there was no way to even prove, even though they had suspects, Kurt and Andy were both released. Police turned to the public for tips. Had anyone seen anything? Had they missed anything? More than 200 people responded to the police with information concerning the case. And with that, police began interviewing people and several were cleared of suspicion through polygraph tests.

It was around this point that rumors and theories began spreading through the town that got back to Michelle's family, which added salt to the wound. And I think this is something that we as true crime and victim supporters can be more conscious of and really help out with.

It's in the midst of an investigation, debating possibilities and repeating rumors can be really hurtful to those involved. And I think instead focusing our energy on mourning, honoring or finding a victim is time better spent. Michelle's family heard through the gossip mill everything from drug rings to sex work about their murdered daughter. One who they really just needed and wanted justice for at this point.

And to add on top of that, it's something we've seen before that I'll never understand. The family began receiving prank calls from people pretending to be the killer or even worse, pretending to be Michelle. It's so ridiculous that people do that. And honestly, this still happens today. It's just usually like tweets instead of calls now, but it's gross now.

We have to remember these people are real. It's not just a story. These people are hurting and I don't understand why someone would ever call and do that. So as the investigation drowned on, the community struggled to understand the brutality of it all just a few days before Christmas now. I mean, a teenager had been stabbed to death in her car in the mall parking lot.

You got to understand.

I don't know how you figure out who it is. Right. Unless you find the gloves in the trash. Right. Or you find bloody clothes somewhere. A murder weapon. A murder weapon. A murder weapon. A murder weapon. I don't know how you figure it out. Right. And pretty soon, days turned to months, turned to a year. No leads, nothing. Michelle's mother did an interview explaining that she does not see the case closing. She had lost all hope in finding answers about who killed her daughter. Right.

And then another year passed and another, and then eventually a decade had passed with nothing, no movement in the case. The 2000s came along. 9-11 took place, wounding America. Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast in 2005. America goes to war with Iraq,

For years during this time, CSI would be the most watched television show as people's interest in crime gained more popularity. And week after week, viewers would watch as CSI solved case after case. But back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Michelle's case remained unsolved, completely cold.

That was until 2006. Holy crap. In a very CSI-like episode, something happened in Michelle's case that would change everything. In 2006, when new investigators were reexamining evidence in Michelle's cold case, they discovered something on Michelle's black dress, the one she'd been wearing while she was attacked.

Lab analysts re-examined it and discovered uncollected DNA. And if you're like, wait, how could they not find this before? - Yeah, how does that happen? - I thought the same thing, but it was blood.

So it was blood mixed in with all of her blood. And they just happened to test this little piece and discovered this isn't from Michelle. This blood on this dress does not belong to Michelle, which is very intricate testing. How was it not contaminated, right? I think I would assume it'd be contaminated if it was mixed in with other blood. Right. So as they're reprocessing everything, I think even...

before the dress, they found blood in the car as well. There was some blood on the gear shift. They just went through and began retesting everything, right? Because it's a cold case. It's been years and years and years. And so they're like, we're going to reopen it. They just assumed it was all her blood.

I guess. Assumed it was all her blood. They begin testing all of the blood in the car, find some that doesn't belong to her on the gear shift, test her dress, find more blood on the dress. This is when they figure out whoever stabbed Michelle that night in the car, because there was a fight, she was being defensive, most likely cut themselves and bled on the crime scene. But this is an easy thing to miss when you have so much blood in the car.

Because of this, though, they now have the killer's DNA. They now have the killer's DNA in evidence. But it doesn't do any good if it doesn't match with someone. Which they run it through CODIS and it doesn't. I'm starting to figure this out. Right. But they know, well, we have our two suspects, Andy and Kurt. Uh-huh.

I mean, it's been years. These men are now grown, have families, you know what I mean? But we can still test this DNA against them. That would be so freaking weird being one of them and then being tested, what, 30 years later? Yeah. Not 30, but close. Close to 30. I guess 30 years later. Yeah. That would be so, especially if it turns out to be them right now, that would, I mean, good. Right. If they kill them, I don't care, but it would just be so weird to live this entire life. They're probably, what, in their...

40s, 50s now or something. And now... Yeah, let's see. Well, she was 18 and it's been almost 30 years. Yeah. They're almost 40 years old-ish. And then all of a sudden you just get sent to jail. That's crazy. So quickly, DNA from boyfriend Andy and Kurt Thomas were in line to be collected. Yeah.

And so they collect Andy's DNA and it was not Andy, the boyfriend. - Which I figured it wasn't. - No, they compared his DNA to the killer's DNA on the dress and in the car and it was not a match.

Next was Kurt. So they call Kurt up, but his response to the DNA request stunned investigators. This is Kurt Thomas, who she was in the play with, who was the last to see her that night. He says, no, he would not willingly volunteer his DNA to be compared to the killer's DNA in this case. Which I don't find too... Okay, yes, it's alarming, but... I agree with you. I'm team me. I feel like at this point,

And I guess 2006, so it's different. But now I feel like if someone called me for anything, I'd be like, I'm getting my attorney. Right. Like, even if I know I didn't do it. Right, right. I would advise the same. I don't want, I don't know. Are you going to like...

Plant evidence? Plant evidence. I don't know what's going on. Right. And this is what he says. He says they would need a warrant, which you're like, okay, this is 2006. This is pretty before his time. Which is why it seems guilty to me. Kurt Thomas was older and he was married to a judge. So when she heard about the call, she said, absolutely not. You make them get a warrant. Okay, that makes more sense now. Which is why he said no. So when police called and asked for his DNA and his judge wife said, absolutely not. Kurt Thomas,

read his statement from his lawyer to the officer. He's like, listen, here's what my lawyer said. This is why I'm not giving you my DNA. And there was silence on the other end of the phone. And then on the other end of the line, Kurt heard the detective say, we got our effing killer.

He told Kurt not only were they going to come back with a warrant for his DNA, they were also going to come back with an arrest warrant because they now knew who was good for this. You can't do that. No. So after much back and forth between Kurt's lawyer and police, Kurt just decided to relent and give a sample. He promised his wife, listen, it's not a match. We've caused enough ruckus now. They're not probably going to try to plant anything. I think we're safe. I'm just going to give it.

i'm kind of nervous and when the results come back police call kurt's lawyer and tell him he was not a match and that was it end of conversation i'm kind of glad it wasn't him right so the top two suspects in this case for years i mean these guys always had this hanging over their head especially andy the boyfriend everyone in town was kind of like well it was the boyfriend well it was the boyfriend so for years they've had this hanging over the over their heads and then in a matter of one test they've been cleared

Police were back to square one, but at least this time they had a DNA profile, which means once you find the person, it's a done deal. Basically, hundreds of suspects were tested.

Classmates, men in her life, even her brother-in-law. All of these people were tested and hundreds of people were cleared. - Jeez, it's gotta be someone random. - And because of this, the case goes cold. But if you remember, police don't think it's someone random because there was no sexual assaults, there was no robbery. It was just 29 stab wounds, which again is very intimate killing. Nine years later in 2015,

a detective named Matt Dellinger decided to open the cold case. His father had been an original detective on the case and Matt was a young boy when this happened. And now he grew up, he became a detective following in his father's footsteps. And once he got there, he said, I'm closing this case. I want to close this case badly. Matt's wife had asked if he could possibly turn the DNA into Parabon Nano Labs and have them make an image of

from the DNA. Now we've talked about Parabon before, but I'll say it again, just to remind everyone. Parabon NanoLabs is so cool. They can take a DNA profile and determine what the profile would look like in human form, all the way from skin color, eye color, hair color, bone structure, everything. So they take DNA and turn it into a human. - That's so crazy. - It's so crazy.

And from that, a big press release was held and Cedar Rapids police released three different sketches from the Parabon Nano Lab results. They're like, listen, we have the killer's DNA and this is what we think he looked like.

Can anyone come forward? Does anyone know anyone who looked like this in Cedar Rapids at the time of the murder? They had basically built a suspect sketch without an eyewitness. And now it was just up to the public to come forward. But the issue was 200 people called in and claimed the sketch looked like 200 different people. And it didn't really yield the leads the police wanted it to.

And again, for four more years, the case goes cold. How did 200 people call in and say everyone thinks a different person? Right. How does that happen? I don't know. But then in 2018, when Detective Matt Dellinger heard about the capture of the Golden State Killer using familial DNA, a revolution in solving cold cases, the first of its kind, he was like,

Maybe we could do this. A distant family member submits their DNA into a genealogy database and police can work through the family tree to find the killer. This is what had happened in the Golden State Killer. It wasn't even really police who created this technique. It was a small group of scientists who were helping people find long lost parents or siblings. So

These scientists get together. They're all, they're all into family trees and whatnot. And people come forward and say, Hey, I was adopted. I'm trying to find this, or I think I have a sister. Can you help me? And they would take DNA tested in the people had turned in and use it to connect people together. Right. Yeah. And then when police find out that the scientists, these citizen scientists are doing this, they go, Oh,

- Wait. - Why don't we have this? - Why aren't we testing our DNA against these and building family trees like they're doing? And that was how the Golden State Killer was found, was because of this. And that really just set a precedent for all cases around that, hey, we might be able to close a bunch of cold cases by using this method.

So Matt Dellinger decided he wanted to try it on Michelle's case. They had nothing to lose. And that was when police discovered a partial match from their killer to a woman living in Washington state. A woman. I, ah.

I thought it was a man. I don't know why. Well, this woman is a second cousin once removed to their killer. Okay. So they still don't, well actually at this point that they've tested DNA, they know it's a male. They know it's because of the blood. So they know it's a male, but they find whoever this DNA belongs to, the killer's DNA has a second cousin once

once removed in Washington State. - So they wanna talk to her, obviously. - They're gonna go talk to her. They're gonna say, "Who's your parents?" And they're gonna start creating a family tree. This match helped them build a family tree using genealogy work. And with this discovery, police broke the news to Michelle's sister that although it defied logic, they really don't believe she knew her killer based off of this tree. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work.

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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. So once they get going on this family tree, they go back to Michelle's sister and they say, I know this whole time we've been thinking that she knew her killer, but no one in this tree knew your sister. So maybe it was random. Yeah.

No one ran in her circle. No one was her age. No one even lived in Cedar Rapids or had a connection to the Westdale Mall. And although they felt the attack was personal, there was no robbery or sexual assault. Maybe the motive all along had just been murder.

So after much back and forth, the family tree led police to three brothers living in the small town of Manchester, Iowa, which is roughly 45 minutes from Cedar Rapids. And one of these three brothers was most likely Michelle's killer. Police had narrowed it down.

These brothers were Jerry Burns, Kenneth Burns, or Donald Burns. When police looked into each brother, they were sure that one of them would have a record, which would make it easier for them to narrow down the suspect easier.

But that wasn't the case. None of the Burns brothers had records. All three of them were successful entrepreneurs who owned small businesses. This was just not the profile they were expecting to find. This is so strange. Two of them lived in Manchester and one in Davenport. But which brother had killed Michelle? Cedar Rapids police detectives make their way to Manchester in secret.

They didn't want anyone knowing that they were on the hunt, that they had narrowed it down this much. So do you think they're going to question them or are, well, you know the answer, obviously. Right. Or I guess I'm questioning. Are they going to question them or are they going to get their blood, their DNA? Yeah.

So what is their goal here? What are they trying to do? So I guess maybe you don't know this, but the Golden State Killer police sat on who they thought it was for the longest time. And I think I could be wrong, but it was something along these lines. He threw out a cigarette, but they collected the cigarette. But and that was how they're going to stalk him. They are going to stalk all three brothers and sneakily somehow collect their DNA. Okay.

So they begin discreetly attempting to collect DNA from all three brothers, starting with Kenneth Burns. They followed him around for a day until he finally went and had lunch at a golf course clubhouse. And as soon as he left, they made their way to his table and collected the straw he had been drinking out of. Police rushed the straw back to Cedar Rapids and within days were comparing Kenneth's sample against the DNA from Michelle's case. It was...

was not a match. So one brother crossed off the list. Kenneth Burns was not the brother who had killed Michelle Martinko. They moved on to Donald Burns. They waited outside his home until he dragged his trash can to the curb. They then secretly dug through the trash and actually found a glass and a toothbrush they were able to collect. They compared the DNA from both items to the DNA in their case. It was not a match. That left only one brother, Jerry Burns. Okay.

Police watched Jerry go to the Pizza Ranch buffet for lunch and decided to, like Kenneth, collect his straw after he had finished eating.

The DNA was rushed back and police received the information they had been waiting for. It was a match. Jerry Burns' DNA was on Michelle Martinko's dress and in her car from the night she was murdered almost 40 years earlier. That is insane. That's insane to me. Right, but who is this? Who's Jerry? This whole thing is crazy. It's crazy that one, they found him.

It's just crazy that, I mean, your DNA just matches you. I mean, I know that that sounds so dumb to say, but I mean, it just does. Right. Like it doesn't change. Like that blood there on the dress, you aren't changing in the next 30 years. Like it's still matching you. And that is so, that's so cool. So Jerry Lynn Burns was born December 23rd, 1953, and he was 25 years old at the time of the murder. Okay.

He lived in Manchester when police collected his DNA and he owned a powder coating business. When police confirmed it was his DNA, they made their way out to Manchester to confront Jerry, who is now in his 60s. Wow. He was at his office and they conduct this interview on December 19th, the anniversary of Michelle's murder. So imagine this.

Imagine Jerry sitting there and police finally waltzing in to ask him about a crime that had happened 40 years earlier. I wish I knew what was running through his head in that moment. Was it, oh crap, like freaking out, oh my gosh. Or was it more like, well, dang, they finally got me. The day has come 40 years earlier and the day I've been dreading is here.

There's actually undercover footage of this interview and it was very eerie to watch as they go in and start talking to him about the murder. And you know, you know that he knows and you know, police know, and it's just, it's uncomfortable to watch. But Jerry, during this whole thing seems really quiet. He says he's heard of the case, but he has never seen Michelle before. Then Matt Dellinger tells Jerry after they collect his DNA again, that he believes this DNA will match the DNA in Michelle's case.

And Jerry plays dumb and remains quiet. Matt tells him, actually, I don't think it's going to match. I know your DNA is going to match because we've already collected your DNA. We already collected your DNA and compared it and we know it matches.

And Jerry still plays dumb and states, well, he wasn't there that night and they just need to retest the DNA. He does seem very calm and quiet considering the fact that police just waltzed into his office accusing him of a murder that happened 40 years earlier. I mean, I think if it were me, I would be freaking out. Like what the, no, I didn't do this. I need a lawyer. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who that girl is. 40 years ago, what's going on?

But he doesn't. He kind of just sits there and he never, ever once questions why police are like, why? Why me? He never once asked that question. So at the end of the interview, police arrest Jerry for the murder and the news finally breaks. Someone had been arrested for Michelle Martinko's murder almost 40 years after the fact. Surprised he didn't lawyer up. Well, not yet. Not during that interview. Obviously, after he was arrested, he did.

But the public was shocked. I mean, think about this. Think about this news of everyone grew up knowing this girl had been murdered and it had remained unsolved. And now 40 years later, familial DNA just solved this case. - For the family too. They've got to be like, what? - Right. So Jerry was taken to trial with one of the best defense lawyers in Iowa. He was claiming innocence. He was claiming he had no part of it that somehow that DNA had just got there.

It was transferred. He was never in the car. Yeah, that was his defense. Now imagine Michelle's family sitting in the courtroom watching Jerry walk in. This guy who looks normal, just looking at him and knowing he had done this. It's so complex, the feelings that are involved there.

Kurt Thomas actually testified about how heavily it had affected him that if he had just walked Michelle to her car that night, none of this would have happened. That's so hard. But you can't put that on you. How were you to know? And Andy, boyfriend Andy, testified about what an amazing person Michelle had been.

Jerry Burns' cellmate testified that once Jerry was arrested, Jerry told him no matter the outcome of the trial, he felt like he still wins because it had been 40 years and he had been free and lived a good life. So... Disgusting. Disgusting, but also I wonder why...

Why do they talk to their cellmates like this? Because I think... Do they not realize how many cellmates turn and testify? Like so many. Because they can't. They literally, they want to brag. Yeah, yeah. It's just, it's who they are. So after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Burns guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jerry had actually previously been married to a woman who took her own life in 2008 and

And Jerry's cousin, Brian Burns, mysteriously went missing on December 19th, 2013, which is the anniversary of Michelle's murder. So he kills Michelle in 1979. And then on the same day in 2013, his cousin mysteriously goes missing. But police have come forward and said they don't think Jerry was involved in Brian's disappearance or his wife's suicide. They think that, you know, but I still think it's a little weird that

There were computer searches on Jerry's computer that weren't entered as evidence into trial, but these searches were like sex with a dead person, specifically a blonde girl. - Wow. - So this speaks to perverse thoughts and a possible motive. - What in the world?

It makes everyone think, are there other murders in Iowa that could be linked to Jerry? Because is it possible that Jerry could so violently kill a girl in his 20s and then never do it again? Yeah, they just grow out of it. That seems strange. That doesn't make sense. It seems weird. But if there are other murders that are unsolved that are linked to him, police haven't come forward and said it. Did he give a reason why? He didn't. No, because he's claiming innocence still. Okay.

Loser, man. I know. I hate that. So here's the devastating part. Michelle's parents were actually not alive in 2018. And they died without knowing who killed their daughter because they had actually died before the new DNA was found. Because if you remember, Michelle was kind of a miracle child. So her parents were older when they had her. So they left Earth without answers, without knowing what had happened. Right.

Michelle's sister talks about how it really ruined her parents' lives. She claimed they never felt peace again, which hurts me because I think it's so unfair that someone can literally take that from so many people. He didn't just kill Michelle. He killed her parents as well. Michelle's mother wrote in her diary before dying that she thought it was Andy, the ex-boyfriend.

And now think of Andy hearing that Michelle's parents died thinking he killed their daughter. Think of the torment that alone causes. I was gonna say both of them, Kurt and Andy for 30 years,

People were giving them crap. People were all over them. Everyone assumed that they had did it and they had nothing to do with it, which sucks. It sucks. It sucks. It affects your life. Yeah.

And as soon as he finished testifying, he left town to get a break. He was like, I've got to get out of here. And Michelle's sister actually tried to

talked to him before he left to apologize for the fact that she and her family for so long had blamed him, but she never could get a hold of him. Michelle was a bright, beautiful girl with a life ahead of her when Jerry Burns unjustly took her life for a moment of pleasure. And I was thinking about this as I was researching this case. It's not even pleasure. It's like...

I mean, you could say pleasure, but. Well, it's pleasure to him. To him, which is just the most disgusting thing ever. And that's what I mean. You, for 15 minutes of pleasure, these murderers take people's lives. Which is weird. I don't understand it. And that, think about that. Think about that trade-off and how gross and just unjust that is.

It's not fair. It sucks. But today we can take a moment to remember Michelle, the person she was, how beautiful, how bright the life she had ahead of her. And we can also think of her family, her parents, her living relatives that still hurt for her today. And we can use this case and remember her for who she was and who she is. And that is the story of Michelle Martinko. Any of the murders that have to do with stabbing someone, like,

dozens of times is something that is like just out of this world. It just doesn't seem possible to me. Can't even wrap your mind around it. And I also think for him to claim innocence and then also going back to the fact that he never did this again, but you already said in this case, this was pre-planned. He showed up with gloves. He was hunting that night and he found Michelle. So to me,

I just don't think this was his only kill. I know. I don't think so either. I really don't. I'm pretty convinced that he probably did this again. Yep. And he left his hometown to go to Cedar Rapids. So most likely he left Manchester again, went somewhere else and killed again. And it's just impossible to tie. You know, how are you supposed to know? Either way, that was Michelle's case. And I guess we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.