Naman Shrestha
NBC’s ‘Dateline: And Then There Were Three’ chronicles the mysterious and decades-long murder case of an 18-year-old high school senior named Michelle Martinko. When she was discovered dead in December 1979 outside of a mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the entire community was left shell-shocked. What followed was a nearly four-decade-long investigation that involved eliminating multiple suspects and utilizing advanced DNA technology to identify the perpetrator. The documentary also features insightful interviews with Michelle’s loved ones and the officials linked to the investigation.
Michelle Martinko’s Mall Visit For a Winter Coat Ended in Tragedy
Born on October 6, 1961, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Albert Francis Martinko and Janet Ann Zillig Martinko, Michelle Marie Martinko was brought up alongside an older sister named Janelle. Apart from being a top academic student at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, Michelle was also a talented baton twirler who participated in the school choirs and theater productions. Nicknamed Farrah, she was also passionate about interior design and aspired to attend Iowa State University to pursue the same. The 18-year-old high school senior took part in the school choir’s Christmas banquet at the Sheraton Inn in Cedar Rapids on the evening of December 19, 1979.
Once the event concluded, Michelle went to the Westdale Mall all alone in her family’s Buick Electra after a couple of her friends refused to join her for one reason or another. After interacting with a few acquaintances and schoolmates in the mall and purchasing a coat, she was expected to return home. However, when she failed to return home that night, her mother grew concerned and contacted her friends and acquaintances to ask if they had seen her. A few hours later, around 2 am, she was reported missing by her father. As the police went looking for her at the Westdale Mall, they spotted her car in the parking lot.
Around 4 am, the detectives discovered the remains of the 18-year-old girl in the passenger seat of the car. She had been stabbed more than two dozen times across her face, chest, and neck. Michelle also had deep defensive wounds on her hands, indicating that she had put up a fight. The autopsy revealed that she had died of multiple stab wounds, but there was no sign of sexual assault. The detectives found multiple glove prints inside and on the exterior of the car, but no murder weapon or fingerprints were found at the scene. Thus, a homicide investigation was launched to determine the cause of the case.
Michelle Martinko’s Killer Evaded the Police and Justice For Several Decades
Since there was no direct physical evidence connecting Michelle Martinko’s death to the killer, the investigation turned out to be complicated. Thus, the authorities briefly considered and later eliminated several individuals, including Michelle’s former boyfriends, Mike Wyrick and Charles “Andy” Seidel. They also interviewed the last person to have seen her alive at the mall — Curtis Thomas, a school friend of hers. Not only did their alibis check out, but there was also no physical evidence against them. Nearly two decades later, in 1997, the detectives sent the scrapings they had collected from the gearshift of Michelle’s car to a state lab, leading them to a partial male DNA.
When there were other advancements in technology, the investigators then sent Michelle’s bloodstained dress to the lab for testing, resulting in a full DNA profile of the suspect. The full profile was submitted to CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), but it yielded no results. However, the police were able to eliminate the earlier suspects, including Andy, Mike, and Curt. In 2018, the Parabon company generated three images of the possible suspect from the DNA profile, before identifying the relatives of the potential killer through genetic genealogy technology. After narrowing down the list further, the detectives were left with three brothers — Kenneth, Donald, and Jerry Burns.
Once Kenneth and Donald had been eliminated as suspects, they focused on Jerry Lynn Burns, whom they followed to a Pizza Ranch in Manchester, Iowa. Once they collected his DNA from a used straw they got from his table, they sent it for further testing. When his DNA matched the killer’s DNA, they arrested him at his workplace on December 19, 2018, and charged him with first-degree murder of Michelle Martinko. Upon digging deeper into the accused’s life, the investigators learned that he was 25 years old in December 1979 and a father to two young children in Manchester, Iowa, where he sold farm implements. However, they couldn’t find any connection between him and Michelle.
Jerry Lynn Burns is Currently Incarcerated at an Iowa Prison Facility
More than a year later, in February 2020, Jerry Lynn Burns stood trial for the murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. During the eight-day trial, the prosecution and defense presented their respective arguments to the jury, going back and forth as they did so. While the prosecution’s case rested mostly on the DNA evidence, the defense argued that the evidence collected from the crime scene decades ago was not handled with care. After the concluding statements, the jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching a verdict. Ultimately, on February 24, Jerry was convicted of first-degree murder.
Several months later, on August 7, during his sentencing hearing, the convict took the stand and stated, “First of all, I’d like to say that somebody else stabbed Michelle to death in that car that night. I don’t know who. I don’t know why. And I would like to thank my family and friends for their support.” In the end, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Following his sentencing, the convicted killer filed a motion to get his conviction overturned by arguing that his constitutional rights were violated by the police while obtaining his DNA to tie him to the crime scene. However, on March 31, 2023, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected his appeal and upheld the conviction. As of today, 71-year-old Jerry Lynn Burns is serving his sentence at Anamosa State Penitentiary in Anamosa, Iowa.
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