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Cold Case Series: Unraveling decades-old murder cases challenged by time
Investigators revisit unsolved slayings in Cedar Rapids, Linn County
Nov. 26, 2023 5:00 am, Updated: Nov. 27, 2023 8:19 am
This is the first installment in an occasional series about cold cases investigations in Cedar Rapids and Linn County.
The biggest “enemy” of a cold case is time because it affects memories, evidence and paper reports. But time also can bring breakthroughs by way of new technology that wasn’t available when someone was killed and murders went unsolved.
In one of the most memorable Cedar Rapids cold cases, time and technology helped solve the 38-year-old murder of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko, who was fatally stabbed Dec. 19, 1979, in her parents’ Buick in the Westdale Mall parking lot.
The killer remained a mystery until 2018 when police investigators with the Cedar Rapids Cold Case Unit used genetic genealogy to identify the DNA found in the blood on back of Martinko’s black dress.
The profile led to three brothers, and one of those, Jerry Burns, now 70, of Manchester, was a match. He was convicted in 2020 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Cedar Rapids Investigator Matt Denlinger, 49, says time is the “enemy” because it can affect the condition of evidence in decades-old cases. Evidence can be lost. Witnesses move away or die. Memories fade.
The Gazette, in a continuing series this coming year, will highlight about 10 of the 27 cold cases in Cedar Rapids that Denlinger has reviewed or investigated and four additional ones investigated by Linn County Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Beuter.
Denlinger and Beuter will provide background of the cases from the original files and explain where the trails went cold and share new information they have gathered over years.
Some family members of the victims also will be interviewed, sharing thoughts and memories of their loved ones.
The Cedar Rapids cases in the series will include a homicide case from 1959 of a 47-year-old Army veteran who served in World War II. Frederick Leonard Coste was manager of a downtown financial company, upstairs from the De Var restaurant, who was fatally stabbed during an apparent robbery on Oct. 15, 1959.
A case investigated by the sheriff’s office also will be highlighted from 1983; 24-year-old Ronald Lee Novak, of Center Point, was beaten with golf clubs and hammers and shot in the arm.
Novak’s frozen body was found in an unheated storeroom near his home’s back door on Christmas Eve. His hands were tied behind his back. The wind chill was reportedly around 30-below zero and Novak’s three golden retrievers were snuggled up next to him.
Choosing cases
Denlinger said investigators revisit a cold case when they receive a credible tip, or when a family member or friend of the victim checks in and perhaps provides a new thought about the unsolved murder.
“Some (family members) are like another investigator that may provide some detail that pushes you forward, just at a time you may be ready to give up,” Denlinger said. “Over the years, through trial and error, we’ve kind of developed a protocol for how we get started on new cases.”
Denlinger, who along with retired Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent J.D. Smith and retired Cedar Rapids police Lt. Ken Washburn, make up the Cold Case Unit and focus on working those cases every Thursday.
The unit investigators have solved four cold cases in recent years, resulting in two arrests. The other identified killers had died.
- Michelle Martinko, 18, killed in 1979, solved in 2018 with the arrest and conviction of Jerry Burns.
- Dennis First, 64, killed in 2007, which led to the arrest this year of Curtis Padgett. His trial is set for April 9.
- Brian Schappert, 22, killed in 1989, solved in 2019. Two suspects were identified through new witness interviews and criminal history records, but both suspects had died.
- Maureen Brubaker-Farley, 17, killed in 1971, solved in 2021 after comparing DNA from the crime scene with DNA collected from a suspect’s adult child. It was determined George Smith killed her but he died in 2013.
Denlinger said the cold case unit has to “pick and choose” the cases to pursue because they don’t have the manpower or time to solve all the cases.
“We always want to respond to the public when they call and ask about a case and we try to get them answers if we can,” Denlinger said. “Sometimes, those questions end up unraveling a case and we end up working on the entire case — like Martinko.”
The approach
Denlinger starts by retrieving the “master file” that includes all the paperwork originally created after a murder.
Many times, it’s a plastic tote full of folders or just a DVD with a PDF file containing scanned reports and photos. It varies by the case and its age. The files may not be organized or in chronological order after being scanned from the paper version to electronic files.
“I’m not ashamed to admit I’m overwhelmed when I start a new one and wonder how I ever solved other ones,” Denlinger said.
He always looks for anyone — current or retired officers/investigators — who can give the unit the “CliffsNotes” summary of the case. Then, they dive into the case evidence.
“We physically get everything out of storage and go through each individual item and take updated photos,” Denlinger said. “We are mindful that we may decide to do additional testing on certain things, so we are very careful not to contaminate anything. As were going through the evidence, we’re thinking can we retest and would any possible DNA help us? If not, we just repackage it.”
In most cases, only one or two items — like the murder weapon — is retested, Denlinger said.
The investigators are careful to preserve chain of custody in the event a cold case leads to an arrest and the case goes to court. The defense in the Martinko case, for example, questioned chain of custody because of the 2008 Cedar Rapids flood, which impacted the police department’s evidence storage. But the testing conducted in 2005 on the dress hadn’t been compromised, according to testimony.
That’s not always the case. Investigators recently went through some evidence from a 2006 murder, only to discover several “critical” items were missing and presumed lost to the flood.
Obstacles in investigation
In a new crime, Denlinger said, investigators can walk through a crime scene, look around and get an idea of how it happened. He can envision where people were standing during the deadly incident or how items ended up on the floor or find some other clue that explains what happened.
But in a cold case, an investigator is “at the mercy of whatever those investigators” chose to focus on 50 years ago, which may be far different from what officers might look at today.
Denlinger is also “stuck” with the original photos taken when the crime happened.
“Now we take thousands of digital photos with a camera or phone camera, but before the digital transition, they were using actual film rolls and usually taking four rolls of 25,” Denlinger said.
Pieces of evidence listed on a report may be missing. In one case, a polygraph — lie detector — exam was mentioned, but Denlinger couldn’t find the results.
Investigators in older cases seemed to rely on polygraphs to help weed out suspects. Those tests, Denlinger said, can’t be used in court but sometimes they are a helpful tool.
“People want to be believed, so they will agree to a polygraph to prove it,” Denlinger said. “Think of it as just a more elaborate interview.”
Denlinger said if there is a lack of evidence to help put the puzzle together, he “dreads” having to tell a victim’s family he can’t see a path forward to solve the case.
“I try to give them as much information as to why, the obstacles, the technology tried,” Denlinger added.
Missing witnesses
Another problem in many cold cases is finding the witnesses.
Denlinger will go through all the witness statements and typically has more questions. The challenge is to find those witnesses who may have moved, more than once, or left the state. In some cases, a witness may have died.
That’s also true for expert witnesses who may have analyzed the DNA or a medical examiner, who determined the cause of death. Sometimes, Denlinger said, it’s important to have those people explain how they arrived at their conclusion.
In the Martinko case, for example, investigators struggled to figure out the autopsy photos and the orientation of one specific photo.
The crucial experts in that case, however, were still alive and in Iowa. Linda Sawer, retired DCI criminalist, testified about a blood stain she tested on Martinko’s dress; Dick White, a retired crime scene investigator who has since died, found evidence the killer wore gloves; and retired Dr. Richard Fiester, a Cedar Rapids pathologist, who testified about the autopsy.
Denlinger visited Fiester in his home to understand the puzzling photo. They sat down at his kitchen table, and Fiester brought out his original photos and the original slides from the photos, which he kept in his home. He also filed away autopsy reports from all unsolved cases he worked just in case they were needed someday.
Fiester showed the investigators how the photo should be displayed to show Martinko’s sternum — breastbone — where the fatal stab wound penetrated her aorta. The doctor demonstrated what kind of force it would take to stab a knife into the sternum.
Denlinger said he left knowing that if Fiester repeated that information at trial, his testimony would be compelling.
Changes in technology
Advancements in DNA technology and genetic genealogy have moved many cold cases forward across the country. It was DNA technology that identified Martinko’s killer and a serial killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, Jr., the “Golden State Killer,” who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1990s, both in 2018.
Denlinger said how DNA is collected also has changed. Typically, a crime scene investigator will swab a shell casing and send the sample to the lab. Now lab techs will take several shell casings and soak them in a solution to remove the DNA, which is then used to produce a profile.
New technology also makes it possible to retrieve DNA from hair without a root, he said.
Ed Green, a paleogeneticist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, in 2019 developed a technique that made it possible to recover and sequence DNA from a rootless hair, according to a New York Times article.
Denlinger said he reached out to the DCI lab about rootless testing but they don’t have the capability at this time.
The downside to using new technology is the cost. Investigators have to consider the cost-benefit ratio and what the results might tell them about a crime.
“If you can find a killer, then you’re more justified and can feel good about spending the money,” Denlinger said. “CRPD is supportive with the work on cold cases and are willing to pay to solve the cases.”
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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