Cedar Rapids, IA, USA  
Digital Edition Digital Edition
Log in Log In My Account My Account
Subscribe Today
The Gazette The Gazette
The Gazette The Gazette
  • COVID-19
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Food and Drink
  • Business
Digital Edition Digital Edition
Log in Log In My Account My Account
Subscribe
CLOSE
The Gazette
Subscribe
My Account
  • News
    • All News
    • Election 2020
    • Coronavirus
    • Business News
    • Community
    • Crime and Courts
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Nation and World
    • Time Machine
    • Search Archive

    Our Journalists

    • Rod Boshart
    • Lee Hermiston
    • Erin Jordan
    • James Q. Lynch
    • Trish Mehaffey
    • Vanessa Miller
    • Kat Russell
    • Grace King
    • John Steppe
    • Gage Miskimen
    • Marissa Payne
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Iowa Hawkeyes
    • Hawkeye Football
    • Hawkeye Basketball
    • Prep Sports
    • Prep Volleyball
    • Prep Football
    • Prep Basketball
    • Prep Wrestling
    • Iowa State Cyclones
    • UNI Panthers
    • Small College Sports
    • Minor League Sports
    • Outdoors

    Sports Desk

    • Mike Hlas
    • Jeff Johnson
    • Jeff Linder
    • J.R. Ogden
    • K.J. Pilcher
    • Leah Vann
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Editorial Mission
    • Guest Columnists
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Political Cartoons
    • Staff Columnists
    • Staff Editorials
    • Submit a Letter or Column

    Our Columnists

    • Todd Dorman
    • Adam Sullivan
  • Food and Drink
    • All Food and Drink
    • Chew on This
    • Recipes
    • Restaurants
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Business Notes
    • Companies
    • Personal Finance
    • Economy
    • Employment
    • Energy
    • Manufacturing
    • Openings & Closures
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Small Business
    • Transportation

    Our Journalists

    • Rod Boshart
    • Erin Jordan
    • John Steppe
  • Obituaries
    • All Obituaries
    • In Memory Of
    • Submit an Obituary
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • Daily News Podcast
    • Fact Checker
    • Hlastradamus Odds
    • Iowa Prep Sports
    • On Iowa
    • On Iowa Politics
    • On UNI
    • Pinning Combination
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Art
    • Books
    • Museums & Galleries
    • Music
    • Theater
    • Things To Do
  • Living
    • All Living
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Milestones
    • People & Places
    • Pets & Animals
    • Recreation
    • Religion & Belief
    • Travel

    Our Writers

    • Diana Nollen
    • Elijah Decious
  • Kids Gazette
    • See All
    • Kids Cooking Series
    • Kids Galleries
    • Printables
    • Activities
    • Articles
    • Submissions
    • Resources
  • Photos
    • All Photos and Videos
    • The Iowa Photo
    • Photo Store

    Our Photojournalists

    • Andy Abeyta
    • Liz Martin
    • Rebecca Miller
    • Jim Slosiarek
    • Gazette Visuals
  • Milestones
    • All Milestones
    • Anniversaries
    • Days To Remember
    • Engagements
    • Holidays
    • In Remembrance
    • New Arrivals
    • Thank Yous
    • Submit a Milestone
  • Data
    • Arrests
    • Building Permits
    • Interactive Maps & Charts
    • Salaries
  • Gazette Sites
    • Classifieds
    • Corridor Careers
    • Garage Sales
    • Gazette Gives Back
    • Gazette Rewards
    • Gazette Store
    • Green Gazette
    • HER
    • Iowa Wedding Experience
    • Holiday Light Finder
    • Hoopla
    • Iowa Ideas
    • Photo Store
  • Special Events
  • Special Sections
  • Other
    • About The Gazette
    • Archives
    • Article Removal
    • Business Directory
    • CR Arrest Database
    • Mobile Apps
    • Customer Care
    • Order Back Issues
    • Privacy Policies
    • Puzzle Answers
    • Sponsorship Requests
    • Submit a Letter
    • Weather
  • Digital Edition
Daily News PodcastDaily News Podcast
Daily NewslettersDaily Newsletters
Log out

FOLLOW US

The Gazette
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Food and Drink
  • Business
  • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
  • Entertainment
  • Living
  • Kids Gazette
  • Photos
  • Milestones
  • Data
  • Gazette Sites
  • Special Events
  • Special Sections
  • Other
  • Digital Edition
  • All News
  • Election 2020
  • Coronavirus
  • Business News
  • Community
  • Crime and Courts
  • Education
  • Government
  • Health
  • Nation and World
  • Time Machine
  • Search Archive

Our Journalists

  • Rod Boshart
  • Lee Hermiston
  • Erin Jordan
  • James Q. Lynch
  • Trish Mehaffey
  • Vanessa Miller
  • Kat Russell
  • Grace King
  • John Steppe
  • Gage Miskimen
  • Marissa Payne
  • All Sports
  • Iowa Hawkeyes
  • Hawkeye Football
  • Hawkeye Basketball
  • Prep Sports
  • Prep Volleyball
  • Prep Football
  • Prep Basketball
  • Prep Wrestling
  • Iowa State Cyclones
  • UNI Panthers
  • Small College Sports
  • Minor League Sports
  • Outdoors

Sports Desk

  • Mike Hlas
  • Jeff Johnson
  • Jeff Linder
  • J.R. Ogden
  • K.J. Pilcher
  • Leah Vann
  • All Opinion
  • Editorial Mission
  • Guest Columnists
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Political Cartoons
  • Staff Columnists
  • Staff Editorials
  • Submit a Letter or Column

Our Columnists

  • Todd Dorman
  • Adam Sullivan
  • All Food and Drink
  • Chew on This
  • Recipes
  • Restaurants
  • All Business
  • Agriculture
  • Business Notes
  • Companies
  • Personal Finance
  • Economy
  • Employment
  • Energy
  • Manufacturing
  • Openings & Closures
  • Real Estate
  • Retail
  • Small Business
  • Transportation

Our Journalists

  • Rod Boshart
  • Erin Jordan
  • John Steppe
  • All Obituaries
  • In Memory Of
  • Submit an Obituary
  • All Podcasts
  • Daily News Podcast
  • Fact Checker
  • Hlastradamus Odds
  • Iowa Prep Sports
  • On Iowa
  • On Iowa Politics
  • On UNI
  • Pinning Combination
  • All Entertainment
  • Art
  • Books
  • Museums & Galleries
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Things To Do
  • All Living
  • Health & Wellness
  • Home & Garden
  • Milestones
  • People & Places
  • Pets & Animals
  • Recreation
  • Religion & Belief
  • Travel

Our Writers

  • Diana Nollen
  • Elijah Decious
  • See All
  • Kids Cooking Series
  • Kids Galleries
  • Printables
  • Activities
  • Articles
  • Submissions
  • Resources
  • All Photos and Videos
  • The Iowa Photo
  • Photo Store

Our Photojournalists

  • Andy Abeyta
  • Liz Martin
  • Rebecca Miller
  • Jim Slosiarek
  • Gazette Visuals
  • All Milestones
  • Anniversaries
  • Days To Remember
  • Engagements
  • Holidays
  • In Remembrance
  • New Arrivals
  • Thank Yous
  • Submit a Milestone
  • Arrests
  • Building Permits
  • Interactive Maps & Charts
  • Salaries
  • Classifieds
  • Corridor Careers
  • Garage Sales
  • Gazette Gives Back
  • Gazette Rewards
  • Gazette Store
  • Green Gazette
  • HER
  • Iowa Wedding Experience
  • Holiday Light Finder
  • Hoopla
  • Iowa Ideas
  • Photo Store
  • About The Gazette
  • Archives
  • Article Removal
  • Business Directory
  • CR Arrest Database
  • Mobile Apps
  • Customer Care
  • Order Back Issues
  • Privacy Policies
  • Puzzle Answers
  • Sponsorship Requests
  • Submit a Letter
  • Weather
Daily News PodcastDaily News Podcast Daily NewslettersDaily Newsletters
LOG OUT

FOLLOW US

More Stories

Brucemore celebrates 40 years of being open to the public

IMU COVID vaccine clinic coming

Meet the Iowan behind the Vaccine Hunter website

Wellington Heights home gutted in 2017 fire finally coming down

26-year-old man killed in shooting in NE Cedar Rapids

Peggy Whitson to be keynote speaker for Iowa Ideas 2021

Here’s how to get rid of your derecho tree debris

Livestream: Funeral for Iowa state trooper Jim Smith

Home / News / Crime and Courts

Distant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slaying

Trish MehaffeyBy: Trish Mehaffey Mar. 22, 2019 8:20 pm Updated: Mar. 22, 2019 8:20 pm
Distant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slayingDistant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slayingDistant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slayingDistant relative learns her DNA led to arrest in Michelle Martinko slaying

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Vancouver, Wash., woman, trying to find out more about her father's side of the family, never expected that her DNA would help catch an Iowa man accused of killing Michelle Martinko 40 years ago.

'I uploaded my DNA to GEDMatch,” a public database used to research family trees, 'and forgot about it,” Brandy Jennings, 40, told The Gazette in a phone interview Friday.

Jennings is a second cousin twice removed, through her paternal great-grandparents, to Jerry Lynn Burns, 65, of Manchester, who was charged in December with fatally stabbing the 18-year-old in 1979.

Jennings was mentioned in a search warrant obtained last week by The Gazette, but Jennings only learned about the connection a few days ago after people on a Facebook group devoted to the Martinko case called or messaged her about it.

She remembered talking to her brother, who lives in California, when she decided to upload her DNA to a public database. He had concerns because that's how the suspected Golden State killer, Joseph DeAngelo, was arrested last year.

Her brother told her he wasn't sure he would want to be responsible getting a family member arrested.

'I don't know … I feel OK about it,” Jennings said. 'I want someone to have to do time if (he/she) did something like that. I don't regret it now.”

Jennings, a home health care assistant, said her parents divorced when she was child and, when her father died in 2009, she realized she didn't know much about his side of the family.

When her mother learned about the arrest of a distant relative in Iowa, she joked it was Jennings' 'claim to fame” - helping catch a murder suspect.

'I guess it's not surprising because your family can be a whole range of people,” Jennings said. 'Some do well, and others don't. Some struggle with different things.”

Neither Jennings nor her mother know any of the Burns' family members, and they have no ties to Iowa. Jennings was born in New Mexico and has lived in Arizona, California and Oregon. Jennings and her two daughters, ages 11 and 13, have lived in Washington since 2010.

Cedar Rapids police learned in May they could use genetic genealogy from Parabon-NanoLabs in Reston, Va., according to the warrant affidavit. Investigators then uploaded DNA taken the suspect's DNA - from a blood stain on Martinko's dress - to the site about the same time Jennings uploaded her DNA. Investigators received a report July 7 from Parabon saying DNA on the site - from Jennings - showed shared DNA with the suspect.

Parabon officials told Cedar Rapids police investigator Matthew Denlinger the lab had been able to create a family tree with four sets of great-great grandparents at the top, according to the warrant.

Denlinger collected DNA samples from living relatives of each set of grandparents, so Parabon could identify which branch of the family tree belonged to the suspect. Two branches were eliminated but, on the third branch, a first cousin was identified as sharing DNA with the suspect, the warrant shows.

Parabon officials concluded the suspect was likely was one of three brothers, which included Burns and his two brothers.

Investigators covertly collected DNA from items handled by the three brothers.

In October 2018, Denlinger watched Jerry Burns drink several sodas at a restaurant using a clear straw. He collected the straw after Burns left the restaurant.

Two brothers were eliminated as potential matches, but a Nov. 5 Parabon report showed Jerry Burns' DNA matched the suspect's.

The probability of finding Burns' DNA profile among unrelated individuals would be less than one in 100 billion, according to the document.

Jennings said it's hard to believe that someone could commit a murder and continue living a normal life. Since she found out about Burns, she said she's read news articles about Martinko and her death.

The discovery, she said, has taught her to pay attention to the 'fine print” before submitting something to a public site because she didn't know law enforcement could access the DNA without her knowledge.

Martinko was found stabbed to death in her family's Buick on Dec. 19, 1979, in the parking lot of Westdale Mall. The Kennedy High School senior had left a school choir banquet that night and driven to the mall to buy a new winter coat.

Burns, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, remains in jail on a $5 million, cash-only bail. His trial is set for Oct. 14 in Linn County District Court.

l Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

Brandy Jennings of Vancouver, Wash., is shown with her father, Jim Jennings, in this family photo. After he died in 2009, Jennings in 2018 decided to upload her DNA to a public database to find out more about her father's side of the family. That DNA eventually led to the arrest of a suspect in the 1979 slaying of Michelle Martinko in Cedar Rapids. (Brandy Jennings photo)
Jerry Burns Murder suspect
Michelle Martinko Slain in 1979
Brandy Jennings, 40, of Vancouver, Wash., uploaded her DNA to a public database that led to an arrest in the 1979 slaying of Michelle Martinko in Cedar Rapids. She told the Gazette on Friday, March 22, 2019, she and her family have no connection to Iowa and that they don't know the suspect, Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, of Manchester. (Brandy Jennings photo)
Daily Report, Follow Up, Criminal Cases, Michelle Martinko
Trish Mehaffey

Trish Mehaffey

Reporter, The Gazette

Reporter covering state and federal courts, and whatever legal issues come my way. I also provide live coverage of criminal trials o and welcome comments and questions from readers.

Local comic ’Bustin Dustin’ sentenced to 1 year in federal…

Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 20 years for meth distribution

Wellington Heights home gutted in 2017 fire finally coming down

Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 10 years in workplace shooting

Iowa City man faces life in prison for sexually abusing…

All articles by Trish

Give us feedback

We work hard to provide fair, accurate coverage because we value your trust. If you find an error or omission in our reporting, please tell us here.

Submit a story idea

Do you have a story idea that we should look into? Please tell us here.

Related Stories

800,000 Iowans vaccinated so far

800,000 Iowans vaccinated so far

Gage Miskimen Health Care and Medicine Apr. 15, 2021 2:55 pm

Iowa adds 445 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday

Iowa adds 445 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday

Gage Miskimen Health Care and Medicine Apr. 13, 2021 3:41 pm

Iowa adds 666 virus cases on Thursday

Iowa adds 666 virus cases on Thursday

Gage Miskimen Health Care and Medicine Apr. 8, 2021 4:39 pm

Crime & Courts

Iowan accused of assaulting officers during Capitol riot

Iowan accused of assaulting officers during Capitol riot

Washington Post

Crime and Courts 2h ago

Local comic ’Bustin Dustin’ sentenced to 1 year in federal…

Local comic ’Bustin Dustin’ sentenced to 1 year in federal…

Trish Mehaffey

Crime and Courts 4h ago

Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 20 years for meth distribution

Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 20 years for meth distribution

Trish Mehaffey

Crime and Courts 4h ago

26-year-old man killed in shooting in NE Cedar Rapids

26-year-old man killed in shooting in NE Cedar Rapids

Kat Russell

Crime and Courts Apr. 16, 2021 6:38 pm

News

Here’s how to get rid of your derecho tree debris

Here’s how to get rid of your derecho tree debris

, Marissa Payne

Community 90m ago

100 days after attack, Hinson wants Capitol fence to be…

100 days after attack, Hinson wants Capitol fence to be…

James Q. Lynch

Government & Politics 3h ago

Michael Richards, reappointed to the Board of Regents

Michael Richards, reappointed to the Board of Regents

Vanessa Miller

Higher Ed Apr. 16, 2021 6:46 pm

Cedar Rapids has chance to pitch request for $39.5M to…

Cedar Rapids has chance to pitch request for $39.5M to…

Marissa Payne

News 4h ago

Sports

5 things I’m watching at my first Iowa football open…

5 things I’m watching at my first Iowa football open…

Leah Vann

Hawkeye Football 4h ago

Photos: Iowa Hawkeyes softball vs. Northwestern Wildcats

Photos: Iowa Hawkeyes softball vs. Northwestern Wildcats

Jim Slosiarek

4h ago

Kylie Feuerbach: Former Cyclone, future Hawkeye

Kylie Feuerbach: Former Cyclone, future Hawkeye

Jeff Linder

Hawkeye Basketball 4h ago

Working for the Weekend: Hard work powers Central’s Blade Durbala…

Working for the Weekend: Hard work powers Central’s Blade Durbala…

K.J. Pilcher

Sports 4h ago

Opinion

Migrant children are not ’our problem,’ governor — they’re our…

Migrant children are not ’our problem,’ governor — they’re our…

Staff Editorial

Opinion Apr. 16, 2021 2:51 pm

’Back the Blue’ legislation makes Iowans less safe and free

’Back the Blue’ legislation makes Iowans less safe and free

Christina Bohannan and Janice Weiner

Guest Columnists Apr. 15, 2021 5:36 pm

Lack of oversight at Iowa’s prisons is a deadly problem

Lack of oversight at Iowa’s prisons is a deadly problem

Staff editorial

Staff Editorials Apr. 16, 2021 7:55 am

Don’t give college sports a blank check

Don’t give college sports a blank check

Staff editorial

Opinion Apr. 15, 2021 5:10 pm

FOLLOW US

The Gazette is Iowa’s independent, employee-owned source for local, state, and national news coverage.

© 2021 The Gazette

All Rights Reserved.

  • Advertise with us
  • Privacy
  • Web Accessibility

Contact Us

  • 116 3rd St SE
    Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
  • customercare@thegazette.com
  • (319) 398-8333
  • Live Chat

Links

  • Puzzle Answers
  • CR Arrest Database
  • Article Removal Request
  • Gazette Archives
  • Green Gazette
  • Corridor Careers Jobs
  • Work at The Gazette
  • Customer Care

© 2021 The Gazette

All Rights Reserved.

  • Advertise with us
  • Privacy
  • Web Accessibility
Folience A Folience Company