Killer Cases: Murder of Farmer’s Wife Shocks Small Iowa Town

[Music] 911 where is your emergency my mom my lay here on the floor I said it had to be somebody that loved her isn't Iowa son a seed of evil it's a case of murder on the farm she is gone because someone shot her yes you did Jason and he told me that if I didn't get on the bus that he was going to make sure I was under the bus I asked why he didn't Farm together with his dad and his response was I can't because my mom is a bitch there's only two people in this world who know what happened on June 19th 2015 and one of them is dead and the other one's sitting behind me the Killer is still out there that shot her okay your wife is in a bar said she's under sship this is what he's going to tell you how to get out situation and I grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill him you want to say anything we the jury and to find the [Music] defendant 911 where is your emergency yeah I I need I need I need an ambulance P okay to what address 132 Par Street it was the Iowa farm home of Shirley and Bill Carter their son Jason describing a horrible scene my mom my mom lay here on the floor blood work she man and I don't know what happened Jason's Father Bill Carter was next to arve and I went right in the kitchen and there she lay and I said I'm so sorry Mama Shirley Carter's murder in her remote Western Iowa Farmhouse devastated and ultimately would destroy her family it's really like the most horrific nightmare you could ever imagine to lose someone that you love so dearly and then um your family to be just shredded ripped apart she would be ashamed of her family it's Fallen apart at the age of 67 Shirley Carter had raised three children always busy with her grandchildren and still active on the farm with her own John Deere tractor to help in the family's 900 Acres of soybean and corn she was a hard worker that's for sure and uh she loved her grandkids and you know I miss her her husband of 52 years Bill actually talked of suicide well I I thought I'd lost everything everything I I never had any trouble in my life even when we had to get married young we never had trouble and then for something like this to happen in our old age it it doesn't make sense it just doesn't make sense and as Bill Carter replayed in his mind the image of his wife's body that terrible morning in the kitchen he began to wonder cuz she was laying face up and her hands were like this across her chest and her eyes were open and I thought you don't die that way and I said to Jason I said it had to be somebody that loved her and it was his younger son Jason who found the body and came under suspicion almost immediately as the lead detective Mark Ludwick would later testify he was immediately on my radar even before I uh arrived on the scene Ludwick had listened to Jason's 911 call as he drove to the scene and something did not sound right to him I don't I don't and right away that set Bells off to me uh in my mind of his words that he used how he described the scene um and uh his emotions 2 hours how would Jason know she had been there for two hours he is attempting to introduce that she uh has been dead for 2 hours when he has a solid Alibi 2 hours earlier Jason Carter was seen on video at a grain elevator but agent Ludwick remained suspicious my experience tells me that if if a person goes into great detail of the crime scene that that is abnormal you don't do that when you just find your mother dead on the floor uh unless they're trying to be deceitful adding to the questions about Jason was a secret he had kept from police and his wife a torid EXT marital Affair a secret revealed when police discovered a phone he had hidden under the hood of his truck in the fuse box it was a phone he had been using to send text to the Local woman with whom he was having the affair since I didn't bring that to their attention right out of the gate um I guess they just assumed that I was a nothing but a liar and uh a liar and a cheat and for uh for that reason uh the lead investigator just zeroed in right on me and uh never lost Focus within three days of the murder both Jason Carter and his wife Shelly were in the back of a patrol car being brought into the local sheriff's office for questioning they took me into a small courtroom there at the Sheriff's Office and you know I I will never forget that you know and they told me about Jason having an affair and of course it was you know just like to be honest you know just so disappointing and um more than anything just heartbreaking down the hall in the Sheriff's Office Jason Carter was in the middle of what would be an almost 11-hour interrogation so you'd have my deepest empathy you really do thanks okay he was asked and agreed to take a lie detector test okay lean back try and relax so we'll begin the test I'll have your feet flat on the floor I look straight ahead and answer know to each question okay had me sit there put the Gizmo put everything on me and basically start to ask me questions while the test was underway elsewhere in the Sheriff's Office leading investigator Mark Ludwick was trying to get Shelly Carter to turn on her husband Mark Ludwick threatened me um he told me that if I didn't get on the bus that he was going to make sure I was under the bus and I started to say to myself something's terribly wrong here Shelly was confident her husband would pass the live detector test and everyone could go home okay regarding in the death of your mom do you intend to answer each question truthfully yes okay did you physically hurt your mom no okay now this is important when I say physically hurt your mom okay I want you to know exactly what I mean what I mean is did you cause her death no okay do you know for a fact who hurt your mom no okay once again I'm not I don't want to know if you have an opinion or I think this guy take the question of what it means do you know for a fact who hurt your mom no okay I'm that test right after the test was over he left the room for maybe less than 5 minutes he came back in and uh he said the month of July is a pivotal one for Iowa Farmers all eyes on the weather producers obviously watching the weather and and on corn and soybean price so USDA upping its corn Price Forecast by a dime to an average 360 which would be 4 cents higher but at the Carter Farm in Lona Iowa as they mourned the death of Shirley Carter the anxiety was over the growing suspicion by the family about Jason Carter's role in her murder you got to remember he's still my son and he was my favorite son I always thought he'd farm with me someday Jason Carter was at the sheriff's office about to learn how he did on the lie detector test we we score him in three different ways okay you can show non deception which means that we don't see any variation inconclusive which means we're not sure or deception which means we haven't heard the whole story yet and you were deceptive [Music] the light detector test was a a Croc of shit that light detector test was 110% wrong so H I don't know uh they sure tried their damnest to get me to fess up to something I didn't do and State Police Agent Mark Ludwick used the results to Bear Down on Jason Carter Jason what are the two things that you were deceptive on do you positively know who did this no well according to the test you do well those that damn thing is wrong it's not wrong it is too it's not I never touched my mom I never hurt her the Killer is still out there that shot her so back to the beginning what happened at your mom's house she was shot dead I understand that Jason we we need to get to the truth here that is the truth you know I think I walked in the door and my mom was laying in a pool of blood but agent lewick says he knew that was not true the way he described the body on the floor and still bleeding um gave me great concern when I arrived on scene and looked in the window as there's not blood everywhere there's very minimal blood uh on the crime scene okay I walked found my mom dead and that's it period not true that is the truth it's not true J that is too the truth it's not true Jason we need to get past that and we need to get to what the truth is I'm telling you the truth the God God awful truth I'm telling you the truth you're not tell me the truth Jason yes I am Jason Carter was getting increasingly frustrated and angry with Mark Ludwick that guy is uh in my opinion pretty much the devil I don't know how else to say it you're the oneing the polygraph examination nobody else fits those things Jason I'm confident I agree poor mom she doesn't deserve this doeses deserve if she could talk right now she'd strike both your asses dead because she knows I didn't do that okay she does she would strike both your asses dead because I didn't do this and if you keep blaming me I guarantee both of you will go to hell because I didn't do a damn thing to my mom well Jason I'm going to keep telling you you did it because you did no I didn't and together we can get past this that you condemning me to hell isn't going to change the facts of what occurred one of the facts was how the Carter House appeared to have been ransacked something Jason Carter pointed out to his father right away that morning then he said Dad look somebody's robbed you and when I went into my office all my drawers had been pulled out and dumped just dumped they hadn't went through anything they were just dump and then he said let's go in the bedroom in her drawer where she keeps her bras and her panties was open and nothing was taken her purse was hanging on our granddaughter's high chair and she had $140 cash in it and she had credit cards in there and none of it had been touched so it it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it made sense to agent Ludwick the crime scene is that of of a adolescent mindset I need to saage this robbery I need to uh make this look like a robbery and um at that point no one knew the B bedroom was ransacked other than Jason Carter so how how was he known privy that information when nobody else was another question how was Jason Carter able so quickly to discover a bullet hole in the floor and another one in the refrigerator you know what I've done this a very long time and you're right people do react with disbelief and stuff when they find a body like that you know what they don't do they don't survey a crime scene and start telling me where bullet holes are at Jason that's what they don't do the gun used to kill sherley Carter was never found but Jason early on suggested it was a hunting rifle found missing from his father's gun safe in the basement what do you think was used to shoot your mom I think that 270 rifle was used to shoot my mom it was a Remington bolt action 270 like this one where did it go you tell me I don't know I think you know that's the murder weapon because you know what happened no I don't clearly I believe Jason Carter knows exactly where that gun was on that crime scene um he placed that gun somewhere I don't know where he put it agent Ludwick and a second agent went around and around with Jason Carter into the evening these two guys were in my face a foot away just just ripping into me saying you know you did this you know you did this this doesn't matter my mom is gone and you have you can't tell the truth you're bullshit bullshit you're right you're is gone she is gone because someone shot her yes you did Jason and I step up and take responsibility for your actions what is wrong with you what is wrong with you people I would never harm a hair on my mom's head it was only after Jason's wife Shelly demanded to talk to him on the phone that the agents gave up on their efforts to break him to get a confession she demanded uh that I you know she will ease was either coming in or I was coming out she said she wants me to quit talking to you and we get out now that's fine like I told you from the very beginning or whatever you're more than welcome at any time I mean I go but I don't have anything to hide mama I told them there's no way I'd H my mom so uh that's when I got up and I walked [Music] out I never had my doubts about Jason's involvement with his mom now did I have doubts about our marriage oh you're not a kidding I mean you know just what a disappointment but I couldn't listen I could have been a scorn wife because that's what Mark Ludwick wanted me to be but I was raised that you do things because you know they're right and I knew that he didn't have anything to do with his mom's death so it wouldn't be right for me to be a scorn wife and say you cheated on me now you can pay for your mom's death that wouldn't be right it didn't have anything to do with it she was ready to go to war for the man who had cheated on her and she would have to the first thing that just stood out about this case was the unimaginable tragedy of a man losing his wife of 52 years and coming slowly to the conclusion in the days after the homicide that his son was the killer well I wanted some kind of justice for my wife some kind of Justice I didn't want her dying and no justice whatsoever go out there with your family and we'll we'll chat but his son Jason Carter had walked out of the sheriff's office with no criminal charges filed even after he failed the lie detector test the police didn't do a good job so Bill Carter hired his own private detective to investigate and reexamine the evidence in the case the thing that took Bill down the path of believing that Jason was the killer was the evidence starting with what Jason had said about the gun safe in the basement where one rifle the likely murder weapon had gone missing and they said we don't know anything about a gun safe we don't know anything at all about a gun safe I didn't even know he had a damn gun safe till just recently well I knew that was a lie cuz I knew they had gotten it for me for Christmas a photograph would later be found of Jason and his then toddler son assembling the gun safe for him on Christmas morning he and his wife both lied constantly and that made it easier for me to tell the truth about what happened and more troubling to him Bill Carter wondered how his son seemed to know right away that morning that Shirley Carter had been shot twice there was no way you would know that unless you did it and then I knew that he did it I knew he did it or hired it done one or the other and both Bill Carter and Agent Mark Ludwick agreed on the motive for the murder the affair Jason was having I believe he needed to stop his mom from telling his dad that he's having an affair I have no time for that and he knew it too I think he meant to kill both of us I do I think he was going to Club me with something and then put a gun in my mouth all this time Jason was back on his farm tending to his Fields well aware that his father was turning on him he looked at me and I've seen that look I don't know I couldn't tell you how many other times of uh when he's just sure about something something and uh he said uh he looked at me and he said you know I've got it figured out it had been more than a year a full season of planting and harvest when Bill Carter gave up on the criminal investigation and decided to take his son to court Bill decided to take matters into his own hands and so he filed the lawsuit a civil action against his son Jason blaming him for Shirley Carter's wrongful death the subject of the last convers ation father and son ever had and then he said what are you going to do today dad and I said I'm going up to see my lawyer and he hit the he hit the counter the kitchen counter hard and he said my life is over my life is over for 5 days in the Maran Iowa County Courthouse a Civil Trial that pitted father against son over over the murder of the mother a family tragedy Jesus you know what father does this to their child what father does this the case received national attention you say a son killed his mother because he was going bust she was just laying there uh looking off like and I knelt down and I grabbed her pant leg and shook it and said Mom you know hoping she'd respond somehow did you scream no were were you crying you know I I was I I think I I don't it was just shock in reality killers come in all shapes and sizes uh what I'll tell you is that Jason came across to us in the Civil Trial as number one highly insincere and number two uh very Shifty Jason Carter's lawyers were convinced it was a ploy to Spur a criminal charge against Jason we know that the prosecutor was sitting in the Civil Trial the entire time taking notes so in our opinion law enforcement the state of Iowa and Bill Carter worked hand inand a Civil Trial has a lower standard of proof than a criminal trial but still it was no slam dunk convincing a jury that a son is going to kill his mother in the kitchen of the farmouse where that sun was raised just sounds like quite a mountain to climb but the jury took only two hours to reach a verdict I guess I had a bad gut feeling and uh you know my gut feeling was spot on Jason Carter guilty liable ordered to pay $10 million when they came back uh with that 10 million judgment I kind of figured everything was going to go to hell from there and it did the prosecution now decided it had enough evidence to charge Jason Carter with murder his Nemesis Agent Mark Ludwick made sure he was the one to put Carter in handcuffs in front of Carter's teenage son and he said I've been waiting 2 and a half years to do this he said do you have anything to say you pussy now much more was at stake than a $10 million judgment Jason Carter if found guilty would be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life with no chance of parole opening statements this afternoon isn't Iowa Sun a seed of evil it's a case of murder on the farm but even before the trial began behind the scenes Jason Carter had to consider a possible plea Jason had to make some very difficult decisions 5 years or so in prison instead of a possible life sentence with no parole a tempting deal Boy you know you you a person's pretty Larry uh after going through a civil suit and them taking two hours to come up with a a guilty you know you you just hate to put your hands into uh into the jury again but his wife Shelly put her foot down no way in hell because Jason already spent 5 days in jail and I said to him you're not going to spend another day not one more day in jail or prison for something you didn't do your mom wouldn't be okay with it I'm not okay with it you're coming home does so the trial began on behalf of the state you may read the charge and make your own opening statement Ed bull the County Attorney began by describing Jason Carter as a man who acted out of greed who may have actually planned to kill both of his parents to get his hands on their Farm valued at $6 million they weren't ready to retire and let Jason Carter have Carter Farms so you might be wondering if Jason Carter couldn't run Carter Farms instead of his parents why why didn't he just run Carter Farms with his parents Jason Carter the man sitting in that chair right there said he could never go into business with that bitch for Jason Carter's lawyer Christine Branstad it was essential for her to paint a different picture of the relationship between Jason and his mother the Jason Carter was a son who loved his mother spent a out of time with her essential for the defense to get ahead of what they knew was testimony coming about the mother son relationship the state calls uh Brandon Smith your honor a local farm equipment salesman Brandon Smith who knew the family and Jason well I asked why he didn't Farm together with his dad and his response was I can't because my mom is a bitch did it surprise you when he said that a little yes why um I have known Shirley about as long as Bill and it was just she didn't strike me as that person um i' I guess I just didn't realize that that was how he felt I guess kind of took me back a little the defense was braced for the prosecution's strongest witness state of Iowa calls Bill Carter if I can get you to raise your right hand for me please do you where to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do please be seated the testimony of Jason's Father Bill Carter that was my biggest concern going into the trial is that a jury would think well if the father thinks he did it he must have done it the prosecutor began with questions to back up the alleged motive money did you start to have concerns that Jason was going to struggle to pay off his farming debts yes I did Jason at the time of the murder was deeply in debt bill was interested in farming with Jason to try to help him out surley was dead set against it and did not want Bill and Jason to be farming together and so Shirley was really the person standing in the way of the solution to Jason's financial problems how much was he going to come up short I assume somewhere between 100 and 150,000 Bill Carter knew his testimony could put his son in prison for life yeah it bothered me that's just because I loved him I could you can't stop loving somebody he did something terrible but you can't stop loving somebody and the emotion was raw as the questioning turned to the moment Bill Carter found the body of his wife of 52 years what did you see I found Shirley on the floor and she was just looked like she was sleeping her eyes were closed her hands were crossed and her legs were crossed and I picked her head up and I held her for the defense no piece of evidence was more important than this surveillance video showing Jason Carter at the cargo grain silo between 9 and 10: in the morning an hours drive away from his parents' home meaning that Jason Carter could not have have been at the home at the time that Shirley Carter was killed and the defense would hammer that point home with their medical expert who testified about how long Shirley Carter had been dead when her body was found my opinion I would Express would be around 2 hours the time of death was absolutely crucial and I believe all medical evidence points towards a time of death at the point when Jason Carter would have been at Cargill get you to raise your right hand for me please do you swear to tell the truth but the key witness for the defense not for the prosecution strangely enough was the state police lead investigator who had focused on Jason my name is Mark Ludwick I have never been involved in a case or seen a case of any significance where the state did not call the lead investigator what the defense wanted to show was a failure by Ludwick and others to follow up on tips from local residents that three area men with long criminal records had killed Shirley Carter during a botched robbery at least a dozen of those people say that it was a burglary gone wrong correct I'm not sure how many people but yeah burglar gone wrong was something that we knew by noon on the day of the homicide was going around the small community but again not to my knowledge and again I don't remember and again I don't know the agent was stymied by the questions I'm I'm definitely confused at this point or could not remember but I've done a lot of stupid stuff in my career and during interviews and so I'd hope I would have done that what we were able to show is that they weren't fully investigated and the door was open that they or anyone else could have been guilty none of the three men was ever charged in connection with the murder prosecutor Ed bull sought to set the record straight were there any alternative suspects that came to light not from anyone other than Jason Carter sir has there been anyone during the investigation of the death of Shirley Carter that provided information that was consistent with what you found at the crime scene yes who was that person Jason Carter Jason Carter ever shed a tear not once never until this courtroom so now the stage was set for Jason Carter to take the stand and once again attest to his [Music] innocence the day began with a surprise move by Jason Carter's lawyers and your honor the defense rests very well meaning Jason Carter was not going to testify in his own defense we had never really considered the idea of not putting Jason on the stand until the very end of the trials his lawyers thought they had a winning hand and did not want to let prosecutor Ed Bull have a go at Jason lawyers are tricky and the prosecutor is an excellent lawyer and there's a good chance that he could have you know made Jason say something or that Jason would have gotten confused by the questioning ladies and gentlemen that means the evidence is done um as the saying goes It's all over but the shouting so it was straight to the closing arguments there's no dispute someone committed murder in the first degree the question is the who is that somebody but the prosecutor knew there was no physical evidence from the crime scene to connect Jason Carter no fingerprints no weapon and the jury was not told about Carter failing the lie detector test well those that damn thing is wrong nor would the judge let the prosecutor reveal some other key facts about Jason the jury didn't hear about the affair the jury had a much more limited understanding of Jason's Financial circumstances and the family Strife that that caused and so the jury had a much weaker understanding of what why Jason would have done this it was a circumstantial evidence case based largely on surmise how does Jason Carter no his parents' bedroom is ransacked for any other reason than Jason Carter is the one who did it and the prosecutor scoffed at the defense position that law enforcement failed to investigate other possible suspects calling it a distraction the only reason that story these alternative suspects makes sense is because it's an attempted burglary well who caused the attempted burglary Jason Carter by staging and finally to Jason's relationship with his mother there was friction we got told we were going to hear this story about this loving family with no conflict and what you heard was just the opposite from Mr Carter Bill and from Brandon Smith my mom is a bitch there's only two people in this world who know what happened and one of them is dead and the other one's sitting behind me based on the evidence and in support of that evidence the state of iow would request that you find Jason Carter guilty of murder in the first degree I believe we are ready for closing statement on behalf of the defendant M banstead thank you your [Music] honor may it please the court this was a case built against Jason Carter instead of a case trying to solve a crime and look at all the clues and let's look at all the other leads that weren't followed there were so many statements made about three individuals who don't have an alibi and then the defense's other main point the video showing Jason Carter at the Cargill grain elevator pulling away in his semi TR just before 10: in the morning morning about an hour's drive away from his parents' home rest assured the state has not had anyone who testified they believe Shirley Carter died after 10:30 not one there's no one who says they believe that time of death was later but any one of those means Jason Carter could not have been there and at the end of this case there's so many holes in this investigation there's so much that isn't even explored Lord and in reality the forensic evidence not only says that there's Reasonable Doubt the forensic evidence says Jason Carter couldn't possibly be guilty surely Carter died long before that probably while he was at Cargill on video I ask you to return turn a verdict of not guilty as the jury went out to deliberate our main Hope was that they would look at the evidence and the lack of evidence and that they wouldn't be distracted by a family that had turned against Jason as the jury was deliberating his fate Jason Carter was nervous preparing for prison you know I'd be lying if I said I wasn't he sent text messages to his teenage son Chase and 5-year-old daughter McKenna just in case I said Daddy loves you very much and that I would uh I'll be home to see you [Music] soon that was real hard but I felt like I needed to do that because you never know what a jury's thinking he found out just 2 hours later you may be seated thank you ladies and gentlemen have you reached a verdict yes we have and so I prepared Jason for the worst possible verdict and made some requests that he not overreact if he got a negative verdict form of verdict number one he was shaking gray I have no color in his skin at all we the jury find Jason [Music] Carter not guilty um is that your verdict ladies and gentlemen yes it is Mr Bull do you care to have the jury pulled no sir very well started to cry visibly and I think it was just the release of the pressure and the tension and what he had gone through and then kisses from the wife who had stood by him through it all of a quid uh any bond previously posted by the defendant uh will be released and exonerated um anything further on behalf of the defendant at this point Miss banstead no your honor on behalf of the state his father bill was devastated they took me out of the courtroom as fast as they could get me out of there the da took me down stairs where I cried I knew it was over with after the verdict prosecutor Ed bull said he remained certain Jason Carter was the killer I wouldn't have signed my name to the trial information and brought this case if I did not believe Jason Carter was responsible we want to be certain we have the right guy and we we were certain we did the jury saw it differently and I loved my wife I loved her dearly and I was afraid what would happen is exactly what happened I would I was afraid there would be no verdict and now she's a what you call a cold case she's a Cold Case the anger and the bitterness and the legal drama with the Carter family is still far from over Jason and Shelley are suing his father the state of Iowa and Agent Mark lewick who declined to comment we want a new set of eyes on this case in the worst way we want an investigator who is going to investigate we're over 5 years now and we're still fighting and um you know what I tell you what we're not about to stop no [Music] ladies and gentlemen over the course of the next two weeks or so we're going to go on a journey back in time The 40-Year-Old Cold Case dating back to 1979 Michelle Martino Michelle Martino Michelle Martino are you confident that this case will be solved no why can't they figure this out how did he get away with this police officers arrived to find that she had been stabbed well over 20 times it was local lore we all knew who Michelle martinko was tonight's stunning news decades after her murder new information from DNA evidence our Jaws were on the floor because that was the first time in 40 years that we had ever received an answer like we' received and they have found the Killer's DNA that are suspect was likely one of three brothers all living in Iowa which one is it on December 19th 1979 the world was Michelle martinos for the taking instead she was taken from the world okay your wife is in a bar and said she's understand this is what he's going to tell you how to get out of that situation and I grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill him you want to say anything we the jury and find the [Applause] defendant it was 1979 what would be a tumultuous soul-searching year for America all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America Iran 1979 the United States suffered its most serious commercial nuclear power plant accident the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline it is a crisis of confidence a year that saw the crime rate climbing especially in the country's smaller cities including Cedar Rapids Isle especially around here folks thought they could just kind of go about their lives uh as they always had for for decades here and and not have to worry about the violence that happens in those bigger you know cities all that changed in Cedar Rapids one week before Christmas in 1979 at the brand new Westdale Mall a high school student brutally murdered her body discovered in her car in the parking lot our uniform division people went out there to check and check various places they checked there and did in fact uh discover the body of one Michelle Martino any motive at all can you can you think of any reason why anyone would want to kill her no from what our understanding is a a very nice young lady uh it's a sad situation um we have no idea at this point no idea and it would stay that way for almost 40 years until Michelle Martino's killer was finally Tracked Down by a detective Matt deninger who was just a child at the time of the murder I I was probably at home in bed uh in 1979 I would have been 5 years old the prosecutor who would handled the case Nick Bay Banks was even younger 4 years old we were all aware of it uh growing up in Cedar Rapids it was it was local lore we all knew who Michelle martinko was she had gone to the ball for some Christmas shopping with $180 in her purse and and this being a brand new mall with 100 plus stores you know at the weeks that lead up to Christmas you know a lot of people are there for the first time Michelle martinko had come from a school choir holiday banquet and was all dressed up she um has been described by her friends as being kind of a girly girl someone who enjoyed wearing evening clothes and things like that uh she was uh bright she was friendly she stood out in the crowd of course she was also beautiful as a matter of fact the night that uh my sister went to the mall that was the first time she had ever been there and had the $180 cash on her for that evening and she still had the money with her after she was after she was killed the last person to talk to her that night was Kurt Thomas who had been in a school play with Michelle and was working at a men's clothing store in the mall we were walking and looking at each other and and animated and just friendly Thomas walked her to the mall exit she was saying her goodbye she was bundling up she was calling it an night and going out in that parking lot she smiled at me I call it the Michelle smile the next time that she was seen was When U police officers arrived of course on the scene at about 4:00 a.m. the next morning to find that she had been stabbed uh well over 20 times throughout her chest her neck uh and her arms um and that she had been U she had been brutally [Music] murdered she was in a battle for her life as she was U being stabbed to death she was a good-looking girl real good look I understand yes I understand she was any possibility of uh of sexual assault here I would at this point and I and I certainly could stand to be corrected I would say possibly not uh I don't think robbery is a moed we don't know at this time Michelle's family including her sister and brother-in-law were convinced it was an ex-boyfriend Andy sidel who had killed her well we we really didn't have any other suspects and they had broken up in a rather unsatisfactory way and he wouldn't let go and just seemed like the classic behavioral trade of uh you know if I can't have her no one can but detectives were also suspicious of the friend she had talked to at the mall that night Kurt Thomas it turned into a nightmare an absolute nightmare Thomas was taken to the police station even even before he knew Michelle had been killed the one thing I do remember was the good cop bad cop He just flat turned around leaned over the chair and asked me why I killed her but there were no surveillance cameras in the mall parking lot no eyewitnesses and at the time no DNA testing was available no way to rule in or rule out Kurt Thomas or Edie of Michelle's friends the case went cold the theories that were floating around in town in that small town those were very hurtful because it was everything from drug rings to prostitution I mean you name it and for years her family was in despair especially her mother Janet subjected to ugly crank calls after the murder and they'd say what mother mother this Michelle do things like that and some of would be laughing and on the phone it was absolutely awful my sister and my mother were soulmates and so my mother just lost a part of herself are you confident that this case will be solved no no I'm not the case would remain unsolved for almost four decades before a scientific breakthrough and they have found the Killer's DNA now police would know if the aliis of Michelle's friends would hold [Music] up for decades it became a sad Christmas time ritual in Cedar Rapids friends and teachers ga gathering at the gravite of Michelle martinko there's a lot of people in my life I can't remember their voice but I can always remember Michelle's laugh the community was still struggling to understand her brutal murder just a few days before Christmas in 1979 we still have a really uh small town-like atmosphere here so you know uh when something happens to one of our own uh we we're all impacted by it the years went by with no solution Michelle's mother and father albertt and Janet martinl died not knowing who had killed their daughter I would say it destroyed a lot of their lives certainly their peace and quiet this was my little sister was their miracle baby uh my mother was 44 when she had my sister the mother's diary discovered later indicated that she died thinking it was either the ex-boyfriend Andy or Michelle's friend Kurt Thomas who had killed her I I saw the actual notes that uh Michelle's mother had made she thought it was Andy how did he get away with this and why can't they prove it but she was keeping a diary and I it was very troubling to me to see her write my name and then Circle it and put question marks the Millennium came and went America was attacked by terrorists the country went to war in Iraq and the most watched television show CSI showed how detectives solved crimes using forensics but in real life in Cedar Rapids Iowa the murder of Michelle Martino remained unsolved I would say we were frustrated I would say we were very anxious you know why can't they figure this out it turned out the answer had been sitting on a Shelf at the Cedar Rapids Police Station all those years evidence from the crime scene that had not yet been been tested for DNA until the year 2006 at a CSI like moment some of the items of evidence that we've kept have been reexamined by lab analyst and they have found the Killer's DNA now anyone who had been suspected or had any contact with Michelle was asked to submit a DNA samp of course one of the first people that the detectives looked at was the boyfriend and they took a swab from him and was not a match but eyebrows were immediately raised at Police Headquarters when one man refused to give a DNA sample Kurt Thomas the last person to talked with Michelle at the mall that night now married to a judge in Oklahoma my wife just was completely silent and then she was are you crazy are you nuts the police don't call and ask for DNA just willy-nilly out of the blue Thomas's lawyer gave him a statement to read to the police detective who had contacted him turning down the request for DNA read my little statement and he set the phone down I could hear the phone going down on the desk and he just announced it to wherever he was we got our fing killer we're going to get a warrant for your D it we're going to get a warrant for your arrest I knew I've always liked you as Michelle's killer but after a prolonged negotiation with the seal Rapids Police Thomas's lawyer relented and uh I gave my DNA and I remember they called and just said he's not a match and they hung up and no one else was a match either of the hundreds of men tested they had gone through all of the usual suspect my husband's DNA was tested they were were even that thorough um so there was just nowhere to turn and unless it was a total stranger and then how do you find that person it was in 2015 that detective Matt Danger took on the Cold Case determined to find that total stranger first sorting through more than 7,000 pages of reports including some prepared by his father who was a detective at the time of the murder I have to try to find something new to do I'm really brainstorming how can we streamline this process and it was his wife who gave him the answer after she had received a Christmas gift of an ancestry.com research report on her family tree that Ed [Music] DNA and at that time you know it was kind of a light bulb moment for for us she mentioned you know wouldn't that be neat if you could do that with your marenko case and and I immediately recognized the potential in that and that's how I eventually got turned on to a company called parabon Nano Labs out of Virginia [Music] so we we actually were able to get an image of our suspect created from that DNA they're able to create what what they anticipate someone would look like from their DNA including skin color hair color eye color um facial structure um things of that nature it was pretty amazing and and is not something that had ever been tried here in Iowa so that generated a whole new flurry of activity they put out the picture they had a big press release we went into Cedar Rapids for that and they aged the person a little bit and did different hair Duce what I was hoping for is that we'd get a 100 people call in and say hey it all looks like person a but the problem we ran into is we got 200 people call in and say it looks like a 100 different people another dead end but detective Matt denlinger was far from getting giving up in 2018 the spring of 2018 I saw in the news that they had cracked the Golden State killer case and arrested Joseph D'Angelo using the most Innovative DNA technology available at this time police had matched the DNA found on victims in that case to a relative of D'Angelo who had submitted her DNA to a genealogy database it led to his arrest and conviction and a revolution in solving cold cases led by Pioneers like CC Moore this technique was really only known to genealogy enthusiasts and people of unknown parentage who used it to find their birth families we were a relatively small group of Citizen scientists that created these techniques and evolve them to the point where they could really be a revolution for crime fighting and finally real hope that this would be the key to solving the murder of Michelle martinl using a database of more than 1 million people so what we're looking for are people who have uh significant amounts of shared DNA with that unknown suspect and then a hit a partial match with a woman living in Washington state she was kind of our Ground Zero for for building a family tree and working our way back to our suspect and so we were we were honing in pretty quick the the mystery of who killed Michelle martinko was about to be solved our suspect was likely one of three brothers all living in Iowa people in Manchester Iowa and the surrounding Delaware County are proud of their small town values a familyfriendly safe place in the middle of farm country and yet police were now certain that this town of 5,000 people was home for a man with a deep and dark secret if the DNA tests were correct one of three brothers in the Burns family of Manchester had to be the man who had brutally murdered Michelle martinko Jerry Burns Kenneth Burns and Donald Burns and they had all grown up in the Manchester Iowa area which is about 45 minutes from Cedar Rapids I was convinced the the DNA was telling us that that it was it was going to be one of these three after so many dead ends detective Matt denlinger was finally closing in Matt denlinger called me on the phone and said that uh they had narrowed it down to three brothers and uh uh we were just excited beyond belief we stopped and hugged each other and cried a little bit none of them had any connection to Michelle or to Westdale Mall that we could identify so it was really tricky to tell um which one we we thought was most likely our suspect no criminal records they were all entrepreneurs Ken and Jerry still live in Manchester and they both run uh different businesses and then Donald was an entrepreneur also and he lived down in uh Davenport well it was hard to sleep at night which one is it in Great secrecy Cedar Rapids police detectives descended on Manchester we were on a a lockdown no one knew what we were doing or what we were trying to accomplish we we wanted as little information getting out as possible we needed to collect DNA to confirm which one it was so we had to do that covertly they began with the brother detectives thought was the most likely suspect Kenneth Burns in Manchester we followed him around um for the better part of a day until he went and had lunch at a golf course clubhouse and then we were able to collect a drinking straw out of his glass and send that back to the state the Iowa State Crime Lab in Ankeny made the case a priority and had results within days comparing the new sample with the DNA collected off Michelle's dress four decades earlier they told us after a comparison that Kenneth was not a match for our suspect now to Davenport along the Mississippi River where Donald Burns lived he moved to Davenport with the bright lights in big city and he he seemed to me like he was the most logical of the three to have done it the detectives waited outside his home for Donald Burn's garbage to accumulate and we were able to covertly collect a glass uh and a toothbrush out of his garbage and we found out that that's not a match either finally back to Manchester and the brother detectives had thought was the least likely of the three to be the killer one DNA sampled away from being [Music] arrested and we observed Jerry leave his business around lunchtime one day went to the Pizza Ranch uh buffet restaurant there in Manchester Iowa we decided that the straw that he was drinking out of was going to be the best item to take and after uh his lunch was over uh they got up and left and we walked over and took the straw out of the glass after it was left there uh for trash once again a rush order for the technicians at the Iowa State Crime Lab in anony and when we got that phone call it you know our Jaws were on the floor it was a match that was big I wanted to leave the second I got that phone call and go arrest him but you know cooler heads prevailed the plan instead was for detective denlinger and a retired detective who had worked on the case JD Smith to go back to Manchester and see what he had to say for himself so we walked right into the business and uh knocked on the door to his office hey how are you today Jerry my name is Matt nice to meet you nice to meet you hey I'm with the Cedar Rapids Police Department oh yeah uh no smoking mirrors no no Tricks Up Our Sleeve we're going to just be honest with you and and see what you're willing to tell us now at age 64 with a full face and a friendly pet cat Jerry Burns listened as Den leer laid out the purpose of the visit all recorded on an undercover camera we uh we work in the Cold Case unit down at the Cedar Rapid police department and uh we're following on an old case I don't know if you've heard it in the news at all it's a homicide that happened at Westdale Mall mhm uh Michelle marenko is that something you've ever heard of yeah first D leer showed Burns a picture of Michelle this is this is a a picture of uh Michelle mhm is that anyone you ever remember seeing or anything like that no is not not that's not a name you knew or anything like that okay he he actually agreed to to uh be interviewed for for quite some time now Detective dener began to close in telling Burns he had a warrant to collect a DNA sample from him to make sure there was no doubt I already knew in the back of my head that Jerry was responsible for killing Michelle his DNA was on the dress and then all the cards on the table just spitballing here but I'm just thinking you know we we kind of know going in that this is probably going to be a match oh really yeah why would that be well we're kind of hoping you'd tell us the reality is we're not we're not here on a whim we're here to confirm what we already know I already collected some DNA from you that you got rid of before and so I'm telling you Jerry I already know that you're DNA is going to match the the DNA that we have on fire outside prosecutor Nick maybanks was in a surveillance fan listening to a live audio feed of the interview the reality is we're not we're not here on the whim I was on pins and needles as I was listening to the interview take place the date chosen for the confrontation was December 19th the anniversary of Michelle's murder it was no coincidence I mean I think in any investigation um you hope that the suspect confesses we thought that uh you know there could be a possibility that that date would have meaning to Mr Burns do you know what today is 19th of December did you murder someone that night Jerry test the DNA Jerry test the DNA why did this happen Jerry test the DNA what happened I don't know was not there that night you don't know why this happened I was not there that night well we know better than that Jerry you know better than that you know I'm not lying he was in denial full denial mode about having any involvement I didn't get quite what I wanted which was just a full confession explanation maybe I was overly optimistic I could get that from him but one last try take a good look at her picture for me please and just really make sure in your mind that this is not not someone you know I don't believe you met So eventually we came to the conclusion that he's not going to provide us any more information and we're not going to get uh any more evidence to connect him to Michelle so at that time it was It was decided um that we were going to arrest him for the murder of Michelle Martino tonight's stunning news of the arrest decades after her murder authorities arrested 64-year-old Jerry ly Burns of Manchester this morning he's been arrested for first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Michelle marenko but once the case got to the courtroom it was not so cut and dried Burn's family was able to hire one of Iowa's top defense lawyers and the reliability and the constitutionality of the DNA evidence would be put on trial without it a conviction would be impossible this could not have been Jerry Burns it just didn't make [Music] sense [Music] state of Iowa versus Jerry Lyn burns the state of Iowa accuses Jerry Lyn Burns of the crime of Murder in the First Degree Michelle bartin's friends and family packed the courtroom to get their first in-person look at the man accused of the brutal murder Jerry Burns looked like the most ordinary man you've ever met he looked like he couldn't possibly be a killer I thought he would be just a monster to look at but he was just a very lowkey average looking kind of guy you would have thought maybe he was in there for a parking ticket but if convicted Burns faced life in prison without parole for a crime committed 40 years earlier ladies and gentlemen over the course of the next two weeks or so you're going to go on a journey back in time Michelle martinko was a girl out on the town she would talk to anyone she considered to be a friendly face those in her class those in the concert choir with her and those that were in music were on the touring Squad with her Michelle mortino forever [Music] 18 and as the lawyer for Jerry Burns Leon spe prepared for his opening statement he understood the emotional power surrounding the memory of a beautiful teenager whose life was cut short and no one in this courtroom at any point is going to be critical of Michelle martinko there was no reason for her to die and there was no reason for any violence to be inflicted upon her to take the jury back into time to 1979 the prosecution began with classmates of Michelle martinko she was a real sweet girl uh always upbeat always dressed impeccably including her one-time boyfriend Andy sidel it's hard to characterize someone as good and and as pure as she was uh in terms of uh how she would treat others you know Andy was a nervous wreck um understandably not only did he love Michelle back then but he had went through a lot being you know the target of the investigations and of course for years Michelle's family was certain Andy was the killer after testifying he left town before Michelle's sister could talk to him I would have liked to have personally apologized to him for falsely accusing him for all those years and for thinking that he was capable of doing something like that to Michelle next to testify was Curt Thomas who also had been considered a suspect and was the last person known to have talked to Michelle at the Westdale Mall I I remember that night I remember Michelle uh her smile [Music] um the goodbye smile I mean it's it's affected my entire life including he says a sense of guilt that has weighed on him ever since since that night we lived in an age of innocence and we didn't think about monsters in the parking lot and um but it has absolutely consumed me that I didn't walk her to the car if you'd have walked her to the car it could have all been different do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth now it was time for the jury to hear the four decade long detective story as lead detective Matt dener took the St nobody to this day I think knows more about this case including me than Matt denlinger denlinger described the quest by the Cedar Rapids Police Department over the years to find the killer this is a a picture of uh Michelle leading to dinger's secretly recorded confrontation of burns the video played almost in full for the jury and your honor permission to publish and play States exhibit uh 14a he uh interviewed you may hey how are you today Burns lawyer called the video evidence the low point of the trial for their side yeah it was difficult to uh to try to uh predict how the jury was reacting to Mr Burns's questioning there at his office the natural reaction I think would be to protest loudly no I had nothing to do with it and then the video in the back seat of the police car with Burns under arrest a barely audible passage when detective dener asked if he had forgotten what happened it's possible this happen not remembering it burn suggested memories can be blocked out you block things out your memories oh you block things out I got you I got and now that we've watched all 56 minutes of this video Matt where're in the act interaction between you and Mr Burns in the squad car does he deny killing Michelle Martino he never denied it in this video does Mr Burns tell you emphatically that you have the wrong guy never did he ever say to you this must be some kind of mistake no the prosecution played its final card with a surprise witness from inside the county jail where Burns in the dark shirt on the left had been held since his arrest his cellmate in the white shirt turned informant Michael Allison he said Burns called him son and as seen in this surveillance video even signed a copy of the Cedar Rapids newspaper with a front page story about the Martino murder case says to my favorite son Michael Jerry Burns but the informant's most damning testimony suggested Burns felt he got away with it has Mr Burns discussed with you uh his feelings regarding the um potential outcome of his trial yeah he feels like uh no matter what happens in this case that he he wins because he had had the opportunity to be out there with his family all these years no further questions at this time y for all the talk about 40 years earlier it was the modern world's advances in DNA that were at the heart of this trial and nothing would be more important than Michelle's dress brought into the courtroom on a mannequin by detective denler to show the jury where the DNA that matched Jerry Burns's sample had been located there's a one in 100 billion chance that it would be somebody else the lawyer for Jerry Burns knew what he was up against there was no disputing that there was evidence of the of Jerry Burns's DNA at the crime scene but the question was how did it get there when did it get there so it was the job of the defense's only witness the defense called Dr Michael Spence forensic consultant Dr Michael Spence to make sure the jury understood what's known as the DNA transfer Theory it can be from cough sneezes uh speaking as I'm doing right now I'm sure my DNA is right here on this uh microphone and then two hours into his testimony Dr Spence was asked the pivotal question is it Dr Spence a plausible explanation that the DNA of Jerry Burns found on the dress on the gear shift could have about by a transfer objection you that is speculation there's no evidence in the record to suggest that and no Foundation to make that opinion expert or otherwise now the defense's entire case strategy depended on the judge's [Music] ruling the witness will be permitted to respond uh answer the question uh the hypothetical question was it plausible that Jerry Burn's DNA ended up on Michelle Martino's dress by some sort of innocent transfer yes that's a distinct possibility both sides felt they had done enough to win at this time ladies and gentlemen it is the time in the trial for each of the parties to present what's called a closing argument I was looking over to watch Jerry Burns to see what reaction he had with a presentation of the final argument uh he had no reaction at all on December 19th 1979 the world was Michelle Martino's for the taking instead she was taken from the world and I wanted to bring the jury into the story of where these two lives these two people intersected that night he saw her leaving and he followed her she's taken by surprise but she knows that she has to fight he knows he now must eliminate her because she can identify him meanwhile the killer would be able to go on with his life raise his family run a business enjoy those years no doubt haunted by the prospect of one day receiving a knock on the door that would eventually come and prosecutor Nick Banks replayed for the jury the video of that day he said the knock did come on the door hey how are you today Jerry my name's Matt nice to meet you how would you act if somebody came and said your DNA was on the crime scene started imping you in a murder well you know what I'd do I'd say I didn't do it you got the wrong guy not I don't know I don't think anything happened I don't think so and the prosecutor knew he had the DNA evidence on his side scoffing at the theory that Burns's DNA was somehow transferred onto Michelle's dress by accident it's not [Music] reasonable it's not founded in the evidence and quite frankly it's not even within the realm of possibilities the evidence shows Beyond any reasonable doubt the defendant killed Michelle [Music] martinko the state of Iowa is asking you to enter a verdict of guilty murder in the first degree [Music] thank you Mr maybanks but the prosecution case had a glaring hole where was the motive why did Jerry Burns kill Michelle martinko Mike cranx you're a former prosecutor it's tough to prosecute a case against a defendant with only DNA and no really clear motive for this defendant to have killed this victim I I couldn't agree with you more the jury was not shown what prosecutors wanted to present as in fact a really clear motive the disturbing internet searches discovered on Jerry Burns's computer about assault rape and murder such as Blonde molested after getting strangled and sex with freshly dead person there was indeed a motive pathological need to kill and to gain personal pleasure from The Act of Killing with Burn's lawyer Leon SP fought successfully to keep the graphic computer searches from being used as evidence in the trial we didn't think it was strong evidence of a motive and with the computer searches kept out of the case Spees was able to argue there was no evidence of a motive for this family man to Target Michelle martinko he is a characteristic Small Town Iowa businessman with a great group of children in his family he's kind of the spitten image of a a true Hawkeye the biggest Turtle for the defense was the DNA evidence linking Burns to Michelle's dress and speed reminded the jury of his expert witness's testimony about how DNA can be transferred and is not infallible this is not just phony stuff or something was made up this is important scientific information that's invaluable and necessary for your critical appraisal of all of the evidence in this case and then finally to those damning police interrogation tapes of Jerry bur much has been made about whether or not Jerry and being questioned by investigator denlinger denied that he had killed Michelle martinko test the DNA why did this happen Jerry test the DNA what happened I don't know you don't not there that night you don't know why this happened I was not there that night I was not there that [Music] night it cannot be said with your allegiance to the law and the facts that Jerry Burns is guilty Beyond a reasonable doubt your verdict must be not guilty the jury went out late in the day even the lead detective Matt Dinger worried the prosecution case had issues lack of witnesses um lack of a confession um lack of other things that connected Jerry to the crime scene or to Michelle it was a long trial with lots of evidence lots of exhibits I've seen quick juries I've seen juries that take longer and I've seen hung juries this was a quick jury after about 3 hours of deliberations the jury reached this verdict the members of the jury through the foreman have signed verdict form number one we the jury find the defendant Jerry Lyn Burns guilty of the charge of Murder in the First Degree we were hugging each other just Joy excitement relief oh my goodness relief and in the wake of Burns's conviction questions were now raised in Iowa about whether he could be linked to other unsolved murders and disappearances in the state I field calls about that uh to this day um people calling in suspecting uh Jerry somehow responsible for other crimes and I'm open to that idea including the unsolved disappearance of an Iowa TV v news anchor woman in 1995 jod hen truit and if you take a picture of Michelle and if jod who's in Tru and you put him side by side they're twins Burns's lawyer says there is no evidence of any connection to any other crimes committed by his client whatsoever well I think it's bizarre how a person could do something so brutal and not have other instances of doing something and what about the still unsolved disappearance of Burns's cousin Brian Burns Brian his own cousin he disappeared off the face of the Earth on December 19th on the anniversary of Michelle's murder pretty dadgum sure they got the right person for more than one reason after a delay because of the covid-19 pandemic Jerry Burns in his orange prison in jumpsuit and wearing a mask was back in court to hear his sentence there is no death penalty in Iowa and he got the maximum possible life without parole Jerry Lyn Burns you are now remanded to the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections for the rest of your [Music] life even so Michelle's family was not fully satisfied with the outcome I think he did get away with it I would have liked to have seen him spend the rest of his life in prison starting with age 26 but it didn't happen and uh I'm at peace with that because we're just glad they caught it we thought we'd die not knowing who did it now they do she's forever 18 you know she's forever just that beautiful person

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 158,234

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: FoMUespT9tI

Length: 85min 4sec (5104 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 20 2024