QUESTIONS ANSWERED?
Jerry Lynn Burns lived in Manchester, approximately a 45-minute drive north of Cedar Rapids where Michelle had been killed. He’d previously co-owned a truck shop and built a petrol station and shop near where he lived. By 2018 though, he owned a powdercoating company.
Burns was put under surveillance by investigators. They needed to obtain his DNA to see whether it matched the evidence left at the crime scene. Their breakthrough came when one officer saw Burns drinking out of a glass with a straw in a pizza restaurant.
When Burns left, the items were collected and taken to a specialist lab for testing.
It was a match to DNA left at the crime scene.
On 19 December 2018
– 39 years to the day that Michelle’s life was cruelly cut short – Burns was arrested. He couldn’t explain why his DNA was on the schoolgirl’s clothing.
Her friends and family were thrilled that they might at last receive answers, but for Janelle Stonebraker – Michelle’s sister – it was bittersweet that her parents weren’t around to witness the arrest.
Those who knew Jerry Lynn Burns were stunned at the news. In February 2020, the trial began and Burns, then 66, pleaded not guilty to firstdegree murder.
The defence claimed Burns had visited the shopping centre before and Michelle may have picked up his DNA while browsing in the shops and somehow transferred it to her car. They also criticised how the evidence from the murder was handled and stored, suggesting it could have been contaminated.
The prosecution, however, with the DNA, could place Burns at the scene and the odds of the DNA match being wrong were ‘astronomical.’ They also shared footage of Burns after his arrest in the back of a police car discussing whether he might have blocked out the memory of murdering Michelle.
In just three hours, a jury found Jerry Burns guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life. Janelle’s husband, John, later spoke of Michelle’s bravery. ‘ We’re thankful that she fought so hard. Michelle played a critical role in identifying her own killer,’ he said. ‘The defensive wounds on her hands show it. She fought so hard that she was able to deflect the killer’s knife so that he stabbed himself, leaving the blood that caught him. In a very real way, Michelle became her own best witness.’
With her killer now behind bars, the hope is that her family have finally found closure.