Jerry Burns is still behind bars . [20], On June 19, 1980, police released a composite sketch of a man believed to have killed Martinko, which they formed from descriptions provided by two witnesses under hypnosis. Jerry's hobbies included working on vehicles, hunting, fishing, racing cars, gardening, and working in the yard. Subsequently he interviewed Jerry Burns, who denied knowing or ever meeting Michelle Martinko. Sexual Assault of Unnamed Victim (12) . Court documents said blood on clothing worn by Martinko and a blood stain on the gear shift of the car, where the teens body was discovered, were analyzed and found to belong to someone else. Police sent the blood samples to CODIS the nationwide data base of DNA collected from arrested offenders but didn't get a hit. Jerry Burns, of Manchester, is led into a courtroom at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport for closing arguments in his murder trial in February 2020. State prosecutors also showed a video interview they secretly recorded in 2018, after matching Burns' DNA to the crime scene and getting a search warrant to obtain further DNA. December . [26] He was not able to provide an explanation for why his DNA would have been present at the crime scene. I hope you enjoy it!! Some thought that Martinko had received harassing phone calls before her death, but police stated that they did not think so. Jerry Lynn Burns faces a first degree murder charge in the killing of Michelle Martinko. When asked that question by "48 Hours," Denlinger replied, "I don't know the answer to that. Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested in the 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko. Dr. Obrecht Learns if She's a Bone Marrow Match for Willow Plus, Nikolas' Whereabouts Are Revealed. Place of rest will be in the Dickson County Memorial Gardens. [38] Burns is currently imprisoned in the Anamosa State Penitentiary. State of Iowa. The police used the information to create a partial DNA profile. Currently, in his late 60s, he is going to spend the rest of his days behind bars. Sign Up. [21] Psychics were also consulted early on in the investigation. On the way, Burns continued to talk. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Hi all - I discuss the case of Michelle Martinko, who was murdered in 1979 in Iowa, this week on DNA: ID podcast. Through his research, he discovered that a woman named Brandy Jennings had uploaded her DNA to a website service to trace her own family history. On Dec. 19, 1979, Michelle Martinko, 18, left a school banquet and drove her family's car to the Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to buy a winter coat, Cedar Rapids police said. "In a genetic genealogy database we can reverse engineer the [suspect's family] tree from their distant" relatives who have submitted DNA, Moore said. And I went 'bingo'.". Jan. 16, 2020 7:49 pm, Updated: Jan. 17, 2020 2:37 pm. Then in 2018, DNA phenotyping company GEDmatch, a public genealogy website that famously helped catch the Golden State Killer, started creating a family tree based on the killers DNA. The family of Jerry Burns would like to thank our friends and the Manchester community for the support we have received since Jerrys arrest, read the familys statement. He grew up in Manchester, Iowa, and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. It showed that she was a distant relative of the person whose DNA was found at the crime scene a second cousin once removed. She thinks this new crime . Jerry Burns is still behind bars on a $5 million cash bond, charged with first-degree murder in the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko. . It was a cold case until 2018, when familial DNA identified a suspect 39 years after the crime who was charged, tried and convicted of her murder.[2]. A DNA profile was developed from that evidence and entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but no matches were found. The murder was closely followed within her community, and the police received more than 200 tips in the weeks following her killing. Investigators say Martinko was murdered on December 19th, 1979 and her body found the next day in a family car in the Westdale Mall parking lot. 'If I was there, I don't know, Burns told Denlinger. Authorities said Burns was last seen at his 1381 180th St. residence in Delaware County on Thursday, December 19 . Her case went cold for decades until DNA testing finally brought her family some peace and put her murderer behind bars. "I am happy Michelle finally gets justice.". Jerry Lynn Burns will be in prison for the rest of his days. Be the first one to comment on this story. The new technique, started this year with the "Golden State Killer," has identified over two dozen suspects. Questions have been raised as to whether Jerry was involved in any other murders or missing person cases. Reporter covering state and federal courts. He then contacted a member of a third branch, and a DNA test determined that they were first cousins with the killer. Jerry Burns' mugshot and a family photo of Michelle Martinko. [22][12] From that, police were able to build a partial DNA profile. Want a job? On December 19, 2018, he was arrested in Manchester, Iowa, on the 39th anniversary of Michelle's death. [9] The killer left no fingerprints, which led police to believe they had worn gloves. Despite being known as a professional, Burns arrest got people talking about his family. Her mother, Janet, died in 1998. [24], In 2018, the DNA phenotyping company took the data they had collected the year before and entered it into GEDmatch, a public genealogy website that has been used by law enforcement to solve other cold cases, most famously that of the Golden State Killer. 19, 2018. At the time of the murder, Burns was 25 and lived in Manchester, Iowa. Burns' wife, Patricia, died by suicide in . Offender records are public information pursuant to Section 904.601 (1)Iowa Code (1999). Although Burns's arrest in the Martinko case raised questions about the two incidents, police do not believe Burns was involved in either one. I miss all her singing and her beautiful music. His cousin, Brian Burns, went missing on the 19th of December 2013. Through the use of advanced technologies, DNA samples from the offender were obtained. Denlinger had found the needle in the haystack. Investigators had reviewed Burns' 2018 internet searches and found that he regularly visited websites showing blonde women being raped, stabbed, and strangled, and which depicted sexual intercourse with murder victims. Martinko then asked another acquaintance to go to the mall with her; that friend said yes at first but later changed her mind. "The family never gave up hope that this case would be solved," Jerman said in a statement Wednesday. Around 4 a.m., Martinko was found inside her familys Buick Electra. Denlinger then told him he had a search warrant for his DNA. Police had searched his computer after arresting him, and found a history of searches pertaining to nefarious subjects including the murder of blonde women, and pornographic matter involving blonde women. Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria, a group of 39 people. They then used genealogical data as well as a covertly collected DNA sample from Burns to positively identify him, authorities said. Martinko, an 18-year-old high school student, was found stabbed to death in her family's car in the parking lot of a local mall, where she had gone to buy a new coat. Burns was arrested on Dec. 19, 2018. 'A complete shock': Family of suspect in Martinko murder releases statement, Bobcats and beyond are wearing orange to support Benton Communitys Tatum Schroeder, UIHC library offers resources for and about people with disabilities. Log In. He said he thought Burns might have a 'conscience.. The case had remained a mystery for 39 years until police say new DNA genealogy technology identified Burns' DNA at the scene. The defense team for . On December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Martinko's murder, the police confronted Burns and arrested him after his DNA matched the one found on Martinko's clothes. But the software he used allowed him to review history and activity only to January 2018. Jerry Burns. The video of that is on YouTube and is mentioned around the 25:28 mark. [11][18] In the year after the killing, the number of people interviewed by police reached the hundreds, and up to 30 people were interviewed under hypnosis. The company created a family tree starting with four sets of the woman's great-great-grandparents and reported that the killer was most likely descended from one of those couples. "I am thrilled for her sister, Janelle, and wish her parents were alive to see this," Michelle Martinko's high school friend, Elizabeth Laymon, told The Des Moines Register. Cases previously considered unsolvable have been getting their answers, & Joseph DeAngelo's arrest (EAR/GSA/ONS) is proving to be just the first of many getting resolved. While being questioned about . Parabon. Jerry A. Burns, age 69, of Bryan, Texas went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 10:56 p.m. Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested on Wednesday after police said he was linked by DNA from blood found on Michelle Martinko's clothing and elsewhere in the car at the crime scene. This revealed everything, and Burns was ultimately declared guilty of first-degree murder. Like all the cases I cover, Michelle's was solved using forensic genealogy, which led police to Jerry Lynn Burns. See Photos. Her friend declined. Linn. GEDmatch returned one person who shared DNA markers with the suspect in Martinko's murder, and it determined her to be likely the killer's second cousin once removed. This evidence was inadmissible at trial but was the subject of a public suppression hearing. The next day, she was found stabbed to death in the mall parking lot. It wasn't until decades after the killing that investigators began to link the emotions of a motive with the science of DNA. But by 2 a.m., her father called the police because she had not returned home. With genetic genealogy, an unknown killer's DNA from a crime scene can be identified through his or her family members, who voluntarily submit their DNA to a genealogy database. Authorities arrested 64-year-old Jerry Lynn Burns of Manchester this morning. Although the tip did not lead to any suspects, the investigator discovered what he believed to be the killer's blood while he was reviewing the case files. Burns has hired a very high profile attorney and has said he plans to appeal his conviction, which was very largely based on the DNA evidence. Born in 1953, Jerry Lynn Burns grew up in Manchester, Iowa, and graduated from West Delaware High School in 1972. A struggle followed in which Michelle was stabbed and sliced by a knife almost 30 times in a horrific murder that police initially believed had to be a crime of passion. Feb. 1, 2019 | The Des Moines Register. Attorneys for Jerry Burns, convicted of the 1979 murder of Michelle Martinko, are continuing to fight DNA evidence they say the trial court erred in not supressing. Her father died in 1995 and her mother died in 1998. The DNA was uploaded to the law enforcement database called Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but investigators never found a match, police said. After the arrest this week of Jerry Burns in the 1979 killing of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko, an Iowa city is left shocked, saddened, and skeptical. The judge ordered a $5 million cash bond, and Burns is set to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 28. Derek Chauvin's ex-wife . Hernando . 28, 2021 7:50 am611d ago, Trish Mehaffey Crime and Courts Mar. Burns pleaded not guilty at his February 2020 trial but the jury deliberated just three hours and returned a guilty verdict. On August 7, 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jerry Burns mentioned Jodi by name while speaking to an investigator shortly before his arrest. [7] Eventually, more than 125 people would have their DNA swabbed and compared against samples taken from the scene. Cedar Rapids police arrested Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, on Wednesday morning and charged him with first-degree murder - 39 years to the day after the killing 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was stabbed . In 2018, the company entered the DNA data from the case into the public genealogy website GEDmatch, where it found a familial DNA match. Jerry Burns Wife: Who Is He Married To? Police looked at numerous suspects during the initial investigation, including a man who raped a woman at knifepoint and later died while in prison for that crime, but DNA testing ruled him out. In October 2018, DNA was covertly collected from an Iowa man, Jerry Lynn Burns, and was found to match the sample discovered on Martinko's clothing. Denlinger told him authorities would come back to talk to him after they got the results of the DNA test. Just before his arrest, Burns, unsolicited, mentioned the name of missing Iowa anchor Jodi Huisentruit as he was being questioned about the Martinko case. Denlinger does NOT believe Burns is responsible for Jodi Huisentruit - rather that he admired/fantasized about whatever happened to her. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette). Burns, charged with first-degree murder in the cold case stabbing of Martinko, is asking the court to toss out DNA and other evidence because they were obtained without a warrant and represented violations of privacy and other rights. Burns also built himself a new home on his parents' land and opened a gas station and convenience store nearby. A jailhouse informant also testified in the case Tuesday. Burns repeatedly said he didn't know how his DNA was found at the crime scene. "[2] When asked if he had killed someone that night in 1979, Burns repeatedly told investigators, "Test the DNA". "I cried a lot and I looked out windows all hours of the night," Martinko's mother, Janet Martinko, told Cedar Rapids' CBS station in 1987. Jerry was born May 22, 1944, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Fred Richard Lynn and Mary Ellen Manning and passed away on July 10, 2022. Exactly 39 years after her death, police took a Manchester man into custody after matching his DNA to blood found at the crime scene. Burns seemed to have a 'fetish for these violent, sexual themes, Cedar Rapids police Investigator Jeff Holst testified. It goes beyond the simple news reporting of case solved using genetic genealogy. The podcast explores who these perpetrators are, possible motives and features interviews with investigators who are willing to talk because the cases have already been resolved in court. Kayla Lemieux, the transgender high school teacher in Canada, has been put on paid leave after pictures emerged of her dressed as a man proving she does not wear the prosthetics all the time. Yet they had a DNA match linking the Manchester man to the Cedar Rapids teenager, slain in 1979 outside the Westdale Mall. Jerry Burns on Trial AP Jerry Burns of Manchester, Iowa, is led into the courtroom during closing arguments for his trial at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. So Denlinger drew up an elaborate genealogy chart going back to Brandy's great-great grandparents to sleuth out a trail that could lead to the killer's DNA. The images looked considerably different from the 1980 composite sketch and showed a man with blond hair and blue eyes. DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWWL) - State prosecutors called a former cellmate of Jerry Burns in his murder trial, which continued Tuesday in Scott County. Michelle Martinko was an 18yr old student from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. Doug Larison to reexamine the file and find what he believed to be the killers DNA in blood found on Martinkos dress that was not her blood. Accountability doled out to suspects. The sketch looked like a man in his 20s, weighing 165-175 pounds, and standing at around 6 feet. "I did not see this day coming," Franzman said on a broadcast this week. He asked Burns for a sample of his DNA, but Burns said no - not without an attorney. Burns' attorney, Leon Spies, also argued in his suppression motion that the computer evidence is irrelevant because it's from 2018 - 38 years after Martinko's death. Family and friends of Jerry Burns are seated in the courtroom at a sentencing hearing for Jerry Lynn Burns at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. An investigator with the Cedar Rapids police department contacted DNA-tested members of two of the branches of the family tree, and eliminated those branches as containing the killer. Martinko's father Albert and mother Janet died in 1995 and 1998 respectively. Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT, a group of 41 people. CBS "48 Hours" on Saturday will spotlight a 40-year-old Iowa murder case that has raised questions about whether the killer could be linked to Jodi Huisentruit's abduction.. Jerry Burns was convicted last February of killing 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. "That threw us all off," Allison said about the incident. Jerry Lynn Burns was finally arrested in October 2018 for the murder of Michelle Martinko, that took place 39 years prior. [2][5] Her hands bore defensive wounds, which police said to indicate that she had fought back against her killer. Jerry Lynn Burns will raise two . In a brief interview with the Cedar Rapids Gazette in 1980, Janet said of her daughter, She loved music. Blond / All American Girls - Jodi was a bit older. Mason City police won't disclose whether or not they are now looking at Jerry Burns as a suspect in that case. His ex-wife, Patricia, committed suicide in 2008, and his cousin Brian Burns astonishingly disappeared. The Delaware County Sheriff's Office says Brian Burns remains an active missing person case but, at this point, has no link to his cousin. Wednesday, March 1, 2023: Today on General Hospital, Obrecht is furious with both Liz and Scott, Finn offers to stand by Liz, and Sonny and Dex bond over a meal. . . See Photos. He also wished the Burns family well, saying they now have to pick up the pieces of their lives just like the Martinko family did. Your login session has expired. UPDATE: Trial set for Iowa man accused in 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko . In 2017, a company specializing in DNA phenotyping was hired to produce a new approximation of the killer's appearance based solely off the DNA sample. Let's uncover where he is now in this article. She was unsure her information would be of any use because she had read that the murder happened between 10p.m. and midnight, and it was 2a.m. when she drove by. DNA Profiling is a modern investigative technology used to compare criminal suspects' profiles to DNA evidence so as to assess the likelihood of their involvement in the crime. Grab your popcorn & get comfy as we dive into some dusty old cases revitalized thanks to genetic genealogy (& a bit of good ol' fashioned detective work! We need somebody from their family to have tested in order to resolve these cases.". Identities returned to Does. Viewers also wondered if there was a connection to the disappearance of Burns' cousin, Brian Burns. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? When the police executed a search warrant for Burns home and office, they found a computer search history that included blonde females, assault, rape, strangulation, murder, abuse and rape of a deceased individual, and cannibalism.. The trial for Jerry Lynn Burns, who's been charged with first-degree murder in the 1979 killing of Michelle Martinko, will begin at 9 a.m. Oct. 14 at Linn County Courthouse, according to online court records and the Des Moines Register. Jerry Burns. A juvenile found carrying a knife was interviewed and ruled out in her murder, as was a shopping center employee who had told police that he enjoyed following women and ogling store mannequins. Prosecutor Nick Maybanks/Cedar Rapids Police Department, "Murder at the Mall: The Michelle Martinko Case,". [29] The judge determined the search history was not usable in the trial due to the decades of time separating the murder and the searches. When Burns, of Manchester, Iowa, was questioned, he "denied committing the offense but could offer no plausible explanation why his DNA would be found at the crime scene," police said. [9] Martinko was found inside collapsed over the passenger seat and stabbed to death. Police found impressions from rubber gloves inside and outside the car, indicating that the assailant had likely planned his attack and hoped to escape unidentified. He was born in Hundred, WV on April 24, 1930, a son of the late Robert Lee and Rebecca Taylor Merriner. Detectives considered charging the Commissioner with failure to pass along the information to police, but no charges were pursued. [2], On December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Martinko's murder, Burns was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The similarities were eerie two pretty, young women, both meeting their final fate in parking lots in Iowa, 16 years apart, in cases that went unsolved for decades. After tracing the suspect's family tree, investigators zeroed in on Burns, covertly collected his DNA and sent it to a lab for analysis, according to Moore and Jerman. He was sentenced to life on August 7 without the possibility of parole. "We are reviewing the case and at this time have not uncovered any additional information that would implicate Jerry Burns in that disappearance," Sheriff John LeClere told TV9. In fact, his father Harvey, now 85, had been one of the original officers on the case 40 years earlier. Subscribe to the Public Safety newsletter. The detective on the case, Matt Denlinger, gave me some interesting details. Find your friends on Facebook. wife was deter mined to be a distant cousi n to many of the Subject's more . The wait ended Monday, when a jury convicted Jerry Lynn Burns of first-degree murder in the 1979 stabbing death of 18-year-old Martinko. [2][4][27], In pretrial hearings, Burns' attorneys claimed that police needed a search warrant to gather his DNA from the discarded straw, but the judge determined that discarded property cannot reasonably be considered private. [2], Martinko's father, Albert, died in 1995. He stated that Burns' DNA could have been at the scene due to secondary transfer (such as skin cells transferring to an article of clothing when someone brushes up against another person), although he clarified that it was not his opinion that this was the case with Burns' DNA. During the investigation, the police assumed that there were personal motives involved in the murder due to the nature of Martinko's stab wounds. But it was another technique from Parabon -- genetic genealogy -- that led investigators to Burns, CeCe Moore, Parabon's chief genetic genealogist, told ABC News. Oral Argument Schedule. They . ABC News' Matt Foster and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report. "That was big, national news," said Denlinger. Please logout and login again. The murder of Michelle Martinko in the parking lot of Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall has some eerie connections to the Huisentruit case. JERRY LYNN BURNS, Defendant-Appellant. The murder of Michelle Martinko occurred in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on December 19, 1979. He said he remembered the case from seeing it in the news, but didn't know Martinko and didn't have anything to do with it, Denlinger testified. [8][9] She attended Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, where she was an above average student and well regarded by school officials. While these occurrences sounded suspicious, the police didn't believe Burns had anything to do with them. The detective looked through the case files and found what he thought to be the murderer's blood. Denlinger began contacting genealogy companies for help in trying to find a family tree that could lead to the person whose DNA matched that found at the crime scene. Months before his February . "Do I look like that?" On February 24, 2020, after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Jerry Lynn Burns guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Martinko. He would have been around 25-years-old when he killed Michelle Martinko in December of 1979. According to KWWL, at the sentencing, Stonebaker said that Burns stole those 39 years and many more from a sweet smart, talented girl who never got her chance at college, a career, marriage, children and by now, even grandchildren.. [26] When the DNA sample was tested, it matched the blood sample found at the crime scene. Martinko then went to the mall alone, carrying $180 and intending to finalize the purchase of a new winter coat that was on layaway. [2], On October 29, 2018, an investigator observed one of the brothers, Jerry Lynn Burns, drink multiple sodas using a plastic straw. Her killer will go undetected for almost 40yrs! The Delaware County Sheriff said it did review the case after Burns' arrest and "feels that was clearly the case.". He was arrested Wednesday on the exact day Martinko was last seen alive. [4] Documents concluded that fewer than one in 100 billion people would match the DNA profile. An obituary for Burns' wife, Patricia, says that she died in June 2008 at the age of 55 . The prosecution did not resist either request, and the trial was rescheduled for February 10, 2020 in Scott County. . 2. The sample was put into a national computer database and was used to clear more than 70 of Martinkos acquaintances, according to NBC News. "He had told me if I keep beating him, in pinochle, he was gonna have to 'take me to the mall,'" Allison said on the witness stand Tuesday. In 2006, a cold case investigator discovered unidentified blood, presumably belonging to the killer, while he was reviewing case files. You have permission to edit this article. The final nail in the coffin was when a witness gave his statement to the court. Spies, on cross examination, asked if Denlinger had permission from Burns' two brothers and a distant cousin to access their DNA in developing a suspect pool. They then started to locate all the people that they had originally interviewed in the investigation and collected DNA samples from over 100 different people. The charge against Jerry comes as a complete shock to us and we are doing our best to carry on with our lives, the family said in the statement on Saturday. Denlinger interviewed Burns at his business. I've been reading up on this case and was wondering if they profiled this guy? [16] Another rumor emerged that a second stabbing had happened in the following days and that police were keeping it secret, which police denied. The first piece of progress in the case came in 2006 when a sample of the suspect's DNA from Michelle Martinko's car was submitted to a lab for processing, police said. A funeral service for Jerry Calvin Lynn, 78, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, July 16, 2022, at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2201 Airline Drive, Bossier City, Louisiana. Would love your thoughts, please comment. The family of the man suspected of murdering Michelle Martinko 39 years ago said the arrest came "as a complete shock.". He has worked for promotions such as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA TNA), and Ring of Honor (ROH). Jerry Lynn Burns. Jerry knew he was called to be a preacher at the age of 13 and after many years of arguing with God. / CBS News. ", First published on November 6, 2020 / 8:47 AM. Lighthouse: The Dark Being, a group of 43 people. In a press conference during which the new image was shared, a former classmate of Martinko exclaimed that the face looked like another one of their classmates, but that classmate had been investigated and was cleared based on a DNA swab several years before. (Supreme Court No. Thirty-nine years to the day after she was killed, a suspect was charged thanks to DNA and genetic genealogy. Jerry was married to his second wife at the time of his arrest. Spies asked if he had consent from Burns to take the lunch straw for testing. In late June of 1995, Jodi Huisentruit, a young anchor at KIMT television in Mason City, Iowa, disappeared from the parking lot of her apartment building on the way to work, never to be seen again. The majority of the search activity and history on Burns' computer was sexually graphic and more 'deviant in nature, said Holst, who investigates sex crimes and internet crimes against children. The police considered the murder personal in nature based on the manner of death, according to Little Village magazine. God finally won. Burns argues the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress where the warrantless extraction of his DNA profile violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I . She never had any school problems. 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An 18yr old student from Cedar jerry lynn burns wife Gazette in 1980, Janet said her! Of 41 people prison without the possibility of parole: who is he Married to it was n't until after. Murderer 's blood used allowed him to review history and activity only January! 1979 stabbing death of 18-year-old Martinko testing finally brought her family some and! Investigator discovered unidentified blood, presumably belonging to the Cedar Rapids teenager, slain in 1979 killing of Martinko! Of 43 people weeks following her killing and Burns was arrested in October 2018 for the of. Was not able to build a partial DNA profile ; s more first published November. Burns, who denied knowing or ever meeting Michelle Martinko they were first cousins with science!