DNA-linked arrest sends 1989 Michigan homicide to trial

What began as a 1989 killing in northern Michigan finally became a courtroom test on June 1, 2026, when Steven Gary Koon went on trial in Grand Traverse County for the death of Linda Meeter. Prosecutors are now asking a jury to decide whether evidence preserved for decades is strong enough to bridge the gap between the original investigation and a case that did not reach court until 37 years later.

Koon faces an open murder charge, and that matters because it gives prosecutors room to present the case they believe the evidence supports while leaving the degree of homicide for the court to sort out. Koon, now tied to the case through DNA evidence, was arrested in 2025 after investigators said they finally had the forensic footing needed to move forward.

The victim was Linda Meeter, also identified in earlier reporting as Linda Marie Meteer, a 41-year-old mother of five from the Traverse City area when her body was found. The arrest was announced by Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea on Feb. 18, 2025, and the suspect was identified as a 63-year-old man from Leelanau County. By then, police had already spent months still publicly seeking a suspect in the killing, a reminder of how long the case had remained unresolved.

The timing also fits a broader shift in northern Michigan. In January 2025, the Michigan State Police launched the Seventh District Cold Case Team in Gaylord to review old files and determine whether they were still solvable. Around the same time, investigators were leaning harder on improved DNA work, and on the fingerprint technology that has helped crack other Michigan cold cases. In Meeter’s case, the arrest turned that wider push into something concrete, moving the file from the cold-case shelf into open court.

Now the question is no longer whether the case can be reopened. It is whether the DNA link, surviving records and whatever was preserved from 1989 can still persuade a modern jury after 37 years. That is the real test ahead, and it is the one prosecutors have finally chosen to run.