Trace evidence links Koon’s car to Meteer murder scene, expert says

Trace evidence took center stage in Grand Traverse County Circuit Court as prosecutors tried to show jurors that Steven Gary Koon’s car carried fibers linked to the spot in Hoosier Valley where Linda Marie Meteer’s body was found nearly 37 years ago.

The expert from Microtrace, a private forensic lab that specializes in fibers and hair, told jurors the team compared 20 fibers total, 10 recovered from Koon’s car and 10 from the scene where Meteer was discovered. The lab concluded the fibers shared the same characteristics, a finding prosecutors presented as another piece of their circumstantial case against the 64-year-old Leelanau County man charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 41-year-old mother of five.

But the testimony also exposed the limits of the science. The lab manager told jurors the analysis could not determine the exact source of the fibers or how long they had been present. That matters in a case that turns on old evidence, because the defense can argue that a match in characteristics does not prove when the fibers got into Koon’s vehicle, or how they ended up connected to the murder scene.

Meteer was first reported missing on April 20, 1989, after she was last seen leaving a bar in Chum’s Corner. Her body was found in Hoosier Valley on April 27, 1989. Koon was arrested on February 18, 2025, after investigators reopened the case with modern forensic work and help from Western Michigan University’s Cold Case Program, which digitized the file and created searchable timelines and documents.

The trial began June 1 with jury selection, and witnesses started June 2 in a proceeding expected to last about ten days. Court planning showed 89 juror questionnaires were returned and 21 prospective jurors were excused. Earlier testimony had already put mitochondrial DNA testing on hair from Koon’s car in front of jurors, with one analyst saying the result could exclude 99.79% of the North American population as the contributor at a 95% confidence limit.

Prosecutors have also introduced testimony about an alleged remark by Koon: “I think I killed someone.” The defense has pointed jurors toward another possible suspect, including Meteer’s boyfriend at the time, Charles Manville. For a case that sat unsolved for decades, the fiber testimony was more than a technical discussion. It was a test of whether jurors can trust evidence gathered long after the killing, and whether that evidence is strong enough to turn a cold case into a conviction.