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Steven Gary Koon was convicted of second-degree murder in Linda Meteer's death and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, decades after her body was found in 1989.

Meteer, 41, was a mother of five from the Traverse City, Michigan area. On the night of April 19, 1989, she visited bars with her fiancé in Chums Corner, south of Traverse City. Koon, a Leelanau County man, was at Spike's Peak bar that night. Meteer was last seen leaving a bar in Chums Corner and was reported missing on April 20, 1989. Her body was found in the Hoosier Valley area south of Traverse City late in the afternoon of April 27, 1989. The pathologist testified that she died of blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen about a week before she was found. Breaking her ribs and jaw required significant force. He said a car could have caused the injuries, but that was possible rather than probable.

Koon was a person of interest from the start. Investigators interviewed him three times in 1989. He said he did not know Meteer, never gave her a ride home from Spike's Peak bar, and left alone and drove home in his 1976 Cadillac. The case remained unsolved for decades. The Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office later reopened it with retired detectives, state police forensic laboratories and the Western Michigan University Cold Case Program. Students digitized the file and built timelines for detectives.

A hair recovered from Koon's car underwent mitochondrial DNA testing. A prosecution analyst testified that 99.79 percent of the North American population could be excluded as having that profile; a defense consultant said about one in 477 maternal lineages would share the sequence. A trace evidence analyst found no differences between fibers from Koon's car and fibers from where the body was found, consistent with, but not proof of, a common source.

A sheriff's detective interviewed Koon again in 2024, and Koon kept to his account. The detective testified that Koon was generally cooperative but shifted from being very open to a closed posture and grew very quiet. In the recorded interview after the reopening, detectives tell Koon they are revisiting an old complaint bearing his name because earlier interviews were brief and left questions unanswered. They ask about people tied to a bar near Chums Corner and roofing work with his father. The interview closes with casual talk about hunting and his new vehicle.

Koon, 63, was arrested on February 18, 2025, on a charge of open murder and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in the 86th District Court. His trial before Judge Kevin Elsenheimer in the 13th Circuit Court in Grand Traverse County began in the first week of June 2026. Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg sought a second-degree murder conviction. Alongside the hair and fiber evidence, the state presented a witness who testified that Koon once told her, "I think I killed someone." She acknowledged he had been drinking and said she was unsure she believed him then. The defense argued that the investigation had gaps and other possible suspects had not been ruled out, including Meteer's fiancé, who was investigated in 1989 and again in 2024 and never charged. It also cited a pubic hair found on or near the one sock Meteer was wearing that excluded both Meteer and Koon.

The jury began deliberating on the afternoon of Friday, June 5, 2026, and found Koon guilty of second-degree murder on Monday, June 8. Judge Elsenheimer imposed the sentence on August 24, 2026. Koon, 64, maintained his innocence. No appellate ruling is reported as of November 1, 2026.