TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Thirty-seven years after Linda Meteer was murdered, the man convicted of killing the Traverse City mother of five will be in prison for a long time.

Steven Gary Koon, 64, was sentenced Monday to 30 to 60 years in prison for Meteer’s 1989 murder, according to the Grand Traverse County Prosecutor’s Office.

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A jury found Koon guilty of second-degree murder in June after a week-long trial in 13th Circuit Court. The decades-old cold case was revived through modern DNA and forensic testing, along with work by local investigators and Western Michigan University’s Cold Case Program.

A family waited 37 years

Meteer, 41, disappeared in April 1989 after a night out near Chums Corner. Her badly beaten body was found about a week later in the Hoosier Valley area south of Traverse City.

Ahead of sentencing, Meteer’s son Shawn asked friends for prayers, calling it “a very difficult day.”

For Koon, who is already 64, the 30-year minimum means he would be 94 years old before becoming eligible for parole.