Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

Jay Roland Cook (1967–1987) and Tanya Van Cuylenborg (1969–1987) were a Canadian couple from Saanich, British Columbia who were murdered while on a trip to Seattle, Washington in November 1987 by William Earl Talbott II. The case is a milestone for forensic criminal investigators due to the utilization of genetic genealogy, a tool then-novel to the field. The case broke ground on two fronts: It was the first to be tried in a court of law using the new technology, and it was also the first of such cases to result in a conviction.[1]

Jay Cook
Born
Jay Roland Cook

1967
British Columbia
Died18 November 1987 (aged 20)
Body discovered26 November 1987
NationalityCanadian
Tanya Van Cuylenborg
Born1969
British Columbia
Died18 November 1987 (aged 18)
Body discovered24 November 1987
NationalityCanadian

Events prior to the murders

Cook and Van Cuylenborg met in high school and had been in a relationship for about six months.[2] On 18 November 1987, they left in Cook's father's bronze 1977 Ford Club van for an overnight trip to the Seattle area to purchase parts for Cook's father's business.[3]

Cook and Van Cuylenborg took the MV Coho ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington. They then drove south-east on Route 101 to Bremerton, where they boarded a second ferry to Seattle. A fuel receipt later found in the van confirmed that they purchased fuel on the road between Port Angeles and Bremerton.[4] The pair were last seen boarding the ferry in Bremerton.

Cook's and Van Cuylenborg's families became concerned when the couple did not return home as planned on 19 November and did not make contact. On 20 November, they were reported missing.

The murders

On 24 November, Tanya Van Cuylenborg's half-naked body was found in a ditch by a rural road near Alger, in Skagit County, Washington, a short distance south of Bellingham.[4] She had been raped, bound with plastic ties, and shot in the head.[5] Investigators initially considered Cook a suspect, though both Cook's and Van Cuylenborg's families vehemently rejected this possibility.

On 25 November, Tanya's wallet and keys were found discarded, near the Greyhound station in Bellingham. The van was found a few blocks away. Inside the van were plastic ties of the same type used to bind Tanya, plastic gloves, and various receipts, including the Bremerton-Seattle ferry ticket, confirming the belief that the couple had taken the second ferry. However, Tanya's Minolta X-700 35 mm camera, which she had brought on the trip, was missing and has never been recovered.[6]

On 26 November, Jay Cook's body was discovered nearly 60 miles[7] from where Tanya's body had been found two days earlier. Jay had been beaten with rocks and strangled.[2][8]

Investigation and later events

The police believed that the killer was taunting them by leaving the plastic gloves in plain view. Detective Robert Gebo of the Seattle Police Department stated: "He leaves those behind as a sign to the police that you needn't look for fingerprints because I wore these gloves. And he has confidence that there's nothing that's going to connect him with these crimes."[2]

The police were in fact able to obtain the suspect's DNA from the van, but there was no match on any of the criminal databases.[5] Despite the lack of a match, the police believed that the specific manner in which the victims were killed (which has not been revealed in detail publicly) suggested that the killer was familiar with the prison system.[2] The lack of a match despite a potential prison background could be explained by the suspect having been incarcerated before DNA collection from criminals became commonplace or technologically possible.

Investigators believed that the couple might have met their killer on one of the ferries, most likely the second one, and offered him a ride upon reaching Seattle.[2]

In the months after the murders, both victims' families received a series of taunting greeting cards featuring graphic descriptions of the murders.[2] The cards bore postmarks from Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York, and were written by the same person. In 2010, it was announced that the writer of the cards had been found: a 78 year-old Canadian transient, with mental health issues. The police confirmed that he was not the killer and had no connection to the crime.[9]

Perpetrator

On 11 April 2018, a composite sketch of the suspect was released based on the DNA collected from semen found on Van Cuylenborg's trousers at the crime scene using a process called "snapshot DNA phenotyping" by Parabon Nanolabs.[10][6] The case was also investigated by Parabon using genetic genealogy by uploading the DNA to the public website GEDmatch.com, the same site that led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer suspect Joseph James Deangelo.[11] A second cousin, Chelsea Rustad, and another undisclosed distant cousin from the other side of the tree, were identified from GEDmatch. Based on genetic genealogy, William Earl Talbott II, 55, a truck driver, became the prime suspect. Police tested a paper cup Talbott had discarded and found his DNA matched exactly.[12]

On 18 May 2018, the Snohomish County Sheriff announced that Talbott was arrested for the murder of Van Cuylenborg.[13][14] Talbott's parents lived seven miles away from the bridge over the Snoqualmie River where Cook was found.[15]

The case, and specifically finding the killer via public genealogical websites, was featured on a Season 4 episode of the Criminology podcast.[16] The case was also featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries during the episode that NBC aired on 25 October 1989.[17]

Talbott was charged in May 2018 for the murder of Van Cuylenborg. On 16 June 2018, a second aggravated first-degree murder charge was added for the murder of Jay Cook.[8] Talbott plead 'not guilty' to both these charges.[15] He was held on $2.5 million bail, and his trial was originally scheduled to take place in late March or early April 2019; it was then moved to June 3 but began on June 11 and ended on June 28 with Talbott being found guilty.[18][19][20][21] He was originally eligible for the death penalty, but because Washington State Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, he was instead given two sentences of life in prison and has since been moved to the Washington State Penitentiary.[22][23][24][25][26] Talbott is now trying to appeal his conviction.[27]

Documentaries and Media

Following the conclusion of the case, multiple articles and documentaries were released on Canadian television, as well as in the United States, covering the events of the Talbott case and exploring how investigative genetic genealogy was used to identify the killer.

Chelsea Rustad, the genetic witness whose DNA identified her second cousin William Earl Talbott II, appeared in the cover story for the 28 July 2019 issue of the Everett Herald.[28]

The documentary "Is murder in your DNA?", the 45th season premiere of The Fifth Estate, debuted online on 20 September 2019,[29] and aired on CBC on 22 September 2019.

The documentary "Family Secrets", the 54th season premiere of W5, aired on CTV and debuted online on 21 September 2019.[30]

The case was profiled in HLN's Forensic Files II in the ninth episode, titled Family Tree on 22 March 2020.[31]

Talbott's second cousin, Chelsea Rustad, wrote a book chronicling her experiences with the Talbott case, released April 2020.[32]

In the ABC documentary series The Genetic Detective, CeCe Moore, the genealogist who deduced the identity of the suspect in just two hours in June 2019, discusses the murder and solving of the case.[33]

Talbott's cousin Chelsea Rustad appeared in an article in the 18 October 2020 issue[34] of People, going into detail about how she won the AncestryDNA kit which linked her DNA to Talbott's.

The Talbott case was discussed by Chelsea Rustad, Jim Scharf, and CeCe Moore in the 13 January 2021 episode[35] of NOVA, "Secrets In Our DNA".

See also

References
  1. "Signaling a 'new era', man caught through genetic genealogy gets life in prison". ABC News.
  2. "Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg". Unsolved Mysteries. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  3. Smart, Amy (30 June 2015). "Reward offered in push to solve killing of Victoria couple in 1987". The Times Colonist. Victoria, British Columbia. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  4. Azpiri, Jon (27 June 2015). "Crime Stoppers: What happened to Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg?". Global News. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  5. Boswell, Randy (7 January 2010). "International team tries to crack unsolved 1987 murders of Victoria couple". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  6. McAvoy, Taylor; Wilkinson, Eric (11 April 2018). "Detectives release new sketches, ask for help in 1987 double-murder". KING-TV. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  7. "Snohomish, Skagit cold case gets momentum with modern DNA science". KIRO-TV. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  8. Azpiri, Jon (16 June 2018). "Second murder charge filed against Washington State trucker in 1987 deaths of Saanich couple". Global News. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  9. Hefley, Diana (27 August 2010). "Author of taunting letters found but cleared of 1987 killings". The Herald. Everett, Washington. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  10. "Cops release suspect sketch in unsolved 1987 murder of young couple". KOMO. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  11. Saey, Tina Hesman (23 May 2018). "Genetic sleuthing again IDs a murder suspect in a cold case". Science News. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  12. Hutton, Caleb (28 July 2019). "My cousin, the killer: Her DNA cracked a 1987 double murder". The Herald. Everett, Washington. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  13. Larsen, Karin (18 May 2018). "DNA genealogy match leads to arrest in 1987 slayings of B.C. high school sweethearts". CBC News. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  14. "Detectives from the Snohomish and Skagit County Sheriff's Offices arrested a 55 Y.O. SeaTac Man for the 11/1987 murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg". Twitter. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  15. Wanielista, Kera (19 June 2018). "Cold case murder suspect pleads not guilty". GoSkagit. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  16. "The Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg". stitcher.com (podcast). Criminology. 13 October 2018. Se 4, Ep 3. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  17. "The Murder of Jay Cook and Tanya van Cuylenborg". Unsolved Mysteries.
  18. "Trial delayed for suspect in 1987 killings of young couple". The Herald. Everett, Washington. 14 March 2019.
  19. "Trial nears for 1987 cold case killings of Canadian couple". 31 May 2019.
  20. "Man on trial in killings arrested through genetic genealogy". Yahoo News.
  21. "SeaTac man convicted of 1987 murders of Canadian couple after DNA evidence linked him to case". The Seattle Times. Seattle, Washington.
  22. "Judge sets bail at $2.5 million in 1987 double-homicide". The Herald. Everett, Washington. 14 December 2018.
  23. "Washington state man accused of killing Saanich couple won't face death penalty". The Times Colonist. Victoria, British Columbia.
  24. "Washington state man gets two life sentences". KOMO News.
  25. "Washington State man life prison double-murder". New York Daily News. New York, NY. 25 July 2019.
  26. "Inmate Search". Washington State Department of Corrections.
  27. Syed, Ronna (21 September 2019). "Man appealing genetic genealogy murder conviction was a violent child, his family told police". CBC Canada. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  28. "My cousin the killer – her DNA cracked a 1987 double-murder". The Herald. Everett, Washington.
  29. Is murder in your DNA? (TV program). The Fifth Estate – via You Tube.
  30. Family Secrets. W5 (TV program). CTV Television Network – via You Tube.
  31. "Family Tree". IMDb. Forensic Files II. HLN (TV network). 22 March 2020.
  32. Rustad, Chelsea (28 April 2020). Inherited Secrets.
  33. Baker, K.C. (26 May 2020). "Forensic DNA expert CeCe Moore solves decades-old cold cases in ABC's The Genetic Detective". People (magazine). Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  34. Aradillas, Elaine (7 October 2020). "How a woman's interest in her family's DNA led to a shocking arrest in a cold case double murder". People (magazine).
  35. Secrets In Our DNA (TV program). NOVA – via You Tube.
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