Murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

Jay Roland Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg 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 since it is the first of its type to officially be tried in a court of law. Events prior to the murders: Cook and Van Cuylenborg met in high school and had been in a relationship for about six months. 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. 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 confirms that they purchased fuel on the road between Port Angeles and Bremerton. 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. She had been raped, bound with plastic ties and shot in the head. 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. On 26 November, Jay Cook's body was discovered nearly 60 miles from where Tanya's body had been found two days earlier. Jay had been beaten with rocks and strangled. 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." The police were in fact able to obtain the suspect's DNA from the van, although there has been no match on any of the criminal databases. Despite the lack of a match, the police believe that the specific manner in which the victims were killed (which has not been revealed in detail publicly) suggests that the killer is familiar with the prison system. The lack of a match despite a potential prison background may be explained by the suspect's being incarcerated before the DNA collection of criminals became commonplace or technologically possible. Investigators believe that the couple may have met their killer on one of the ferries, most likely the second one, and offered him a ride when reaching Seattle. In the months after the murders, both victims' families received a series of taunting greeting cards featuring graphic descriptions of the murders. 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 have confirmed that he is not the killer and has no connection to the crime. 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. 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 junior. 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 abandoned and found his DNA matched exactly. On 18 May 2018, Snohomish County Sheriff announced that Talbott was arrested for the murder of Van Cuylenborg. Talbott's parents lived seven miles away from the bridge over the Snoqualmie River where Cook was found. The case, and specifically finding the killer via public genealogical websites, was featured on a Season 4 episode of the Criminology podcast. The case was also featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries. Legal Proceedings: Talbott was charged in May 2018 for the murder of Van Cuylenborg. On June 16, 2018, a second aggravated first-degree murder charge was added for the murder of Jay Cook. Talbott pleaded not guilty to both these charges. 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. 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 Corrections Center. Talbott is now trying to appeal his conviction. Documentaries: -Following the conclusion of the case, two documentaries were released on Canadian television covering the events of the Talbott case, exploring how investigative genetic genealogy was used to identify the killer. -The first was "Is murder in your DNA?", the 45th season premiere of The Fifth Estate, which debuted online on 20 September 2019[31], and aired on CBC on 22 September 2019. -The second was "Family Secrets", the 54th season premiere of W5, which aired on CTV and debuted online on 21 September 2019.