The forever witness: how DNA and genealogy solved a cold case double murder

Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist turned narrative nonfiction writer Humes (Burned, 2019) returns to true crime in this engrossing story of a double murder and the genetic genealogy technique that helped solve it decades later. In 1987, young couple Jay and Tanya headed to Seattle for an overnight trip and didn't return, their families' greatest fears confirmed when their bodies were found, separately, a week later. The assumed killer left behind scant evidence; DNA and a partial print turn up no matches, leaving the case cold. Years later, detective Jim Scharf investigates the murders using multiple technological advancements, but to no avail. When genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and Parabon NanoLabs get involved, a list of suspects is narrowed down to one relatively quickly. Scharf and Moore make history, while also sparking a debate about the ethics of solving crimes using popular ancestry databases, to which millions of people voluntarily upload their DNA. Scharf is portrayed as a clear-headed detective and makes a wonderful guide to this story. Humes' writing is suspenseful yet also journalistic, providing fascinating details about the case, technological advances in police work, and genetic genealogy. A winner for any fan of true crime.

In 1987, 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook, the victims at the center of this stellar true crime account from Pulitzer Prize winner Humes (Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn't), disappeared while on a road trip from Canada to Seattle. Their bodies and their abandoned van were found days later; Tanya had been raped and shot and Jay beaten to death. The case made headlines for months, but it would be 31 years before Bill Talbott, a 55-year-old Seattle trucker "with no criminal convictions on his record and no known connection to the victims," was arrested, thanks to determined cold case investigator Jim Scharf and genetic genealogist CeCe Moore. Humes delves into Scharf's and Moore's personalities and backgrounds while explaining the development of home DNA kits, their use in solving crimes, and the controversy over police use of these private for-profit databases, from which anyone can update a DNA profile to trace their ancestors and unknowingly finger a criminal relative in the process. In "the first-ever genetic genealogy murder trial," Talbott was convicted in 2019, though he's currently awaiting a second trial after the first was overturned on appeal based on an issue unrelated to the DNA evidence. Humes matches taut prose with assured storytelling. This fascinating look at how technology has revolutionized crime solving is must reading. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (Nov.)

Does the individual's right to privacy outweigh law enforcement's mandate to identify people who commit violent offenses? That's the question that Pulitzer Prize-- and PEN Award--winning journalist Humes (Burned) seeks to answer as he examines the use of genetic genealogy in cracking the cold case in 2018 of the brutal 1987 murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook in Snohomish County, WA. The heartbreaking tale of this double murder is interwoven with the account of the detectives working to solve the case to bring closure to the young couple's family and friends. The result is a thoughtful discussion of the ethical issues surrounding GEDmatch, the DNA database that genetic genealogists used to solve famous cold cases such as the Golden State Killer. VERDICT An excellent addition to any true crime collection, this one is sure to intrigue readers who are interested in delving deeper into the hows and whys of solving cold cases.--Jennifer Moore

A cold-case hunt for a killer brought down by old-fashioned gumshoe work and lots of modern science. In 1987, Canadian couple Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook traveled from Vancouver to Seattle to purchase furnace equipment for his heating business. They made their way across the Olympic Peninsula, which, Humes writes ominously, "would take them through some of Washington State's most remote and sparsely populated terrain." They never made it home, both murdered by an unknown person fleetingly seen along their path. It took decades for police detectives to arrive at a suspect, working with what the author terms an "unlikely source," a "self-taught genealogist" who worked with the PBS series Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and who sussed out the killer's identity by building a family tree. There were plenty of choices at first, including serial murderers such as the Green River Killer and Spokane Serial Killer, that needed to be narrowed down, but it took a paper cup carelessly dropped from the chief suspect's truck to make the link to familial DNA. After the suspect was arrested, his mother-in-law said flatly, "I'm not surprised in the least," for what emerged was a typical portrait: a bullied child, bright but disaffected, a "man at times consumed by anger yet desperately seeking approval." The author then shifts the scene to a second arena in which the prosecuting attorney was working to establish "a coherent narrative that explained what happened, when and where," and then trying to prove this with three-decade-old evidence. With side glances at other cold cases, Humes serves up a detailed but not overburdened exercise in investigative and legal logic that would have seemed ironclad save for an unforeseen technicality. About that, he writes, "finality is elusive in the justice system," ending his book on an inconclusive note. A well-paced true-crime procedural that offers new twists on old methods of police work. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist turned narrative nonfiction writer Humes (Burned, 2019) returns to true crime in this engrossing story of a double murder and the genetic genealogy technique that helped solve it decades later. In 1987, young couple Jay and Tanya headed to Seattle for an overnight trip and didn't return, their families' greatest fears confirmed when their bodies were found, separately, a week later. The assumed killer left behind scant evidence; DNA and a partial print turn up no matches, leaving the case cold. Years later, detective Jim Scharf investigates the murders using multiple technological advancements, but to no avail. When genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and Parabon NanoLabs get involved, a list of suspects is narrowed down to one relatively quickly. Scharf and Moore make history, while also sparking a debate about the ethics of solving crimes using popular ancestry databases, to which millions of people voluntarily upload their DNA. Scharf is portrayed as a clear-headed detective and makes a wonderful guide to this story. Humes' writing is suspenseful yet also journalistic, providing fascinating details about the case, technological advances in police work, and genetic genealogy. A winner for any fan of true crime. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Does the individual's right to privacy outweigh law enforcement's mandate to identify people who commit violent offenses? That's the question that Pulitzer Prize— and PEN Award—winning journalist Humes (Burned) seeks to answer as he examines the use of genetic genealogy in cracking the cold case in 2018 of the brutal 1987 murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook in Snohomish County, WA. The heartbreaking tale of this double murder is interwoven with the account of the detectives working to solve the case to bring closure to the young couple's family and friends. The result is a thoughtful discussion of the ethical issues surrounding GEDmatch, the DNA database that genetic genealogists used to solve famous cold cases such as the Golden State Killer. VERDICT An excellent addition to any true crime collection, this one is sure to intrigue readers who are interested in delving deeper into the hows and whys of solving cold cases.—Jennifer Moore

In 1987, 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook, the victims at the center of this stellar true crime account from Pulitzer Prize winner Humes (Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn't), disappeared while on a road trip from Canada to Seattle. Their bodies and their abandoned van were found days later; Tanya had been raped and shot and Jay beaten to death. The case made headlines for months, but it would be 31 years before Bill Talbott, a 55-year-old Seattle trucker "with no criminal convictions on his record and no known connection to the victims," was arrested, thanks to determined cold case investigator Jim Scharf and genetic genealogist CeCe Moore. Humes delves into Scharf's and Moore's personalities and backgrounds while explaining the development of home DNA kits, their use in solving crimes, and the controversy over police use of these private for-profit databases, from which anyone can update a DNA profile to trace their ancestors and unknowingly finger a criminal relative in the process. In "the first-ever genetic genealogy murder trial," Talbott was convicted in 2019, though he's currently awaiting a second trial after the first was overturned on appeal based on an issue unrelated to the DNA evidence. Humes matches taut prose with assured storytelling. This fascinating look at how technology has revolutionized crime solving is must reading. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (Nov.)