National Post (National Edition)
Relatives’ DNA leads to suspect in 1987 murders of B.C. couple
VANCOUVER • Police in Washington state say new DNA technology led them to a suspect in the murders of a young Victoria-area couple more than three decades ago.
Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and her boyfriend Jay Cook, 20, were found dead near Seattle in November 1987.
Police say they have arrested William Earl Talbott, 55, from the Seattle-Tacoma area and he has been booked on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Van Cuylenborg.
Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said Friday the work detectives did in 1987 documenting the case and storing evidence led them to the arrest.
“It’s been 31 years since this horrific crime took place; today we are one step closer for justice for Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg,” he told a news conference.
The high school sweethearts were on their way to Seattle to pick up furnace parts for Cook’s father when they disappeared. Their bodies were found in separate locations outside the city days later.
Police said DNA collected at the scene of Van Cuylenborg’s murder was used to identify Talbott’s ancestors, which led them to him. Officers say once genealogists made the connection, police acquired a DNA sample from a cup Talbott had used.
Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who worked on the case alongside Virginiabased genetics company Parabon NanoLabs, said she built family trees using people who shared “promising amounts of DNA” with the suspect. Two close matches were found from people who married and produced only one son, she said.
Using a process called reverse genealogy where researchers look for living matches that fit DNA profiles, they were led to the son.
Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said the department never gave up hope in their investigation, adding the arrest “shows how powerful it can be to combine new DNA technology with the relentless determination of detectives.”
The arrest was made five weeks after police released composite drawings of a potential suspect created through groundbreaking DNA technology. Images released by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office showed a Caucasian man with fair hair and green or hazel eyes, traits that investigators said are connected to the DNA of the person they think allegedly killed the couple.
Police said they believed Talbott was living in Woodinville, Wash., in 1987 with his parents, about 11 kilometres from where Van Cuylenborg’s body was found.
The young couple left Victoria on Nov. 18, 1987 for an overnight trip to Seattle. Cook’s body was found days later dumped on the side of the road in Snohomish County, covered with a blue blanket. He had been strangled.
Van Cuylenborg was also found slain in a ditch in neighbouring Skagit County. She had been sexually assaulted and shot in the back of the head.
For more than 30 years, detectives in both countries worked tirelessly to find the young couple’s killer without success, despite having collected his DNA.
Det. Jim Scharf, of the Snohomish County cold case unit, said they caught the MV Coho ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Wash., on Nov. 18, 1987, arriving at about 5:30 p.m.
They got to Allen, Wash., at about 9:30 p.m. At 10:16 p.m., they bought a ticket for the Bremerton ferry to Seattle, which would have put them in the city about 11:30 p.m.
The pair had planned to sleep in the van near the former Kingdome stadium. A missing person’s report was filed two days later.
On Nov. 24, a man walking on an isolated road discovered Van Cuylenborg’s body.
“Her autopsy revealed she had a .38-calibre gunshot wound to the back of her head,” Scharf said.
“Tanya had been restrained with zip-tie-type fasteners, and she was sexually assaulted.”
The following day, her wallet, ID, keys, a pair of surgical gloves and a partial box of ammunition were found under the back porch of a Bellingham pub, he said. The brown van that Jay and Tanya had been driving was found a block away from the pub, beside the Greyhound bus station, locked and in a parking lot.
A witness told police it had been there since Nov. 21.
On American Thanksgiving — Nov. 26, 1987 — Cook’s body was found. More of the killer’s zip-tie restraints were found near his body. “The person who did this came prepared to do a brutal crime,” Scharf said.
Some items were missing — a green backpack and a black men’s jacket, as well as a camera, which has never been found, although its lens turned up at an Oregon pawn shop in 1990.
Cook’s sister, Laura Baanstra, told reporters the arrest brought feelings of joy and sorrow. “The hole that was left in our hearts will never be filled completely,” she said. “The work done here by all of these incredible, hardworking professionals, both now and 30 years go, has helped make that hole a little smaller.”
A .38-CALIBRE GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE BACK OF HER HEAD.