Man Found Guilty in Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg
In March of this year, I wrote a brief article about the murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg. After 30 years, there has been an update in the case.
A Long Road to Justice
Last Friday, William Talbott II was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder. His was the first case involving GEDMatch to make it to court.
Talbott, 56 years old, was a truck driver from Seatac, Washington. Investigators connected Talbot to the murders based on DNA found at the scene of the crime and then used on GEDMatch. A genealogist was able to use this crime scene data to make a family tree that led to Talbott.
Investigators were able to obtain a current DNA sample from a cup that fell out of Talbott’s truck on the road to ensure it matched the semen sample and GEDMatch results. After Talbott’s arrest, they swabbed his cheek to obtain yet another matching DNA sample.
The DNA found at the crime scene came from a semen sample, and Talbott’s defense claimed the semen came…
