Murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

In November 1987, high school sweethearts Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg decided that they wanted to travel from their hometown of Sanich, BC, to Seattle, Washington. Sanich is located on Vancouver Island, so this trip required that they take a ferry from Victoria, BC to Port Angeles. After a short drive to Bremerton, Washington, they needed to take a second ferry to their final destination of Seattle. They borrowed Jay's fathers 1977 Ford Club Van for the drive. Sanich and Seattle aren't too far away from each other and the couple was due back home the next day.

Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

They left home on November 18, 1987, took the first ferry and then drove to Bremerton. Jay and Tanya bought tickets for the second ferry, and that was the last time they were seen alive again.

When they didn't return home on the 19th, their parents waited nervously by the phone, hoping to get a call from them saying they had been delayed. But that sinking feeling got bigger when they still did not hear from the couple by the 20th. Their parents decided to call the police and report them missing
on the 20th.

On November 24th, Tanya Van Cuylenborg's half-naked body was found in a ditch near Alger, Washington, a short distance south of Bellingham. Zip ties bound her hands behind her back, she had been raped and shot in the back of the head with a .38 caliber gun.

The next day, on the 25th. Tanya's wallet and keys were found at a Greyhound bus station in Bellingham. Nearby, the van that Jay and Tanya were driving was found. When the van was searched, police found zip ties, the same kind that was used to bind Tanya, and plastic gloves. Investigators thought that the killer left the plastic gloves in plain sight as a taunt, saying "You won't find any prints because I wore these".


The Police were, however, able to find DNA from the killer in the van. Unfortunately, they did not get a match in their database. This was still 1987 and DNA technology wasn't was it is today.

Initially, police thought that Jay might have been responsible for his girlfriend's murder, but that hunch proved wrong when on the 26th Jay's body was found nearly 100km away. Jay had been beaten with rocks and strangled, his hands bound with the same type of zip ties used on Tanya.

It was never released the specific manner in which the couple was killed, but it was specific enough that police thought that the method of killing could be used to link a suspect to the crime.

The police did fine ferry receipts in the van when they searched it for evidence. The young couple did get on the first ferry. They did get on the second one as well. Police found receipts for both. They thought that it is most likely that Jay and Tanya met their killer on the second ferry. Probably befriended the couple and was able to convince them to give him a ride after getting off of the ferry.

The investigation into the murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Cuylenborg continued, and in the months following their deaths, the parents of the victims started to receive postcards taunting them about the murders, describing the crime in graphic detail. The postcards were sent from Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York and analysts said they were written by the same person. In 2010 police announced that the postcards originated from a mentally ill 78-year-old homeless man that had no connection to the crime.

Although police continued to track down leads, the case eventually went cold. It wasn't until significant advances in DNA technology gave investigators more leads to work with. In April of 2018, using a technique called snapshot DNA phenotyping, Police were able to make a composite drawing of what the killer could possibly look like using the DNA found in the couples van.

In another win for forensic testing, using genetic genealogy, police were able to identify Jay and Tanya's killer in May of 2018. The same technique used to catch  Joseph James Deangelo, junior, also known as the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker (EAR/ONS) or Golden State Killer.

In May 2018, William Earl Talbot, II, 55, was arrested for the murder of Jay and Tanya. He pleaded not guilty and is currently being held on a $2.5 million bail with his case to be in court March of 2019.
Although as of this writing William Earl Talbot II has not been convicted of his crimes, I'm still counting this as a huge win for forensic testing. His DNA was in the van, it will be tough to prove that he wasn't involved. It's just too bad police couldn't get a confession and avoid a lengthy trial.

William Talbot thought that he got away with his crimes, but eventually, the law caught up with him. I'm wondering though if this is his only crime. I wouldn't be surprised if it is later found that he is responsible for other unsolved crimes and hopefully he will be held responsible for all of them.

Thank you for reading,

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