A 55 year old Seattle/Tacoma man is in custody in connection with the murders of Victoria, B.C. residents Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg 31 years ago.
William Earl Talbott II would have been 24 years old at the time of the murders, and living in Woodinville Washington.
"The next step is prosecution, he will be transferred to the Skagit County community justice centre later today, and he will have a first appearance later this afternoon," said Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt. "31 years ago on Nov. 24 1987, Tanya's body was found in Skagit County in a wooded area. Investigators at that time collected DNA samples from Tanya.
Snohomish county detectives obtained DNA samples just a few days ago, the crime lab ran that DNA sample and confirmed the DNA belongs to the same person who left the DNA at the crime scene in 1987."
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department is looking for anyone who may have known him in November 1987.
“Skagit and Snohomish County detectives are looking to speak with anyone who knew Talbot or knew of his activities in 1987 or 1988,” said Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary. “We would like to speak with anyone who saw Talbott with the Cook family van in November of 1987. In addition detectives are still looking for the Minolta X 700 camera that Tanya had in her possession at the time that she was murdered.”
They are also appealing for witnesses who may have seen Talbott driving the victim's van around the time of the murders.
Last month the department held a news conference regarding updates on technology aiding the investigation, including three photo-style sketches of a suspect at various ages.
They received over 100 tips for the public.
The crime lab matched DNA samples from the crime scene where Tanya's body was discovered to DNA taken from the suspect.
Professional genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore developed the technology that helped identify Talbott and says it was done by building a family tree of all possible matches from the DNA that was collected at the crime scene.
“When I was doing this, two of the closest matches trees converged, the intersected into a marriage, and from that marriage there was only one son,” Moore said. “So because this son would carry the mix of DNA that we were seeing from the family trees built from the matches you can see how those trees converged into the parents’ marriage.
That led us really only to one person who could carry this mix of DNA.”
Laura Baanstra, Jay Cook’s sister, said this arrest helps with the healing process.
“For my family and I, it is the first day without the weight, the burden, the hurting that comes from not knowing who killed my brother Jay, and his sweet shy girlfriend Tanya,” Baanstra said. “It’s hard to put into words this feeling of relief, joy, and great sorrow that this arrest brings.
While the hole that was left in our hearts will never be filled completely, the work done here by all of these incredible hard-working professionals, both now and 30 years ago, has helped make that hole smaller.”