The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder
“Thought-provoking true-crime thriller…the book raises urgent questions of balancing public and private good that we’ll likely be dealing with as long as the title implies.”—Wall Street Journal
A relentless detective and a civilian genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy.
In November 1987, a young couple from the idyllic suburbs of Vancouver Island on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, the bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook were found in rural Washington. It was a brutal crime, and it was the perfect crime: With few clues and no witnesses in the vast and foreboding Olympic Peninsula, an international manhunt turned up empty, and the sensational case that shocked the Pacific Northwest gradually slipped from the headlines.
In deep-freeze, long-term storage, biological evidence from the crime sat waiting, as Detective Jim Scharf poured over old case files looking for clues his predecessors missed. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in California, CeCe Moore began her lifelong fascination with genetic genealogy, a powerful forensic tool that emerged not from the crime lab, but through the wildly popular home DNA ancestry tests purchased by more than 40 million Americans. When Scharf decided to send the cold case’s decades-old DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, he hoped he would finally bring closure to the Van Cuylenborg and Cook families. He didn’t know that he and Moore would make history.
Genetic genealogy, long the province of family tree hobbyists and adoptees seeking their birth families, has made headlines as a cold case solution machine, capable of exposing the darkest secrets of seemingly upstanding citizens. In the hands of a tenacious detective like Scharf, genetic genealogy has solved one baffling killing after another. But as this crime-fighting technique spreads, its sheer power has sparked a national debate: Can we use DNA to catch the murderers among us, yet still protect our last shred of privacy in the digital age—the right to the very blueprint of who we are?
A relentless detective and a civilian genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy.
In November 1987, a young couple from the idyllic suburbs of Vancouver Island on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, the bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook were found in rural Washington. It was a brutal crime, and it was the perfect crime: With few clues and no witnesses in the vast and foreboding Olympic Peninsula, an international manhunt turned up empty, and the sensational case that shocked the Pacific Northwest gradually slipped from the headlines.
In deep-freeze, long-term storage, biological evidence from the crime sat waiting, as Detective Jim Scharf poured over old case files looking for clues his predecessors missed. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in California, CeCe Moore began her lifelong fascination with genetic genealogy, a powerful forensic tool that emerged not from the crime lab, but through the wildly popular home DNA ancestry tests purchased by more than 40 million Americans. When Scharf decided to send the cold case’s decades-old DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, he hoped he would finally bring closure to the Van Cuylenborg and Cook families. He didn’t know that he and Moore would make history.
Genetic genealogy, long the province of family tree hobbyists and adoptees seeking their birth families, has made headlines as a cold case solution machine, capable of exposing the darkest secrets of seemingly upstanding citizens. In the hands of a tenacious detective like Scharf, genetic genealogy has solved one baffling killing after another. But as this crime-fighting technique spreads, its sheer power has sparked a national debate: Can we use DNA to catch the murderers among us, yet still protect our last shred of privacy in the digital age—the right to the very blueprint of who we are?
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Community Reviews
This is a must read for True Crime Fans. The author explains how DNA works in solving crimes in a way the average person can understand.He also explains how Genealogy works with DNA
This is also a story about Washington State detectives never gave up on this case and followed up on every lead no matter how small the lead was
I want to begin with pointing out that this is a nonfiction book on how genetic genealogy was used to solve cold cases - it is extremely easy to forget this as author Edward Humes starts off by introducing readers to the double murder cold case of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook. While it's very detailed and factual, it reads like a fictional work - too heinous to be real.
I did request the ARC for this book on NetGalley and was approved, so much gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher, Dutton.
If you prefer reviews in a video format, I've got you covered! Watch the non-spoiler video on my YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/gP8E8mVFUsw
If you're someone like me who watches every crime documentary that can be found, read thrillers and true crime novels like nobody's business - I believe this book would be right up your alley. Edward Humes writes this narrative in the same style as many of the best documentaries I've seen - I was riveted. A young couple on an overnight errand for the boy's father vanish. The families knew within hours that something was wrong because these two young people were like clockwork checking in with their parents. Both were found murdered and the killer or killers left no trace except a partial palm print on the van.
Thirty years later, technology had advanced, sure - but more importantly - so had DNA databases where people submitted saliva samples in order to trace their ancestry. With the help of some forward thinking individuals, genetic genealogists began solving cold cases....but what does using these databases mean as far as privacy??
I will admit, there were a few chapters that delved heavily into explaining the process of how genetic genealogy began, what it was used for, how it worked - that made my eyes glaze over. I wanted to get back to solving the case of Tanya and Jay! I actually treated it like it was two separates pieces - one was the research as to how this new process was instrumental in solving cold cases and the other was the double murder cases. Once I compartmentalized it that way - I was once again immersed.
This was my first book to read by Edward Humes, but it will NOT be the last. I've already been researching his backlog and picking out my next one. I decided on MISSISSIPPI MUD as I'm a born and raised Mississippi girl and very familiar with the Biloxi area and Strip this story centers around.
I can tell you one thing I've learned by all the crime books, documentaries and this story - I am so glad I live in the age we're in today - everything is caught on camera. To see how easy it was for these serial killers back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s - I don't know how folks slept at night!
I did request the ARC for this book on NetGalley and was approved, so much gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher, Dutton.
If you prefer reviews in a video format, I've got you covered! Watch the non-spoiler video on my YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/gP8E8mVFUsw
If you're someone like me who watches every crime documentary that can be found, read thrillers and true crime novels like nobody's business - I believe this book would be right up your alley. Edward Humes writes this narrative in the same style as many of the best documentaries I've seen - I was riveted. A young couple on an overnight errand for the boy's father vanish. The families knew within hours that something was wrong because these two young people were like clockwork checking in with their parents. Both were found murdered and the killer or killers left no trace except a partial palm print on the van.
Thirty years later, technology had advanced, sure - but more importantly - so had DNA databases where people submitted saliva samples in order to trace their ancestry. With the help of some forward thinking individuals, genetic genealogists began solving cold cases....but what does using these databases mean as far as privacy??
I will admit, there were a few chapters that delved heavily into explaining the process of how genetic genealogy began, what it was used for, how it worked - that made my eyes glaze over. I wanted to get back to solving the case of Tanya and Jay! I actually treated it like it was two separates pieces - one was the research as to how this new process was instrumental in solving cold cases and the other was the double murder cases. Once I compartmentalized it that way - I was once again immersed.
This was my first book to read by Edward Humes, but it will NOT be the last. I've already been researching his backlog and picking out my next one. I decided on MISSISSIPPI MUD as I'm a born and raised Mississippi girl and very familiar with the Biloxi area and Strip this story centers around.
I can tell you one thing I've learned by all the crime books, documentaries and this story - I am so glad I live in the age we're in today - everything is caught on camera. To see how easy it was for these serial killers back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s - I don't know how folks slept at night!
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