At first glance, The Forever Witness: How Genetic Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder may look like your typical True Crime story, but it's more than that.

This nonfiction account is actually an examination of the history and use of the science of DNA evidence in criminal investigation. More specifically, this story explores the changes that occurred once consumer DNA services hit the market with great gusto in 2007.

DNA evidence was of course used prior to that time, but it was much more limited in reach. In the early-90s the FBI developed their CODIS system as a pilot program and by the end of the decade it was the go-to source for criminal investigators. However, for countless cases this system was unhelpful, as the perpetrators of the crimes in question were never in a situation where their DNA would have been collected and added to the system.

Regardless of that fact, biological samples from crime scenes were meticulously collected and stored over the years, mostly in the hopes that technology would advance to the point that it would one day prove helpful.
That's exactly what happened in the case that this book recounts. In the 1980s, Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were brutally murdered during a trip to Seattle.

The young couple, loved by many and known to be very reliable, were reported missing by their families when they were unreachable after the time they were expected to return home from their trip. Tanya and Jay's bodies, as well as the van they were traveling in, are all eventually discovered, although in three separate locations. It was clear that Tanya had been raped. Physical and biological evidence was painstakingly collected, but turned up no viable leads. The case went cold and remained so for many years.

Regardless of how much time passed, however, lead Detective Jim Scharf never forgot Tanya or Jay. Little did he know, that decades later after consumer DNA testing services like 23andMe, and shows like Finding Your Roots would shoot through the roof in popularity, he would be able to ride that wave all the way to answers.

This is such an incredibly well-written book. Humes did an great job of presenting not only the history behind the use of DNA technology in criminal investigation, but also in recounting the case of Tanya and Jay with the care and grace that they deserve.

The author showed so much consideration when recounting not just what happened to them on that fateful day, but also in exposing the life-long repercussions that crime had on all who loved them, including Detective Scharf.

This did explore some interesting ethical issues arising from the use of Genetic Genealogy by Criminal Investigators as well; particularly towards the end of the book. It did provide plenty of food for thought and is a topic that definitely doesn't get enough discussion or consideration in mainstream media.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone, particularly those who are interested in criminal investigations and the American criminal justice system in general.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Dutton, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would love to read more from Edward Humes. I was truly impressed with how he presented this entire story. Well done!

True story about the rape and murder of Tanya and murder of Jay, a couple on an overnight work trip for Jay’s dad.

If you love watching Cold Case then this book is for you. It gives the back story to the case and then goes beyond just catching the murder but also through the court case. You even get the history of how DNA has shaped how murders are found.

The Forever Witness by Edward Humes was interesting! I think I misunderstood the level of technicality that went into this book and there were times that it was a bit tedious to get through due to the technical nature of the writing. I enjoy learning about true crime from a scientific standpoint but this was still a bit too much for me. Thank you to Dutton (& NetGalley of course) for providing me with a complimentary copy for my honest review.

I’ve been trying to read more nonfiction that’s not research for writing, and so I picked this one up. It reads like the most compelling fiction. I was caught up on page one in the murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook in the Pacific Northwest. Also of the story of Jim Scharf, the dedicated cold case detective assigned to the murder of Tanya and Jay.

If you’re a reader of true crime or forensic science, you’ll love this book. And because the story is so well written, readers of murder mystery fiction will enjoy the story, too. I have to say the science was beyond me but not incomprehensible. If you’ve got a basic grasp of how DNA works, you’ll be okay. We’ve had those DNA testing kits around for a while now, but this is the key in the lock that’s solved many cold cases beyond Jay and Tanya’s. The forever witness, if you will.

I had chills reading the pages, amazing because I’m not a science person. And in our household, the DNA kits people are using to explore their ancestry are a bit of a hot topic. I think it’s great–one of these days I’ll do it and find out where my genes have been. For my partner, this is potentially an invasion of privacy where its uses beyond the consumer and into the legal realm is potentially a Frankenstein monster. The book explores these ethical issues, too.

Highly, highly recommended.

I was absolutely enthralled by this book. The content was of course shocking and at times, gruesome, but the science and history behind it is incredible. The science is extremely technical and in most cases, would probably bore me as a reader, but the author wove such in intricate and personal story that I couldn't stop turning the pages!

Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were just beginning their lives and ready to see the world when they were murdered. Their case ran cold with little evidence, but over 30 years later there are finally some answers.

The technological advances that are made every day really amaze me. I found this to be well researched giving us an in depth count of genetic genealogy and the controversy behind it.

I was able to listen to a final version as well. It was narrated by the author for 10 hours and 26 minutes. His voice was perfect for a true crime read.

I was drawn to this book because I have a personal connection to genetic testing, as I worked in a genetics lab for many years. I also found the idea of solving cold cases using genetic genealogy to be a totally genius idea. It takes a lot of hard, detailed work, but the potential to solve crimes and give families answers is undeniable. The author paints a detailed picture of the victims, their lives, their families, and the circumstances surrounding the baffling murders of those kids. The case is full of small details and for anyone with an interest in cold cases - this book is a must read.

This was a fascinating story of how genetic genealogy solved the tragic, decades old-murder of a young Canadian couple who headed out on a road trip and were then found dead in the Pacific Northwest. The case went cold and stayed that way for decades.

If you listen to true crime podcasts, you are probably familiar with this new(ish) crime-solving development, in which DNA from cold cases is compared to the DNA that comes from all those 23andMe-type tests that people take (not me, but some of my relatives, so I better watch out....)

There's a science to genetic geneology, and also a lot of old-fashioned deduction, as it's often a distant relative of the criminal who is the match in a DNA database. Genetic genealogists must then use publicly available information to construct multi-generation family trees, combing the leaves and branches to find potential suspects that meet the age and gender profile of the suspect. DNA phenotyping can also take trace DNA, analyze it, and offer the likelihood that the person has a particular skin tone, hair color, eye color, and more.

There are also ethical issues involved that have divided the genealogical community into those who believe that this information should be used to solve violent crimes and give families closure and those who believe that using DNA in this way is a violation of privacy. Some middle ground has been found, and in the last few years, a number of high-profile cold cases have been solved as a result.

Really enjoyed this story, which made an interesting non-fiction change from my usual reading!

Fascinating true crime.

"Genetic genealogy...was the source that never lied, never faded with time, never forgot. It was the forever witness."

The murdered bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend, Jay Cook, were found separately in isolated parts of Washington State in November, 1987. The lack of clues hampered the investigation and eventually the case went dormant without new leads. Decades later, in 2018, Detective Jim Scharf working the cold case in Snohomish County, Washington, would team up with genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore, to identify the killer. The man, William Talbott II, was subsequently tried and convicted using this new and powerful forensic tool -- but it has been widely misunderstood.

Along with details about the Cuylenborg/Cook case, the book also focuses on the controversial use of genetic genealogy as a method of fighting crime and identifying criminals. The argument centers on privacy and the rights of those who submit their DNA to both public or private labs. Many of us have willingly put our saliva in a tube and mailed it to one of the ancestry sites looking for information. The question then is whether or not that voluntary surrender implies consent for police or other organizations to search those data bases for their own purposes -- mostly to secure and identify a suspect in a murder or other violent crime. Keep in mind that when you send off your DNA, you are also revealing that of your relatives and mostly without their knowledge or consent. It's definitely an interesting debate, and I know on which side I fall. Several US States have already begun the process of regulating and establishing clearcut laws about using genetic material.

I found the entire book absorbing and extremely interesting. I was not aware of the cold case and was astonished to hear the outcome of the trial and subsequent appeal. I liked the way the author wrote the story of Tanya and Jay and the way the narrative included so much detail that created in me a desire for the couple to get some sort of resolution and ultimately, justice. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy reading well-written true crime. I recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this e-book ARC to read and review.

I enjoy true crime that is written in an engaging way and this book delivered that. The author did an excellent job presenting the story in a way that is easy to read. I was hooked from the beginning of this book and enjoyed it to the very end. Well done.

The Forever Witness is a true crime book that tells the story of the double murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook in 1987. The book combines elements of great storytelling, cold case investigations, technological advances, and genetic genealogy to captivate readers. The story follows the original investigation and the re-examination of the case by detective Jim Scharf who, with the help of genealogists, uses DNA advances and genetic genealogy to identify suspects. The book also explores the use of genetic mugshots and the controversy surrounding the use of genetic genealogy in crime-solving. The author writes in a way that is easily understood and provides a notes section at the end of the book that explains the sources of information used in the story.

The Forever Witness is a fantastic overview of not only a cold case investigation, but everything that a homicide encompasses from start to finish; victim impact, motivations, forensic advancements, etc. True crime junkies will appreciate the explanation of the finer points of genetic genealogy.

In November 1987, Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were viciously killed outside Seattle, Washington. Their murder would remain unsolved for over 30 years.

This non-fiction page-turner follows cold case Detective Jim Scharf in his quest to get justice for the victims and their families.

The author weaves together the stories of the victims, the killer, the detectives, and the genetic genealogists who helped to crack the case.

I really appreciated the way he explained the development of, and controversy around, using genetic genealogy as a tool to catch criminals. He dives into the DNA evidence and makes it easy for a layman to understand.

This was an excellent read; part horrific true crime, part scientific detective story. It’s truly amazing the way genetic genealogy is bringing justice to victims and families.

Check out this book if you’re interested in true crime and how genetic genealogy is used to solve cold cases.

🧬Book Review🧬

Thank you to @penguinbooks and @netgalley for this eARC, which is yet another one I’m late on reviewing. I’m slowly making my way through my backlog though!

Are you interested in how DNA is being used to solve crimes? Does the story of how the Golden State Killer was caught fascinate you? Then this book is definitely for you!

The Forever Witness is, of course, DNA. It’s virtually impossible for a killer to not leave some little part of themselves behind when it comes to certain types of crimes. And for that, I am so grateful for the fact that this technology is now available!

This book is written by Edward Humes, a successful cold case detective whose job has exploded in yet more success over the last few years. He tells the story of the murder of a young couple back in 1987. This being the case he most wanted to crack…and crack it he does, thanks to the technologies of DNA.

DNA mapping and how police have had to wade through the bureaucracy of using these databases is also a big part of how these cases are solved. It was interesting to hear how a cold case detective explains the development of these processes.

All true crime junkies will love this one! P.S. I did listen to a good part of this book on my library’s copy of the audiobook. It’s narrated by the author, which I always recommend! A

I voluntarily read an advanced copy of The Forever Witness by Edward Humes. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP for this ARC.

This book was such a satisfying read. The way the author wove the various aspects of the crime and detective work, along with DNA genetic research, was brilliant. The three distinct story arcs all came together to solve a cold case, getting justice for the victims. I give this book 5/5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys true crime.

Received as a free ARC from NetGalley.

I had heard of this case long ago via tv shows, and podcasts and wanted to learn more. I had also heard of CeCe Moore and had watched her tv show. I love true crime from books, tv shows, movies, blogs, and so many podcasts. I couldn't wait to read this book. If you're looking for a chronological read, A, B,C,D, this is not the book. At times it was a bit tedious and repetitive and jumped back and forth causing a little confusion if you didn't have the time line in mind. It was interesting and I really liked. It It will be interesting to see if or how the advancement of genealogy is involved in solving more crimes.

Could genetic genealogy,a combination of DNA analysis and family tree research help with a cold rape and double murder case from more than 30 years ago?. Yes, it could!. And that's exactly what the author,Edward Humes covers in this book, on how the use of DNA testing combined with traditional genealogy help identify a murder and rape suspect in a cold case from 30 years ago!.

On November 18 1987, Tanya Van Cuylenborg age 18 and her boyfriend, Jay Cook age 20 left their hometown, Saanich, British Columbia in Canada for a short trip to Seattle, Washington in the U.S to pick up furnace parts for Cook's father and then to return back to Canada the next day.

What was supposed to be an overnight trip ended up in tragedy when the next day the two did not return as planned and both were reported missing by their parents. Less than a week later, Tanya's partially naked body was found dumped in a ditch in Skagit County in the U.S, with a single gunshot to the back of her head. An autopsy found evidence that she was sexually assaulted and swaps taken from her private areas contained sperm.

On November 25, police found their van abandoned in a parking lot in nearby Bellingham and inside was a pair of her pants that had semen stains on them. A day later, Cook's body was found underneath a bridge in Snohomish County. Around his neck was a ligature made of plastic twine and two red dog collars, his head had been battered by nearby rocks and a pack of "Camel lights" cigarettes were stuffed in his mouth.

At the beginning, the police had suspected Cook to be the perpetrator especially since at the time his body hasn't been found earlier on but later he was ruled out as the suspect when the suspect's DNA from Tanya's body and her pants did not match Cook's. Investigators would later put that DNA into CODIS, the FBI's national DNA database and into Interpol database but no matches were found on any person. The case then remain unsolved despite having the investigative power of three counties and two countries (U.S and Canada).

After more than 30 years later, investigators resumed the investigation of the case with detective Jim Scharff now leading the case. The Golden State Killer case helps opened the door for a new type of analysis known as genetic genealogy. In this new technique, an unidentified DNA is uploaded into a free, public online database called GEDMatch that has more than 1 million DNA profiles from people across the country. The website then produces a list of people who related to the unidentified DNA,from immediate parents to fourth and fifth cousins.

Apart from these, a family tree can be build out using obituaries, birth certificates, public documents and social media to help identify possible suspects. In the case of Tanya and Jay's, the possible suspect's identity was drawn out by using a DNA profile from his semen to build a family tree from public ancestry databases. The genetic genealogist responsible for this discovery was Cece Moore from Parabon, where her DNA analysis of the suspect found matches to a cousin on his maternal side and another cousin on his paternal side. The result of the analysis shows that the DNA belonged to a man named William Earl Talbott II.

With this lead in hand,opened the doors for the investigation where the investigators then tailed Talbott who work as a truck driver and lived in the area near where the murders took place and able to retrieve his fallen coffee cup with his DNA on it. The DNA from his cup has been found to have matched with the DNA on Tanya's pants which then leads to his arrest in Seattle. Tanya's and Jay's case would be the first case brought to trial using genetic genealogy.

This shows that genetic genealogy created a scientific breakthrough in helping to draw out a possible suspect from a list of DNA profiles available on public database that which otherwise would be much more harder to be identified and to be ruled out from. As stated by Humes, "He was definitely never a suspect. There was no reason for him to be suspected. He had no connection to the victims. It is interesting that he lived a very secluded life. He wasn't present in any social media. He disguised his true address when he filled out forms. The only thing that connected him to it was the fact that his distant relatives, well not that distant, second cousins or their equivalent relatives, for fun did a home DNA test to trace their ancestry".

Overall, this is a very interesting book. Very well-researched and comprehensive. Humes did an excellent work in covering the case and introduce to us about the use of genetic genealogy in forensic science and police investigation. In fact, the coverage on the DNA is a little bit too much until at times i find the book to be too laden with DNA analysis and other non-related crime cases than focusing more on the actual case at hand which bogged down the flow of the case a little while the final few chapters has been turned into a mini series of court room drama with the too detailed of the juror's discussions and heated debates arguments pertaining to the case.

In the last final chapters, Humes concluded brilliantly with some important point to ponder which is the future direction of genetic genealogy, should the forensic database stay in private hands/companies or should there be a public project to create a law enforcement genealogy database. Whichever the direction is, to me the most important is the issues of privacy and the protection of the individuals rights over the usage of their DNA information for police investigation which to me has their own pros and cons. In a good way, it helps identify a crime suspect, in a bad way,it is violating an individual's privacy rights and constitutional rights when detectives and genealogists are using people's DNA profiles without their consent or knowledge. Either way, this leaves for the future point of discussion and debate.

Thank you to the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP-Dutton and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review the e-ARC copy of this very interesting book!. Kudos to the author for doing an excellent job with the writing and researching about the case. I rated this book a 4🌟 out of 5!.

I really liked reading this book. It was interesting and detailed. My only complaint is that in a few places it was a little to detailed and became slightly text bookish.

This was one of the more fascinating books I have read this year [and that is saying something]. I had almost zero knowledge how genealogical DNA started being used in police-work and what seems so normal and everyday now in how the police catch criminals, back in the "day" it was treated as "hocus-pocus" and looked at with suspicion. Except that it wasn't and it got results and here we are.

This is the story of two young people [Tanya and Jay] who went abroad one day to run an errand and never came home. It is the story of the police detective assigned to the new cold case department in Washington State who was determined to find justice for them. It is the story of the women who were instrumental in cracking the genealogical DNA code and the woman who opened this case wide-open and led, finally, to the killer. This is also the story of others who were killed and with the use of DNA, their killers found and put in jail [though many of the results from those weren't always what one hoped for]. It is the story of an old, old, cold case solved and an unknown young girl finally given her name back. And this is a story of justice finally served and two families [that were left] that finally were able to find peace.

Edward Humes is an excellent writer and clearly does his deep-dive research. What others have found as dry was nothing but 100% fascinating for me and I wished that more stories could be told and the way the DNA was used to catch the killer. The breakdown of how it was developed and the women who worked tirelessly to help catch these killers was mind-blowing and they deserve ALL the accolades they can receive. I am blown away by their ability to use their talents for good and for the help of families in desperate need of peace, most of the time with little acknowledgement. They are, in my opinion, absolutely amazing, and if not for them, this book would not exist.

IF you love science and true crime and a really good story, then this book is for you. I cannot recommend it enough, it was one of the top 10 books I have read this year.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edward Humes, and Penguin Group Dutton for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Humes' well researched book sheds light on the tragic story of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook, cold case from the 80s solved with genetic DNA/genealogy. It's not difficult to get the details from wikipedia or a myriad of other sources, but The Forever Witness pulls those details together in a narrative that is respectful to the victims, bringing them to life, and with the help of tireless and dedicated individuals solved the murder. This book has suspense as the case is built, through the trial strategy (again, not giving anything away here, it's easy to look up this case).

The pair didn't make it back after an overnight errand that took them through the Olympic Peninsula to Seattle. I wish the book had a map. As somebody not familiar with the area, the towns were out of context (far from each other? across a body of water? inland? a day's drive? etc.) which was a little frustrating and slowed down my reading so I could look it up (foreshadowing of the trial: "They hadn't even given them a map"!!!). Some character references tended towards confusion, lots of "he's", "his", "brother", "senior", "Bill", "Billy", etc., making some of the narrative less clear. These are minor nitpicks in an admirable book.

There are real heroes here: Jim Scharf, the cold case detective and Cece Moore, the genetic genealogist are two that stand out. Humes explains the science without dumbing it down, making it palatable to the lay person. Lots of interesting questions posed with using genealogy to solve criminal cases. The wins in this arena keep growing, here's to even more in our future.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder was published in November 2022.