'The Genetic Detective': How CeCe Moore solved 30-year-old double homicide cold case in 2 hours using DNA tech
ABC's new true-crime series, 'The Genetive Detective' stars genealogist CeCe Moore, who uses her expertise to investigate a double homicide cold case from over 30 years ago. Moore had been passionate about genealogy since her high-school days and eventually turned it into her career. She started off as a commercial model in the late 1980s until she caught interest in tracing her own family tree in the early 2000s as just as a hobby.
It was only recently that she discovered consumer DNA testing companies introduced DNA testing to the public. Then 23andme, a digital genetic service company, introduced Relative Finder in 2009, which became Moore's go-to assistant. She dropped everything else she was doing and started making family trees for people as a full-time job. She was among the first to introduce the title genealogy expert and used her techniques in helping people or identify someone.
Initially, she used her knowledge and skills to reunite adoptees with their birth families, until she realized she could use them to identify killers. Moore and her team now fully immerse themselves in helping police identify criminals. The murder of a young couple, Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuyenborg in 1987, was the first case that Moore took on after becoming a genealogist.
The double homicide of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuyenborg
The 20-year-old Jay Cook and 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuyenborg hailed from Saanich, British Colombia, and had only been dating for about six months at the time of their murder. The two went on an overnight trip to Seattle to purchase parts for Cook's father's business. They took the ferry to Seattle from Victoria, Canada, and were to board the same ferry on their return on November 19, but they never made it back.
Their families became concerned when they didn't hear from the two and reported them missing on November 20. Van Cuyenborg's body was found on 24 November, in a ditch by the side of a rural road in Skagit County. She was naked from the waist down and her hands had been zip-tied. She had been sexually assaulted and shot in the back of the head.
Two days later, Cook's body was recovered from under the bridge overlooking Snoqualmie River in Snohomish County, Washington State, some 60 miles away from where his girlfriend's body was discovered. Zip-ties were found at the second crime scene as well. He had been strangled with twine and two dog collars. He was also beaten with rocks and had a pack of Camel cigarettes shoved down his throat.
Police investigation
The police said that the couple never arrived at the shop that they were supposed to purchase the parts from, however, they did make it into Seattle and believe somebody just snatched them off the streets. Since Cook's body was found closer to Seattle, the police suspected that he had been killed first. Cook drove his father's van, which was found near Greyhound station in Bellingham, and from the van, the police recovered a pair of surgical gloves and more zip-ties.
So the killer had planned the murder thoroughly and the police believed that leaving the gloves in plain view was a taunt about not being able to find any fingerprints. The medical examiner performed a rape kit from evidence found at the crime scene that pointed to Van Cuyenborg having been sexually assaulted. The case was unlike any they had faced before because they had no leads whatsoever — no eyewitnesses and they had no idea who the suspect could be.
CeCe Moore's investigation
Moore was handed the case in April 2018, which had gone unsolved for 30 years by then. Cook and Van Cuyenborg's murders felt personal to her because she imagined them to be her family members. However, she had some reservations about using her techniques to help law enforcement, because she felt that it was wrong of her to use consumer profiles without their knowledge.
But her qualms were appeased when news broke out that the Golden State Killer had been arrested after more than 40 years. The elusive suspect had been discovered through new DNA technology. Investigators had used genealogical websites (GEDMatch) containing DNA information and family trees found a relative of Joseph D'Angelo to track him down.
Moore's ethical issue had been resolved after GEDMatch revised their terms of service, and included a statement allowing law enforcement to use the site's services to solve crimes. Moore then heard about Parabon Nanolabs, based in Reston, Virginia, a genetic genealogy lab that had already worked with law enforcement. So she decided to join forces with Parabon and help law enforcement find suspects.
The very first case that she worked on with Parabon was Cook and Van Cuyenborg's double homicide. The prominent DNA samples from the case had been collected from Van Cuyenborg's pants and her vaginal swabs. But back in the day when the murder was committed, DNA technology was still in its infancy and forensic scientists would need fairly large samples to work with.
However, they preserved the evidence and managed to create a full profile of the subject when DNA technology had advanced, by the mid-90s. The investigators, in this case, stayed on top of technology, so as soon as there was a breakthrough in technology, they took full advantage of it. They were quick to utilize the new DNA law enforcement database CODIS, which allows you to search for DNA samples in the database on a national level.
It is primarily a database of convicted offenders, but not necessarily. Profiles from crime scenes are entered into the database and searched against convicted offenders. However, there were no matches to the suspect in the double homicide cold case, despite checking with every new entry in the database. Parabon received the DNA samples for the suspect from the Snohomish county Sherrif's office, and uploaded it onto GEDMatch which provided them with a match-list withing 24 hours.
The list was then handed over to Moore and she hit the ground running. She found that there were two sets of strong matches that shared DNA with the unknown suspect, which Moore said were most likely related as second cousins. However, the two genetic matches were not directly related to each other, which meant they were related to the suspect on two different branches of the family tree.
She was excited to have finally found some answers, but she was unable to identify match number one and all she had was initials — in GEDMatch you're only provided with either their initials, an alias or an email address. She realized it was complicated because a Google search of the email garnered her a name that completely contrasted with the initials.
So she took to social media and delved into researching friends lists, comments, and more. When she arrived at a conclusion and found a potential match, she worked on constructing their family tree to at least great-grandparents. Then she used reverse genealogy in order to narrow it down to the suspect. When she did find the identity of the potential suspect in a span of merely two hours, she first hesitated to disclose his details to the Sherriff looking into the case, for fear that she might be accusing an innocent man. So she put together a report that she submitted to the Sheriff's Office.
Suspect identified
The man Moore concluded to be a suspect was William Earl Talbott II and a quick sweep of his records told authorities that he had never been convicted of a crime nor was he on the police's radar. However, they later found out that Talbott grew up in a house located seven miles away from where Cook's body was discovered in 1987, which was a tip of a lifetime.
The Police put together information about Talbott and found out he was a truck driver. They began following him around, keeping a close eye on his activities, and doing traditional police work. They needed his DNA sample to confirm that the original evidence recovered from the crime scenes matched. So when they were tailing his truck and saw him dispose of a cup that he had been drinking from, the police took it in for DNA testing. The initial profile and the new one from the DNA retrieved from the cup was a perfect match. The police ambushed Talbott at his workplace and arrested him.
Moore then received a letter from Van Cuyenborg's brother who thanked her for finding his sister's killer, which was very important to her and made her feel that she did the right thing. In June 2019, Talbott was found guilty of murdering Cook and Van Cuyenborg. He is currently serving two life sentences with parole and is appealing his conviction.