GUILTY WA - Jay Cook, 20, & Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, Skagit County, 24 Nov 1987

[Niner]

Wednesday, June 12th:
*Jury Selection continues (Day 2) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (55/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18) & indicted (6/15/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2M bail. DA will not seek DP. Snohomish County
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Jury selection starts 6/11, trial will begin 7/1, and will last about 4 weeks.
6/11/19 Day 1 Jury Selection: No info yet. Continues on 6/12.

 

[Niner]

Per this article it says opening statements are expected tomorrow, Thursday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...sed-in-1987-murders-of-b-c-couple-1.5171435ex

 

[Niner]

Hmm.... now I can't get into that last article I posted. So can't re-read it. But the court site has this:

Looks like jury has been selected, I think. Next (after 6/11/19 date):

06/10/2019 Motion in Limine
Judicial Officer: Krese, Linda C
Hearing Time: 3:00 PM

06/10/2019 Defendants List of Witnesses
Comment: *Amended

06/11/2019 Jury Trial
Hearing Time: 9:01 AM
Comment: Assigned to Judge Krese 4 weeks 90 jurors

07/01/2019 Jury Trial
Judicial Officer: Krese, Linda C
Hearing Time: 9:30 AM

link: Odyssey Portal - Washington Courts Online Case Search

Regarding the Comment on 6/11 re 4 weeks 90 jurors. Do you think that the 4 weeks is for trial - OR - for picking jurors??

Wish we had some "news"....

 

[Niner]

So I shall post this - and if anyone sees anything different - please post. Considering they have 90 jurors to go thru, I don't believe they have finished with that process yet. But then - what do I know...

Thursday, June 13th:
*Trial continues with Jury Selection (Day 3) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (55/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18) & indicted (6/15/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2.5M bail. DA will not seek DP.
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Jury selection started 6/11, trial will begin 7/1, and will last about 3-4 weeks.
6/11/19 Day 1 Jury Selection: Over 100 potential jurors showed up. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese began dismissing jurors from the pool Tuesday afternoon, beginning with those who had purchased plane tickets and hotel rooms for summer vacations. Other potential jurors were led into the courtroom one by one to explain why they felt they could or could not be impartial in the case. Jury selection continues on 6/12. Opening arguments expected on Thursday.
6/12/19 Day 2 Jury Selection: No info available yet. Opening statements are “supposed” to start on 6/13 per article. Court site has trial starting 7/1.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Man on trial in killings arrested through genetic genealogy

 

[Niner]

Trial For Truck Driver Identified By Genetic Genealogy Could Set Precedent In New Method To Fight Crime

[Cece]Moore will be testifying at the trial.

 

[Legally Bland]

Man on trial in killings arrested through genetic genealogy

So it looks like the defense aren't challenging forensic genealogy as such, just that the crime scene DNA doesn't prove murder (if I'm reading it right):
________________

But Talbott's attorneys say how detectives found him is irrelevant to their defense to charges that he killed 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jay Cook.

Instead, they argue that he's innocent, and that the discovery of his DNA — which investigators said was on her pants, vagina and rectum — doesn't make him a murderer.

"The police used this as nothing more than any other tip, which they followed up with traditional investigative techniques," defense lawyer Rachel Forde said. "DNA on the hem of one of the victim's pants doesn't tell you who killed her and why."

 

[Legally Bland]

EVERETT — On the third morning of jury selection, defense attorney Rachel Forde put a question to the audience in the courtroom, who may soon decide if the defendant is guilty, or not, of a long-unsolved double murder from 1987.

“Who here,” Forde said, “thinks that a young woman, on a road trip with her boyfriend, would never have consensual sex with a stranger?”

One juror’s hand inched up, then lowered.

“Anyone here think that probably wouldn’t happen?” Forde asked.

Many hands shot upward in the courtroom, where 40-plus Snohomish County residents were seated Thursday morning in downtown Everett.

For an hour, Forde ran through hypotheticals with the jury pool, giving a possible glimpse at what kind of defense the attorneys have in mind for William Talbott II.

[...]

Opening statements are set for Friday.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/jury-picked-in-1987-cold-case-double-murder-trial/

 

[Niner]

Friday, June 14th:
*Trial begins (Day 1) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (55/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18) & indicted (6/15/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2.5M bail. DA will not seek DP.
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Jury selection started 6/11 & ended 6/13. Trial will begin 6/14, and will last about 3-4 weeks.
6/11/19 Day 1 Jury Selection: Over 100 potential jurors showed up. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese began dismissing jurors from the pool Tuesday afternoon, beginning with those who had purchased plane tickets and hotel rooms for summer vacations. Other potential jurors were led into the courtroom one by one to explain why they felt they could or could not be impartial in the case. Jury selection continues on 6/12. Opening arguments expected on Thursday.
6/12/19 Day 2 Jury Selection: No info available yet. Opening statements are “supposed” to start on 6/13 per article. Court site has trial starting 7/1.
6/13/19 Day 3 of Jury Selection: By Thursday afternoon, the pool had been pared to 15. Three of those are alternates, who won’t be dismissed until perhaps two weeks from now, when the state and defense expect to wrap up. Opening statements are set for Friday, 6/14.

 

[Legally Bland]

@GabeCohenKOMO
·
3h
Trial begins for William Talbott, charged w/ murdering a couple from Canada in 1987. Genetic genealogy helped detectives identify him. It’s the first high profile case involving that field to go to trial.

@GabeCohenKOMO
·
3h
Opening statements begin. Prosecutor telling the story of how Jay Cook & Tanya Van Cuylenborg ended up in WA. He says evidence will show only William Talbott could have killed them.

@GabeCohenKOMO
·
1h
The defense opening statement questioning the evidence in the state's case. They say there's no evidence that gives context to the deaths -- and they hope to discredit some of the DNA evidence.

@GabeCohenKOMO
State calls first witness in William Talbott’s murder case. Linda Cunningham worked for a law enforcement department in British Columbia

Gabe Cohen (@GabeCohenKOMO) on Twitter

 

[Legally Bland]

Deputy prosecutor Matt Baldock described the killings as "extremely violent acts."

"The evidence in this case will show you that there is only one reasonably possible perpetrator for those acts, and that person is William Talbott II," he said.

[...]

Prosecutors say he also matched a palm print from the rear door of the couple's van.

But a defense lawyer for Talbott described his client as a blue-collar guy who's lived "a quiet, unremarkable life."

In his opening statement Friday at William Earl Talbott II's trial, attorney Jon Scott noted there's little or no evidence about who Van Cuylenborg and Cook were with or what they did in the days before they were found dead in Washington state.

Scott's opening statement did not offer any theory about how Talbott's DNA wound up on Van Cuylenborg's pants. But he did say that the palm print found on the van was not initially believed to match his client's print.

Brutal killer or 'quiet, unremarkable' man? Trial begins in cutting-edge DNA case

 

[jaejae]

Here is an interesting video about the developments in this case:

 

[Niner]

If anyone finds Jay's sister's name that testified yesterday - please post. I only have 3 people testifying yesterday - if more - please post.

Just want to keep my records straight! TIA!

 

[Legally Bland]

If anyone finds Jay's sister's name that testified yesterday - please post. I only have 3 people testifying yesterday - if more - please post.

Just want to keep my records straight! TIA!

On the witness stand, Cook’s sister, Laura Baanstra, recalled she’d skipped school on Nov. 18, 1987. She hid in her bedroom, and when she awoke, it was just her and Cook at home.

She heated up a fancy leftover sandwich from a restaurant and — after he kept saying how good it smelled — she cut it in half and shared it. She watched him drive off.

“The family … tradition is to stand in the window until they’re down the street, so we waved goodbye, and that was it,” she said.

He never came home.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/talbott-has-led-quiet-unremarkable-life-defense-says/​

Screenshot from linked video.



Twitter

 

[Niner]

Thank you Legally Bland!

 

[YESorNO]

THE FIRST MURDER CASE TO USE FAMILY TREE FORENSICS GOES TO TRIAL

06.10.19

"ON A CLEAR day, from the middle of a well-trafficked stretch of reinforced concrete that spans the Snoqualmie River in Washington state, you can make out the hulking, ice-covered flanks of Mount Rainier...

...nearly 32 years ago, somebody dumped the body of a young man at the base of this bridge, half-wrapped in a powder-blue blanket, plastic cords still cutting into his neck, and a pack of Camel Lights shoved down his throat.
Jay Cook’s battered, barely 21-year-old body was discovered on Thanksgiving Day in 1987, two days after his 17-year-old girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg was found dead in a ditch one county over. She had been shot in the head and was believed to have been sexually assaulted. The young Canadian couple had been reported missing for nearly a week, after they failed to return to their home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, from an overnight errand to buy furnace parts in Seattle. Despite investigating hundreds of leads and subjecting crime scene samples to new DNA technologies as they arrived in the ’90s and 2000s, police never arrested any suspects. For more than three decades the case went unsolved.

Then in May of last year, Washington officials announced a breakthrough. Snohomish County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Scharf stood at a podium and told the reporters assembled that they had, at long last, arrested a suspect: a balding, middle-aged man who had grown up in the area named William Earl Talbott II. “He was never on any list law enforcement had, there was never a tip providing his name,” said Scharf. “If it hadn’t been for genetic genealogy, we wouldn’t be standing here today.”..

On Tuesday morning, in Snohomish County’s largest courtroom, jury selection begins for what will likely be a monthlong double-homicide trial. It will be up to the 12 chosen to weigh the evidence against Talbott—including the science behind genetic genealogy, which is sure to be hotly contested. Last week the defense filed pretrial motions arguing that the genealogy evidence should be inadmissible..."

The First Murder Case to Use Family Tree Forensics Goes to Trial

 

[Niner]

Monday, June 14th:
*Trial begins (Day 2) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (56/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18), indicted (6/15/18) & arraigned (6/19/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2.5M bail. DA will not seek DP.
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Trial started 6/14, and will last about 2-3 weeks. 12 jurors with 3 alternates.
Jury Selection hearings from 6/11/19 to 6/13/19 reference post #89 here:
WA - Jay Cook, 20, & Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, Skagit County, 24 Nov 1987
6/14/19 Day 1: Opening statements by both sides. State witnesses: Linda Cunningham (worked for a LE dept. in British Columbia). John Van Cuylenborg (Tanya's bro). Laura Baanstra (Jay’s sister). Trial continues on Monday, 6/17.

 

[Niner]

Tuesday, June 18th:
*Trial begins (Day 3) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (56/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18), indicted (6/15/18) & arraigned (6/19/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2.5M bail. DA will not seek DP.
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Trial started 6/14, and will last about 2-3 weeks. 12 jurors with 3 alternates.
Jury Selection hearings from 6/11/19 to 6/13/19 reference post #89 here:
WA - Jay Cook, 20, & Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, Skagit County, 24 Nov 1987
6/14/19 Day 1: Opening statements by both sides. State witnesses: Linda Cunningham (worked for a LE dept. in British Columbia). John Van Cuylenborg (Tanya's bro). Laura Baanstra (Jay’s sister). Trial continues on Monday, 6/17.
6/17/19 Day 2: No info yet. Trial continues to 6/18.



Tried to find what happened yesterday, but all the articles I saw were only for Friday's court. So... if anyone finds something - please post!

 

[Suglo]

Tuesday, June 18th:
*Trial begins (Day 3) (@ 9am PT) – WA – Jay Cook (20) & Tanya Van Cuylenborg (18) (Nov. 19, 1987, Skagit County; Tanya found 11/24/87, Jay 11/26/87) – *William Earl Talbott II (56/24 @ time of crime) arrested (5/17/18), charged (5/18/18), indicted (6/15/18) & arraigned (6/19/18) with 2 counts of 1st degree murder. Plead not guilty (6/19/18). $2.5M bail. DA will not seek DP.
Investigators made a break in the cold case using a new strategy involving genetic genealogy (Parabon Nanolabs) & uploading DNA from the crime scene to a public, online genealogy (GEDMatch) database.
Trial started 6/14, and will last about 2-3 weeks. 12 jurors with 3 alternates.
Jury Selection hearings from 6/11/19 to 6/13/19 reference post #89 here:
WA - Jay Cook, 20, & Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, Skagit County, 24 Nov 1987
6/14/19 Day 1: Opening statements by both sides. State witnesses: Linda Cunningham (worked for a LE dept. in British Columbia). John Van Cuylenborg (Tanya's bro). Laura Baanstra (Jay’s sister). Trial continues on Monday, 6/17.
6/17/19 Day 2: No info yet. Trial continues to 6/18.



Tried to find what happened yesterday, but all the articles I saw were only for Friday's court. So... if anyone finds something - please post!

Can’t find anything. There isn’t even a single tweet that is not newer than 3 days old about it. Strange.

 

[Niner]

And it's weird that the court site shows Jury trial starting 7/1....