Posted on 06/29/2019 10:30:45 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
A jury convicted a Washington state man Friday in the killings of a young Canadian couple more than three decades ago — a case that was finally solved when investigators turned to powerful genealogy software to build a family tree of the then-unknown suspect.
Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Jay Cook, disappeared in November 1987 after leaving their home near Victoria, British Columbia, for what was supposed to be an overnight trip to Seattle. Their bodies were found in separate locations in northwestern Washington state about a week later.
Investigators preserved DNA evidence that was recovered from Van Cuylenborg's body and pants, but they didn't know whose it was until last year. Authorities used genetic genealogy to identify the suspect as William Earl Talbott II, a construction worker and truck driver who was 24 at the time of the killings and lived near where Cook's body was discovered.
The genealogy technique has revolutionized cold-case investigations across the U.S. in the past year. It involves entering crime-scene DNA profiles into public genealogy databases, finding relatives of the person who left the DNA and building family trees that lead detectives to a suspect.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This is a heartbreaking story. "When the couple didn't return from their trip as scheduled, their families began a frantic search for them, including renting a plane to try to spot the copper-colored Ford van they had been driving."
In Talbott's case, a genetic genealogist used a DNA profile entered into the GEDmatch database to identify distant cousins of the suspect, build a family tree linking those cousins and figure out that the sample must have come from a male child of William and Patricia Talbott.
The couple had only one son: William Talbott II.
Once Talbott was identified as a suspect, investigators tailed him, saw him discard a coffee cup and then tested the DNA from the cup, confirming it matched evidence from the crime, prosecutor Justin Harleman told jurors during the trial.
Now they need to find who all those left feet belong to.
Where the rubber meets the road, science and reality kick in. No more "land of make believe".
I wonder of DNA is collected from all the Illegal Invaders caught sneaking into our Country? If not, why not?
Your DNA belongs to you, but you tend to leave samples of it in places where you have been, like bread crumbs. Once, you leave it, it can be collected and tested. If you can match DNA from a crime scene and a DNA sample from a suspect you can solve crimes.
If the police need to put a name to a suspect, then they can take the crime scene DNA and compare it with DNA that innocent people have submitted to a public database for genealogy purposes. If the criminal’s relatives were among these innocent people, the perp could be in trouble. The process isn’t automatic, it takes old fashioned detective work, but it can lead to a suspect. Innocent people are not harmed in this process.
I certainly agree with the end result of justice. Yet is the technology fool proof? Is the chain of custody of the original evidence infallible? Are the data bases accurate and secure? Just asking for the sake of discussion.
I don’t like the idea of snooping into relatives’ DNA submissions.
Their files are not on record. So the only crime they would be breaking is the illegal entry.
But if you identify them, then the only two things you can do is throw them back or put them in jail here for a cot and three hots which is probably more than they had. Identifying them is easy. Getting rid of them permanently is almost impossible unless you shoot them. And finding the ones that illegally crossed before years ago is going to be a no gainer as when they illegally cross the next time, they have somewhere to go.
The only good thing the illegals do is provide jobs for people to throw them back again, and again, and again,.......
rwood
The process doesn’t need to be infallable. It simply leads the police to a suspect. Once they have identified the suspect, then the comparison of the DNA at the crime scene and the suspect’s DNA (obtained through a search warrant) gives an unambiguous result, unless an identical twin is in the mix. Like all evidence, it is subject to the usual chain of custody caveats. If someone screws up, the perp walks.
Read the boilerplate. People submitting to those places have no expectation of privacy.
Correct, in fact they want people to see their submission.
Folks, do not give your little boys middle names like Earl and Lee. You're breeding a killer already. (And while we're talking names, don't name girls Amanda. They go nuts every time. If I ever meet a girl named Amanda Lee, I will run from her.)
I trust the prosecutors had more evidence than the DNA alone to close this case, as the possibility of consensual sex would exist. I saw no comments indicating that the woman had been raped, which would be the logical conclusion, given the DNA found must have been semen.
I do hope they got it right and this guy rots in prison for a long time.
This is why the rats in charge of California and Kamala Harris did not and will not fund the DNA testing of thousands of DNA rape kit in California.
“Unprocessed DNA/ID rape kits in California while Kamala Harris was the state AG!”
“Kamala Harris protected a lot rapists while serving as California’s AG!”
If she had done her job as our state AG, there would not be hundreds if not thousands of DNA/ID rape Kits not processed due to quote lack of funding.
Maybe some females in California and the nation can bring this scandal forward after Kamala conveniently forgot about them.
CA ‘DNA/ID’ backlog under fire Capitol Weekly | Capitol Weekly ...
capitol weekly.net/rape-kit-backlog-under-fire/
Apr 11, 2018 - Thousands of California women who said they were raped gave ... But many of the DNA/ID rape kits were not examined in a timely way, caught in a ...
No one knows how many untested DNA/ID rape kits there are in California ...
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-rape-kits-legislation-20170525-story.html
May 26, 2017 - Assembly Bill 41 would require law enforcement agencies to report to the state how many sexual assault DNA/ID kits they collected and have examined ...
The unconscionable backlog of unprocessed rape kits in California ...
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-rape-kits-20180521-story.html
May 21, 2018 - The DNA/ID rape kit backlog is, unfortunately, not a new problem, though ... that the procedure will further the investigation, not just add to a collection of ...
Destroyed: How the trashing of DNA/ID rape kits failed victims and jeopardizes ...
www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/investigates/police-destroyed-rapekits/index.html
Nov 29, 2018 - Where police did not redact that information, CNN did, including the full names of ... A CNN investigation into the destruction of DNA/ID rape kits in dozens of agencies ..... of Prosecuting Attorneys and a career California prosecutor.
‘Disturbing’ DNA/ID rape kit investigation prompts action - CNN - CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/health/ DNA/ID rape-kits-destroyed-reaction.../index.html
Dec 5, 2018 - A CNN investigation prompts officials to tell police: Do not destroy rape kits.
For someone who’s taken an oath to uphold, support, and defend the Constitution throughout her professional career, 2020 Democratic presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris tends to, in the words of constitutionalist and talk host Mark Levin, “treat it like a smorgasbord,” picking the parts she likes and ignoring the parts she doesn’t.
Like not funding to process/id maybe thousands of Rape Kits in California while serving as the state’s highest ranking law enforcement person, the state’s former AG, Kamala!
It's a lot more reliable than the old way -- police 'hunches' on who the real criminal is, gathering or in some cases, manufacturing evidence to get a conviction. Just answering as someone whose friend was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. (police lied & coroner manufactured evidence)
At least with this way, (DNA genealogy) the police must follow where the evidence leads instead of the other way around.
I know. My middle name is Lee, and I'm having these....urges.
At least it's not Earl.
Saaaaayyyyy, wasn't Joe DeAngelo a cop?
Different rules...
If my DNA helps catch some scum bag that's a positive in my thinking.
She did earn her bones making a willie brown, so to speak...
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