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Title details for The Forever Witness by Edward Humes - Wait list

The Forever Witness

How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder

by Edward Humes
Edward Humes
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“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?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 29, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593627068
      • File size: 300722 KB
      • Duration: 10:26:30

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 12, 2022
      In 1987, 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook, the victims at the center of this stellar true crime account from Pulitzer Prize winner Humes (Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn’t), disappeared while on a road trip from Canada to Seattle. Their bodies and their abandoned van were found days later; Tanya had been raped and shot and Jay beaten to death. The case made headlines for months, but it would be 31 years before Bill Talbott, a 55-year-old Seattle trucker “with no criminal convictions on his record and no known connection to the victims,” was arrested, thanks to determined cold case investigator Jim Scharf and genetic genealogist CeCe Moore. Humes delves into Scharf’s and Moore’s personalities and backgrounds while explaining the development of home DNA kits, their use in solving crimes, and the controversy over police use of these private for-profit databases, from which anyone can update a DNA profile to trace their ancestors and unknowingly finger a criminal relative in the process. In “the first-ever genetic genealogy murder trial,” Talbott was convicted in 2019, though he’s currently awaiting a second trial after the first was overturned on appeal based on an issue unrelated to the DNA evidence. Humes matches taut prose with assured storytelling. This fascinating look at how technology has revolutionized crime solving is must reading. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House.

    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Humes (Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn't) delivers insight into this thrilling cold case that was resolved through the history-making use of genetic genealogy. In 1987, a young couple set off from Canada for Seattle on an overnight errand to pick up some equipment from a hardware store. When they did not return, their parents reported them missing, and a massive manhunt ensued. It appeared that the perfect crime was committed. In 2018, a break in the case occurred when cold-case detective Jim Scharf worked with genetic genealogist CeCe Moore to use GEDmatch DNA technology, resulting in the arrest, trial, and conviction of the killer. Also included are additional cases Scharf resolved using DNA matching, including Precious Jane Doe. Humes infuses his performance with empathy as Scharf interviews the two grieving families and keeps them updated on developments in the case. He is professional when Scharf interacts with Moore and interviews witnesses, and clinical as Scharf describes the grisly details of each murder and the evidence collected during the investigation. VERDICT This nail-biting account of a double-homicide cold case is still in the news today. An excellent addition to any true-crime collection.--Stephanie Bange

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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