48 Hours - A Killer in the Family Tree - Encore

Episode Date: February 5, 2023

When a woman uploads her DNA to a genealogy website, authorities show up at her door. Is there a double murderer in her family tree? "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I really like to solve puzzles, and genealogy kind of is like that. It offers you this endless stream of blanks to fill in. offers you this endless stream of blanks to fill in. My name's Chelsea Rustad, and in 2013, I began my search for my own family history.

And it took me down lots of unexpected paths along the way. In 2015, I saw on Ancestry's Facebook page they were running a contest, and two winners would receive an Ancestry DNA kit. They contacted me and said, Chelsea, you're one of the winners. The Ancestry DNA kit arrived. You just kind of spit in a tube and seal it up, and then it was on its way. Did you have any idea just what kind of story your DNA would tell? I really didn't.

I was a genealogy hobbyist like millions of other people in the United States. I kind of accidentally fell into it. I'm Cece Moore, and I'm an investigative genetic genealogist, and that means I use DNA to try to help law enforcement find violent criminals. When the Golden State Killer suspect was identified through investigative genetic genealogy, there were many people who said this wasn't a tool that would be used commonly in law enforcement, and I wanted to prove them wrong. And genetic genealogy has exposed a lot of secrets that people had hoped would remain secret.

Yes, oftentimes it's someone's deepest, darkest secret. All I'm thinking is, it's gonna confirm my ethnic background, and maybe I'll get to connect with some cousins. I was excited. I was just really optimistic about like, maybe it will uncover something cool. A young Canadian couple takes a road trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle in November 1987. 18-year-old Tanya Van Kylenborg and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Jay Kirk, headed towards Seattle. Skagit County has the first half of this puzzling case. In May of 2018 I got a knock on the door and it was two investigators from Skagit County and I was so confused what are

they investigating? The murder of 18 yearold Tanya Van Kylenborg. Her body was found in a ditch near the town of Elm Street. Her boyfriend, Jay Cook, dead too. His body found near Monroe a few days later. Strangled with some kind of ligature. They let me know that they are investigating a family member of mine for murder. A double homicide from 1987. This was a person who was in my family tree.

homicide from 1987. This was a person who was in my family tree. Did that name appear on any of the suspects, Liz? No, that name had never been across my desk ever. Without genetic genealogy, would we know who killed Tanya and Jay? No. I know that my DNA played a big part of that. It's been a learning curve. This was all brand new. It's the web of matches. It's putting those puzzle pieces together little by little. Thank you. experience amazing now at dawn valley north lexus right now lease the 2024 rx 350 premium package from just 678 per month for 28 months at 1.9 or Or choose from Canada's largest selection of Lexus demonstrators with offers you won't want to miss.

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when it came to the murders of Tanya Van Kylenborg and Jay Cook. It was probably the most horrendous unsolved case that we had. Tanya Van Kylenborg was an 18-year-old girl. She just graduated from high school. She was in a new relationship with Jay Cook. On November 18, 1987, the young couple left British Columbia in Jay's parents' van, heading for Seattle, Washington. Jay was going to go to Jen's Co-Heating in Seattle to pick up some furnace parts for his dad. They planned to sleep in the van near the store and drive back to Canada the next day. So when they didn't show up that evening, the families became concerned. We just had no idea where they might be or what might have transpired. Tanya's big brother John was at college when he got a call from his worried father.

John, would your sister ever just go off and not call your parents? No, I don't think that had ever happened. If the plans had changed and she was going to spend another night, she would have called my parents. if the plans had changed and she was going to spend another night, she would have called my parents. After Tanya and Jay were reported missing, law enforcement began looking for them. Desperate for answers, John and his father joined the search in Seattle.

Something was gravely wrong. I mean, the obvious things in terms of them being in hospital or something or just simply with a flat tire somewhere, all those more innocent explanations were pretty much vanishing. On November 24, six days after the couple disappeared, John's worst fears were confirmed. Tanya's body was found at the bottom of a ditch in rural Skagit County. Some 80 miles north of Seattle. She wasn't wearing any pants or panties, and her bra was pushed up over her breasts.

So it obviously looked like a rape murder. Tanya had been shot in the head at close range. She rolled down the hill. It was a quick execution. Later that evening, John had to identify his sister's body. Such a crushing feeling that all of a sudden

you see her lying there. It's definitely horrific. But we had no idea still about where was Jay, where was the van, how did this happen, why did it happen? The next day, Tanya's wallet, the keys to the van, some bullets and a number of other items turned up 16 miles away in Bellingham. They had been discarded under the porch of a local tavern next to the Greyhound bus station. under the porch of a local tavern next to the Greyhound bus station. Police located the van in a nearby parking lot, but Jay was still missing.

The following day, Jay's body was found here underneath High Bridge. He was about 70 miles south of where Tanya had been found. It was a horrible scene. Her 20-year-old boyfriend had been strangled. A pack of cigarettes stuffed down his throat. What did most investigators think about this killer? I mean, who does something like this? Right, that was the big question. This was a person who was a real predator,

and it was believed at the time that it was probably a serial killer or an ex-convict. But finding that predator would be challenging. Investigators and forensic scientists had four crime scenes scattered over three counties, but few clues. A bullet casing found on the hillside near Tanya's body matched those bullets collected at the tavern in Bellingham, but a gun was never found. This surgical glove was discovered under the porch. Investigators believe the killer wore it to avoid leaving fingerprints, but he may have been careless. There was a palm print on the back of the van that they believed hopefully belonged to the suspect. Inside the van, they found what would ultimately be the most important piece of evidence.

The black pants Tanya had been wearing. They found that there was semen on Tanya's pants. And when they examined the semen, they learned that it couldn't be left from Jay. The sample matched the DNA found inside Tanya's body and would later be known as Individual A. But the only evidence that connected all four crime scenes, these plastic zip ties found near Tanya and Jay's bodies, under the porch, and inside the van. According to Detective Sharp, they were part of the killer's rape murder kit. They were part of the killer's rape-murder kit. This was a predator that was hunting for a victim that he wanted to rape.

And maybe in his mind, he decided that he was going to kill him too. They were two mild-mannered, soft-spoken kids. They weren't out to pick a fight with anyone. I mean, both families were just so devastated. Hoping to find the killer, Tanya's family offered a $50,000 reward for information. Tips came in, but none panned out. The police, to their credit, were trying to chase down every sort of theory. Over the years, the theories and false leads would grow,

and more than 200 names would fill the case file. Some were convicted felons, and then there was Charles Sinclair. He was believed to be a serial killer across the western United States. There was also an anonymous writer who sent threatening letters to Jay and Tanya's families claiming to be the killer. Yeah it was just unfathomable to think that you know somebody normally had done these murders but then was going to continue taunting the families with these letters. But every suspect's DNA was compared to Individual A's profile, and none matched. The goal was to try to figure out who did this semen sample belong to. Lisa Collins, a forensic scientist with the Washington State Patrol,

uploaded Individual A's profile to CODIS, the FBI's National Offender Database. As the years went by, just complete silence. It's disheartening. You just are afraid that this might be one of those cases that's never going to be solved. And then, more than 30 years after Tanya and Jay were killed, there's a break in the case. and Jay were killed, there's a break in the case. I was skeptical. I was hopeful, but I was skeptical. And I'm a believer now. Go inside the decades-long search and then from Tanya's body.

Trying to figure out who this sample may belong to. That was the tedious and hard part. The man police believe killed Tanya Van Kylenborg and Jay Cook left behind a forensic calling card, says Lisa Collins, but still managed to elude capture for years. And then in 2017, Detective Jim Sharp heard about an innovative tool developed by Parabon Nanolabs that uses DNA evidence to predict the genetic traits of an unknown suspect. It's called snapshot phenotyping.

It's called snapshot phenotyping. They gather all that information and they end up making a snapshot of what an individual with all those traits might look similar to. create this composite sketch, which gave Sharpe some clues as to what the suspect could look like at the ages of 25, 45, and 65. But he still didn't have a name. Investigators in California say DNA evidence led them to one of the country's most notorious serial killers. And then in 2018, a stunning arrest in California opened new doors for law enforcement. The so-called Golden State Killer. The man responsible for numerous rapes and murders was finally apprehended after 43 years using genetic genealogy. Did a little light bulb go over your head at that moment? Oh yeah, big light bulb. The Golden State Killer's DNA had been uploaded to GEDmatch, a genetic database that allows users of various consumer test kits to share and compare their DNA. This is fantastic.

This is fantastic. I need to get on this. Parabon agreed to upload individual A's DNA to GEDmatch and called in genetic genealogist Cece Moore. She's known for her work on the PBS show Finding Your Roots. So then what did you do? DNA. DNA. So all we have is DNA. And she's famed for skills at mapping family trees. But this was her first criminal case.

I had had a lot of doubts whether this was the right thing for me to do, and I finally made the decision, okay, I'm going to do this. But a lot was riding on that case. It was a case she had been following for years and felt a personal connection to. Moore's parents were from the Pacific Northwest, and she was the same age as Tanya Van Kylenborg. She was killed right when I was graduating high school and going on to college, and my life was just really beginning and hers ended so tragically and so I think it always stuck with me. On Friday, April 27, 2018, individual A's DNA file was uploaded to GEDmatch.

It's compared against everyone that's participating in that database and so what they're looking for are long segments of identical DNA between two people. Sometimes the match list will show up right away, and sometimes it takes a couple days. So I stayed up really late that Friday night. I kept checking, and there was no matches. The next morning, Moore logged on to see if there was a list. And there was. And so we're hoping for at least a second cousin or closer at the top of that list.

And we used to call that being struck by lightning. Were you struck by lightning in this case? Twice. We were struck by lightning twice. On the list were two people who shared enough DNA with Individual A to be his second cousins. And what was that? What was that feeling like? It was pretty exciting and scary. In this case, the cousins shared DNA with Individual A, but not with each other,

which meant they're related to him on different branches of his family tree. meant they're related to him on different branches of his family tree. But to figure out who he was, Moore first had to find out who they were. Now, fortunately, one of the people at the top of that list had a really unique name. And what was her name? Chelsea Rustad. Remember, Chelsea Rustad had taken that ancestry DNA test and then went a step further. CHELSEA RUSTAD You can download your raw DNA file to your computer and then upload it to GEDmatch. I just had no inkling at all that there were secret relatives I didn't know about

or mysteries to uncover. Neither did the other second cousin, who Moore was also able to identify, but has chosen to remain anonymous. And then I built the family trees of those top two matches, and surprisingly quickly, I discovered how they converged. It only took me two hours to come to the identification of who I believed to be Tanya and Jay's killer. how they converged. It only took me two hours to come to the identification

of who I believed to be Tanya and Jay's killer. This is a person who had eluded, capture, investigation for 31 years, and you were able to identify this person in two hours? That's the power of genetic genealogy. Yeah. But how sure were you? I was very sure.

But isn't that scary, Cece, because your work might end up with this person in prison? Right. And at that moment, I'm the only person in the world who knows that he's probably guilty of this crime, other than him, of course. And so it is a super heavy burden. Monday morning, April 30th, Detective Jim Scharf got the news. We've got it narrowed down to one guy. And I'm thinking, I don't believe this. And my first thought is, who's the guy? Would you upload your DNA to a genealogy website? Chat now on Facebook and Twitter.

30 plus years, dozens of dead ends, hundreds of false leads. And then in April 2018, CeCe Moore got on a computer and out of the billions of people on Earth identified through genetic genealogy, the one man she believed killed Jay Cook and Tanya Van Kylenborg. Who was the person you identified? William Earl Talbot II. William Earl Talbot II. When Detective Jim Sharp heard the name, he ran it through the system and was surprised to learn that Talbot had. When Detective Jim Sharp heard the name, he ran it through the system

and was surprised to learn that Talbot had no felony convictions. It was a new name that we'd never heard of before. But it was sure nice when we found out that he only lived seven miles from the bridge where Jay's body was found. Sharp also learned that in 1987, Talbot, 24 at the time, worked as a delivery driver and made stops near where Jay and Tanya were headed to pick up that furnace part, and says that Talbot was fired a few months before the murders. So it makes sense that he was down in that area prowling around and probably ran into Jay and Tanya.

But Scharf needed more than old work records and genetic genealogy. It's really just a tip. It's an investigative lead. To make an arrest, Scharf needed to be sure that the DNA left at the crime scene by the man, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, in the end, He dropped or threw away anything that had touched his mouth because we wanted his saliva on it as the best type of DNA source. Investigators learned Talbot now drove a semi, and they began tailing his truck. One day, about a week later, they watched as Talbot stopped at a red light and opened the truck door. The light changes to green. He slams the door and drives away. And there's a white paper cup laying on the street.

It's blowing around in the wind. So they jump out, they go over and they collect the cup and they call me. Scharf rushed the paper cup to forensic scientist Lisa Collins with the Washington State Patrol. They wanted me to test this cup and just see if I could get a DNA profile from it. Scharf left the cup at the lab to await the results. CeCe Moore had already begun searching for Talbot online and quickly found his sisters and father on social media. I couldn't find hardly anything about him. You know, no marriages.

I could find very little footprint online at all. And that was a little unusual. Years earlier, someone else who knew nothing about the investigation had made a similar search, Chelsea Rustad. In 2013, long before she submitted her DNA to any websites, Chelsea Googled her grandpa's sister Blanche and found a lot of information online. Her daughter was Patty Talbot,

and Patty had three daughters and one son, and the son was William Earl Talbot II. These were Chelsea's second cousins, the Talbots. Chelsea friended two of the sisters on Facebook but their brother William was a mystery. This guy was just kind of a question mark off the grid. Chelsea figured William was estranged from his family, but didn't give it much thought, even after she uploaded her DNA to Ancestry.com and then GEDmatch. So she was stunned that day in 2018

when those investigators showed up on her doorstep and asked to see her research. And I'm just kind of like, wait, you're saying one of my family members is connected to a murder? And they're saying, you know, yeah, it's from 1987, and the person of interest is William Earl Talbot. And I'm just kind of grasping the scope of this and, you know, sickened thinking about it. The investigators wanted to know her impression of William Talbot. I told them my theory that I think he's estranged.

Detective Scharf got more details from Talbot's friends and family. He had a history of anger and violence when he was younger. He was a really angry kid. In audio-taped interviews with Talbot's sisters, Scharf learned William's troubles began when he was 11 and his father was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident. The sisters say William began to lash out. He beat me up, broke my telephone.

I had to go to the hospital. Another sister says William hurt her too. Still, she said she didn't think he was capable of murder. Yeah, he'd be a bonehead, but not to the point of attacking or killing somebody, no. But would the DNA on the paper cup tell a different story? That was on Detective Sharf's mind when he returned to the police lab and Lisa Collins shared the results of her testing. I said, the profile from the cup matches individual A. It was just an amazing moment, yeah.

What did that feel like, Jim? I got tears in my eyes. I'm like, I can't believe it, it's so emotional. And then I'm like, yeah, we got him! And so on May 17th, 2018, nearly 31 years after two carefree teenagers set out on a road trip and never returned, Detective Sharp arrested William Talbot. He says, John, we've got him. Sharp called Tanya's brother John right away, saying that at long last, individual A was in handcuffs. Yeah, I mean, that's when it really sent a chill down my spine. It was pretty overwhelming to

think that it all culminated in that moment right there, 31 years later. The next day, William Talbot was charged with Tanya's murder. Charges for Jay's murder soon followed. Jay's sister spoke at a press conference. It's hard to put in two words this feeling of relief, of joy, of great sorrow that this arrest brings. Jay's mom said the moment was bittersweet. On one hand, we're close to closure, and on the other, we're still at a loss. And I don't have my only son, Jay. Detective Scharf told the group he was grateful for breakthroughs in DNA technology. If it hadn't been for genetic genealogy, we wouldn't be standing here today. But would evidence obtained through genetic genealogy be allowed in court?

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William Earl Talbot is now accused of killing. Now, with William Talbot's arrest, Tanya's brother, John Van Kylenborg, was finally able to face the man suspected of his sister's murder. And what did you think the first time you saw him? Oh, he just reviled. I mean, it's hard to control your emotions. Talbot pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder. And so in June of 2019, his trial began in the Snohomish

County Superior Court. It was the first case ever to go to a jury trial where the suspect had been identified through investigative genetic genealogy. Although the Golden State Killer had been identified first, Talbot's trial would be held before his, and CeCe Moore was acutely aware of how much was riding on the outcome. We didn't know at that point how genetic genealogy was going to be treated in court E.C. Moore was acutely aware of how much was riding on the outcome. We didn't know at that point how genetic genealogy was going to be treated in court because there was no precedence.

The prosecution was hoping to make it a non-issue. I was going to minimize the exposure by kind of downplaying the importance of the genetic genealogy, knowing full well that was the part of the case that was perhaps most intriguing to people. genetic genealogy, knowing full well that was the part of the case that was perhaps most intriguing to people. Chief Criminal Deputy Matthew Baldock was the lead prosecutor on Talbot's case. He approached the defense with a proposal. They would stipulate to the jury that the DNA from individual A had come from William Talbot as an agreed upon fact.

Much to my surprise, they agreed. It was a major victory for the prosecution. The use of genetic genealogy to locate a suspect would not be contested in court. That was a huge relief. Really, it was the best possible outcome. So you admit that that is William Talbot's DNA, am I correct? You're correct.

That was a stipulation. Talbot's attorneys, John Scott and Rachel Ford, would argue that there's actually an innocent explanation for that DNA. Every indication of the DNA found from my client indicated consensual sex. Yes, they admit that Talbot had sex with Tanya, but they deny he raped or killed her or Jay Cook. They point out that Tanya and Jay were missing for several days before their bodies were found, implying that the couple must have encountered their killer later on. Tell me what you think then happened to Tanya and Jay. We don't know what happened. These kids were off to an adventure. Whether they went to a bar, a restaurant, some sort of club to meet people, I don't know. Talbot's lawyers say it's understandable that Talbot might not remember meeting Tanya or even where he was 30 years ago.

But it's significant, they say, that investigators were unable to link Talbot to the type of gun that killed Tanya, the pack of cigarettes, or the materials used to strangle Jay. So William Talbot's defense is basically that he had sex with Tanya and then somehow somebody else killed her. That's not William Talbot's defense.

William Talbot's defense is that there is insufficient evidence to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But prosecutors say they do have sufficient evidence. There's Talbot's DNA from Tanya's body and her pants. The fact that he lived just seven miles from where Jay's body was found. And the palm print on the van that police say was a match to Talbot. Then there are the zip ties found at all four crime scenes. Baldock says they prove the connection between Jay's murder and Tanya's and the van. What do you believe the zip ties were used for? I believe that Mr. Talbot had Jay and Tanya in the van for some period of time after he abducted or kidnapped them, and I believe that he used the

zip ties to restrain them. As part of his investigation, Detective Sharpe had hoped to obtain a usable DNA profile from any of the zip ties. There had been a mixture of DNA on one of the zip ties that was found in Jay's van, and they weren't able to discern who all the profiles belonged to. But mid-trial, forensic scientist Lisa Collins had decided to run that DNA mixture into a new software program to see if she could find a match. And to her surprise, she did.

When I compared William Talbot's DNA profile to the mixture obtained from the zip tie that was found in the victim's van, he was included as a possible contributor. But because her discovery came during trial, prosecutors felt it was too late to present to the jury, fearing it would delay the trial. Talbot elected not to take the stand, and his lawyers were hopeful that the jury would agree there was not enough evidence to prove him guilty. In their closing arguments, the defense told the jury that police were unreasonably focused on the DNA.

They never stopped to consider that perhaps the person who left the DNA was not the murderer. Attorney Ford argued that Detective Jim Scharf had tunnel vision. Is it at all possible that, yes, that was William Talbot's DNA, but he didn't kill either one of them? Is that possible? Sure. Is it reasonable? No. She was found without her pants or underwear. So just practically speaking, is the claim that Mr. Talbot had consensual sex with her

and then she got dressed and the person who ultimately killed her undressed her? Baldock says the only reasonable theory is that Talbot had overpowered the couple with a plan of raping Tanya and then killed them both. He had zip ties, he had gloves, he had a firearm, he had ammunition. After a two-week-long trial, the jury began to deliberate. But they didn't come back that first day. Or the second.

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On that third day of deliberations, the families of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Kylenborg finally got news. There was a verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, William Earl Talbot II, guilty of the crime of murder as charged. Guilty. William Talbot had been found guilty of the aggravated murder of Tanya Van Kylenborg and guilty of the aggravated murder of Jay Cook. Just to hear the foreman of the jury say guilty was surreal. CeCe Moore wasn't in the

courtroom, but she later saw video of Tanya's brother John's reaction. It was as if I could see a physical burden lift off his shoulders. He had told me how he had carried this burden for years. You know, he was the only sibling.

He was her older brother. And so that was incredible to see. Chelsea Rustad had never spoken to either Jay or Tanya's family. But with their blessing, she decided to attend Talbot's sentencing, where she first met John. Chelsea. Yeah. I was really nervous. He looked a little bit nervous as well.

She's effectively a family member of the murderer, so I think it was brave of her to take that risk. Thank you for coming today. At the sentencing, Jay Cook's mother told the judge about the grief she has carried all these years. Some of us wanted a shirt or a sweater. You could wear them. You could put them to your nose and smell them. I still have that old sweater in my dressing drawer.

The sentence was mandatory. Thank you. The court's only possible sentence on each count is to impose a sentence of life without possibility of release. Two life terms in prison without parole. Chelsea says her sympathy is for Jay and Tanya's families, despite her genetic ties to Talbot. All right. His dad wasn't there. His sisters weren't there. He had a family member in the audience, and I was there supporting the victims.

Chelsea Rustad is proud that her DNA helped bring a killer to justice. But there are some who have concerns about this new frontier in police work. It might be that you're not the Golden State killer, but it also might be that you don't want law enforcement scrutinizing your entire family. Law professor Andrea Roth is head of the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and says one of the problems she sees is that the DNA used for genetic genealogy can be very revealing.

This is DNA testing that tells you a lot about a person's very sensitive information, their medical history, information about familial lines that the families themselves don't even know. Professor Roth does agree that in cases like this, genetic genealogy can be an effective tool for the public good. But she cautions that most states

have no restrictions on its use. There's the concern that the government could use your DNA for some reason other than a criminal investigation that it shouldn't be using it for. Giving it to insurance companies or using DNA to find out who was at a protest meeting. We don't have evidence right now of the government doing that, but those are reasons that somebody might want to think about before they decide to upload their DNA. Because of this lack of legal oversight, Roth has deep reservations about sharing DNA

on public genealogy websites. Would you not upload your DNA? I would not. But it may already be too late for Professor Roth or many other Americans to truly opt out. Experts estimate that today, more than 90% of white Americans can be identified using genetic genealogy.

And that's because, says CeCe Moore, those of European descent are well represented on websites like GEDmatch. We have enough DNA. We can identify almost anyone of Northwest European ancestry. Even if it takes hours, dozens of hours, hundreds of hours, we'll get there. But in this case, after more than 30 years with no solid leads, Moore was able to use Chelsea Rustad's DNA to help locate a viable suspect in just two hours. Was this the fastest you've ever found a suspect? It was. To this day, three and a half years later, hundreds of cases later, this was the most straightforward case I've ever worked.

And that is amazing. Detective Scharf believes that this case changed the face of cold case investigations forever. Genetic genealogy is the best tool that's come around since DNA. You don't need a CODIS database to get your match. For Jay and Tanya's families, it means they finally have some answers and a measure of peace. On Tanya's grave, her parents inscribe the final line from a poem she wrote when she was 17. line from a poem she wrote when she was 17. There is a place that I know of where up above there flies a dove.

And slowly as it turns to dawn, she parts her wings, and then she's gone. She was growing up and maturing and spreading her wings and getting her feet under her and then she was gone. You miss her still, don't you? Yeah, definitely. Serial killers can be very difficult to predict. Four families shattered when their daughters go missing. Two were not found. 20 years.

Will the prime suspect finally reveal where they are? A little bit of a cat and mouse game. 48 Hours, next on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.