In 1987, Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend, Jay Cook, were excited to be going to Seattle to make a delivery for Jay’s father. Both teens were very responsible. When they were not heard from for several hours, the families became concerned. The bodies were found in a remote location with no witnesses, no murder weapon, and only a hand-print on the van.
Thirty years later Detective Jim Scharf received the case. With little to go on he turned to laboratory analysis which included the DNA on the biological evidence that had been in cold storage. DNA is now a feature of criminal investigations. The new twist in this case was provided by CeCe Moore. She had become interested in tracing families through genetic information.
When CeCe teamed up with Detective Scharf, this was the first case in which familial DNA had been used to identify a suspect who was later tried. This opened a new avenue for criminal investigations, but it also raises privacy issues. People have become fascinated with finding out about their genetic heritage. A number of companies offer DNA analysis along with an interpretation of the findings. This is fun and educational, but the data bases are there and can be used by researchers as well as law enforcement.
This book was very well done. The cold case illustrates the effectiveness of using familial DNA in tracing criminals. The author goes into the process in some detail. I found this very interesting. However, the problems of unrestricted us of DNA for either research or law enforcement raises ethical issues that need to be addressed.
I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.
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