'Utterly devastating': Prosecution disappointed by overturned convictions in Saanich couple's murder

The prosecution can either appeal the latest decision to the state’s highest court, or proceed with a new trial. "Whether that takes another few months or years, we are steadfast in our desire to bring justice."

The ruling, made Monday, was disappointing to Adam Cornell, the prosecuting attorney for Snohomish County, Wash.

“I’m very disappointed and I can only imagine how utterly devastating it must be to the families of Jay and Tanya,” said Cornell on Tuesday.

A jury in convicted 58-year-old William Earl Talbott II in July 2019.

The Seattle-area truck driver was arrested the previous year and genealogy technology provided the big break in the cold case.

Van Culenborg and Cook had travelled from Victoria to Seattle on Nov. 18, 1987 to pick up a furnace for Cook’s father.

Her body was found six days later in a ditch near Bellingham, Wash. She was naked from the waist down, her hands tied and she had been shot in the back of the head from close range.

Cook’s body was discovered approximately 100 kilometres away. He had been strangled to death, his face was beaten, and his hands were also tied.

In 2018, investigators traced DNA from the crime scenes to Talbott’s relatives on a public ancestry database, and then zeroed in on him. Undercover police then grabbed his DNA from a coffee cup that fell off his truck when he was working.