More than 40 million of us have eagerly spit in a tube and mailed it to 23andMe, Ancestry or one of the other consumer DNA companies. Then we sit back and await a report on our origins, health risks, and a list of possible relatives from across the globe we never knew existed.
But few imagine that we also could be helping a new breed of genetic detectives uncover serial killers, rapists, and their anonymous victims. Until a detective comes knocking, and you learn you’ve got a murderer in the family.
That’s the jumping-off point for my new nonfiction book, The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder, coming Nov. 29 from Dutton Books.
This is a story of family, loss, and a killer who thought he was beyond reach. It's also about a revolution in criminal investigation that walks the fragile line between justice and privacy—what we gain, and what we lose, with the emergence of new technology that can penetrate our most private spaces, the secrets inside our cells.
Please join me at one of my upcoming events:
Nov. 29: Virtual event hosted by the Everett Public Library and Third Place Books of Seattle. 6 pm PT. Register.
Nov 30: Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. I’ll be in conversation with bestselling author Len Mlodinow. 7 pm PT. Details.
Dec. 1: Northwest Passages Community Book Club. I’ll be in conversation with Washington Post journalist and author Eli Saslow at the Bing Crosby Theater, Spokane, WA. Hosted by the Spokesman-Review newspaper.. 7 pm PT. Details and tickets.
Dec. 3: Book Carnival in Orange, CA. 1 pm PT. Details.
Preorder The Forever Witness. For media or event requests, contact Emily Canders at Dutton Books.
It was one of the Pacific Northwest's most baffling mysteries…
Investigators tried for decades to use the FBI’s vaunted DNA Fingerprint system to solve the murders of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook, a young couple who vanished on an overnight trip to Seattle. But all this did was clear one potential suspect after another. The killer remained free.
It seemed the disappearance of Tanya and Jay on November 17, 1987—35 years ago this week—would remain a mystery forever.
Then an unlikely partnership developed between a cold case detective and a former actress with a unique ability to uncover buried secrets with a DNA technology very different from the FBI and police crime labs. She uses inexpensive home ancestry tests sold online—mail-order kits that forensic experts disdain as toys next to their expensive technologies and techniques.
But they were wrong. And crime-fighting would never be the same.
The Forever Witness is available as a hardcover, ebook or audiobook, which I narrated.
I’m excited about the publication of The Forever Witness in just 10 days. I look forward to hearing what you think, and would love to connect through Twitter (for now at least), Facebook, Instagram or Goodreads, or via my website.
Hanging with my greyhounds, Valiant and Dottie. Photo by Michael Goulding.