Trucker arrested in 1987 killing of couple pleads not guilty



EVERETT, Wash. -- A 55-year-old SeaTac man has pleaded not guilty to the 1987 murders of a young Canadian couple in Washington state.

The Daily Herald reports William Earl Talbott II pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court in the deaths of 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and 20-year-old Jay Cook.

Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg



Authorities say they linked Talbott by DNA evidence to the deaths and arrested him after getting a DNA sample from a cup that fell from his vehicle.

The couple was killed 30 years ago on a road trip from their hometown of Saanich, B.C., on Vancouver Island, to Seattle to pick up furnace parts for Cook's father. They never returned.

Van Cuylenborg had been sexually assaulted, bound with plastic ties and shot in the head. Cook's battered body was found about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) away.