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Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

1987 double murder in Seattle, Washington, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ46996750 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jay Roland Cook (16 December 1966 – 18 November 1987) and Tanya Van Cuylenborg (7 March 1969 – 18 November 1987) were a Canadian couple from Saanich, British Columbia who were murdered while on a trip to Seattle, Washington in November 1987.

Events prior to the murders

Cook and Van Cuylenborg met in high school and had been in a relationship for about six months. On 18 November 1987, they left in Cook's father's bronze 1977 Ford Club van for an overnight trip to the Seattle area to purchase parts for Cook's father's business.

Cook and Van Cuylenborg took the MV Coho ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington. They then drove south-east on Route 101 to Bremerton, where they boarded a second ferry to Seattle. A fuel receipt later found in the van confirmed that they purchased fuel on the road between Port Angeles and Bremerton. The pair was last seen boarding the ferry in Bremerton.

Cook's and Van Cuylenborg's families became concerned when the couple did not return home as planned on 19 November and did not make contact. On 20 November, they were reported missing.

The murders

On 24 November, Tanya Van Cuylenborg's half-naked body was found in a ditch by a rural road near Alger, in Skagit County, Washington, a short distance south of Bellingham.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg” as 1987 double murder in Seattle, Washington, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 1987, 1969, 1977—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Murders, Cook and Tanya can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1987 double murder in Seattle, Washington, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q46996750. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1987, 1969 and 1977.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg primary sources, Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg archive and Murders research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.