There was an UM Episode that had an unsolved double murder of a young man and woman somewhere near Washington State--I think on the Washington Canadian border. Both were gruesome, I don't remember all the details but that the killer sent letters to the parents with details and kept making weird references of "Allelujah Bloody Jesus". Does anyone remember this? What yeah and epsiode? What were the victims names? Was the case ever solved?

No, twenty years later it is still unsolved. There have been several suspects over the years, but no one has ever been proven to be the killer of Jay and Tanya. It is still listed on the Skagit County Sheriff's Department's website as unsolved. It is thought the deceased serial killer Charles Sinclair who died in 1990 of a heart attack in jail before his trial, that is why no one has ever heard of him, it is thought Sinclair was the likely killer of Jay and Tanya.

What were Jay and Tanya's last names? I can't find any information on this case. Does anyone know what season and episode this aired? Thanks

What were Jay and Tanya's last names? I can't find any information on this case. Does anyone know what season and episode this aired? Thanks

Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg. Don't know when it first aired though.

I don't think either of these guys were the killer of Jay and Tanya. I want to see this episode again because those letters to the parents were so chilling. Don't think Sinclair would have taken the time to send those letters--he just robbed people and Yates would have confessed or been matched by DNA sample collected from Tanya. Heck either of these guys could easily be ruled out by DNA. I think this horrible killer is still on the loose.

What were Jay and Tanya's last names? I can't find any information on this case. Does anyone know what season and episode this aired? Thanks

It aired on 10/25/89 - a little over a month into season 2. I don't know for sure if this is the first time the story aired, however.

I remember this one. Terrible.

Was this case ever profiled on AMW?

They suspected Robert Yates, he was stationed at Fort Lewis just south of the Seattle area back in 1987 when he was a helicopter pilot in the Army, however he was ruled out as a suspect after being heavily investigated, as was the Green River killer Gary Ridgeway. Sinclair just robbed people huh?

Yeah, lets see here, he murdered at least 5 people, and was thought to have done more murders than that. His last murder was thought to have occured in 1989, when he raped and murdered a female college co-ed at Central Washington University who disappeared while out on a jog, they later found some of her property in a storage bin in Sinclair's shed and it turns out that Sinclair's son and this girl had graduated high school together.

Sinclair also is thought to be the murderer of an elderly couple that disappeared while on an RV trip through Washington in 1985 or 1986, he is also is thought to have killed a coin dealer in California in 1980, so he didnt "just rob people." He robbed, raped and murdered people and kept their property as souviners.

In the case of the elderly people he used their credit card to put gas in his vehicle, rent movies and buy a musical instrument for his daughter. He also kept certain possessions of theirs in his little souvenier storage bin on his property, along with that college co-ed's sweatshirt.

How do you know Sinclair wouldnt have taken the time to write letters out? Is it because you think he "only robbed people" that he didnt know how to write or was too lazy to do it or something?

I have always questioned whether or not those letters were hoaxes, as sick as they were, supposedly they didnt contain any new info in them even though Stack said they contained descriptions, the cops claimed they didnt, or at least no descriptions that werent public info.

Sorry--of course Sinclair was a rapeist and murderer, but his motive and reason was either money or sex. Money seem to usually be the primary instigation to his hideous crimes.

You make a great point--he kept possessions. If he killed these two--why didn't he keep anything from them and wrote their families letters? Why wasn't there a DNA match with Sinclair from the sample taken from Tanya??

I just don't think this was Sinclair.........I just feel like this deal was something even more sinister.

Those letters have always haunted me and I just don't think the coin killer rapeist from Hobbs New Mexico authored them. I think the "Allelujah bloody Jesus" references within the letters have a deep meaning to this deal. What it is--I don't know, which is why I want to see the episode or the letters again.

Well clearly, who ever authored the letters was on the move, they were postmarked from Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, I dont know if the author was a traveler on business or if they were doing this to throw off the authorities by sending them from different cities.

Well, Sinclair did keep possessions and remember that Jay's jacket was taken as was Tanya's daypack, robbery was not the motive for this crime in my opinion, so I feel the killer either took the items as souveniers or he took them to throw off the cops into thinking it was a robbery. Stack said it was a mistake on the killer's part that he took those items, but I think the killer took them as souveniers.

I've read a little about this case and it didn't seem like there was enough strong evidence to link Sinclair to the crime. Just my opinion though. I wonder if they have a sample of his handwriting and could compare it to the very distinctive writing in the letters sent to the family members.

Well CD, I agree there isnt any strong evidence that is known of that links Sinclair to this crime. I brought him up just as an alternative and for someone for people to consider, it is certainly possible that he did it, but I am not saying he for sure did it, I do think whoever did do it, that it wasnt their first murder and probably wasnt their last either.

Sinclair is a serial killer that gets overlooked a lot and not many people know of him because he died in jail of a massive heart attack before he was able to go to trial. In fact, he was in jail in Alaska where he had been hiding out, he was fighting extradition to Washington State, he had been arrested in the spring of 1990, he was actually arrested for something else, totally unrelated and then they found out who he was, he died in jail in August of that same year of a massive heart attack at age 44. He was close to being extradited too when he died.

I think they suspected Sinclair of killings in several states, I want to say New Mexico, California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado were the state's he was suspected of killing in. I am not sure what Sinclair's writings look like, that is a good point though CD about how his writing could be compared to the anonymous letters that the famlies of Jay and Tanya received to see if he wrote them.

I am still not entirely convinced those letters were actually written by the killer, but it wouldnt make much sense if it wasnt the killer writing them either, because this person was traveling all over sending these letters, so it just makes you wonder? This person sending these letters was clearly intelligent but psychotic too.

Sinclair though was the type of serial killer, where he would kill someone, just to take stuff from you. I doubt that was his primary motive, but like that elderly couple, he killed them seemingly so he could joyride in their truck, use their credit cards to rent movies and buy soda and gifts for his family and he ditched the truck at Sea-Tac international airport. Which was at least an hour north of where the couple had disappeared from.

When they searched the storage bin, there were coins and other items that had belonged to a coin dealer that had been murdered in 1980, as I said there was the sweatshirt and sweatpants and other items that belonged to that college co-ed that Sinclair is suspected of having raped and murdered in 1989, he had his eye on her for sometime, also found in that same storage bin was a high school year book of his son's and this girls picture was circled in magic marker.

Sinclair was like many serial killers in that he liked taking items off of people he killed for the purpose of keeping them as a souvenier so that everytime he looks at it he gets to re live that experience of killing as if it had just happened. As far as I know, they f ound nothing related to Jay and Tanya's killing in Sinclair's little shed of horrors.

But remember, Jay's unique looking jacket and Tanya's daypack were both taken. I dont think the killer whoever it was, took those for money or to sell or anything, he took them as souveniers for his personal, sick, purposes. The killer also parked the van in Bellingham, which was a decent distance away from where the bodies were found, it seems that the killer killed Jay first, but who knows?

He strangled Jay which is an extremely personal way of killing someone, so what that was all about I do not know. He raped Tanya and shot her in the head which is all personal, but obviously very different from strangling someone, it was just very unique how the killer killed Jay and Tanya in completely different ways. He dumped Jay's body in Snohomish County, which borders Skagit County to the south.

Snohomish seperates King County (Seattle) from Skagit County. Skagit County borders Whatcom County to the south, Whatcom County is where Bellingham is and where the van was found. Whatcom also borders Canada. Ironically, Jay and Tanya were from Canada.

I am sure the killer must have found out one way or another before he killed Jay and Tanya that they were from Canada, so maybe he wanted to send a signal without actually having to go into Canada because he would have been stopped at the border and his identity might have been able to have been discovered at some point?

I do agree with the police theory that it is likely that Jay and Tanya met their killer on the car ferry from Bremerton to Seattle, it was the late night car ferry, there would have been few people on the ferry at that time of night, the killer I believe knew this so he knew the chances were better it would just be him alone with Jay and Tanya in the lounge on the ferry, so no witnesses to identify what he looked like.

I also agree with the police, that his sights were on Tanya, he wanted Tanya, Jay was in the way and this is just a theory of mine, but I think this killer, was angry, furious, at Jay for having Tanya, hence why Jay was beaten brutally and then strangled, I'm not beyond believing the killer made Tanya witness this, Jay was in the way of this guy having Tanya the way he wanted to have her, so he decided to finish off Jay first and foremost because he was in the way.

Some good points. I just remember many odd instances in the UM espisode about this case that struck me as someone being alot more diabalical than either Yates or Sinclair.

I think I remember the letters not only being chilling, but had details and certain parts of them were almost Cryptic in nature.

Trying to pull up a in depth look at the case on the cyber sleuths site, but the site looks down. Seems kind of weird that you cannot find my information on this case now, but it aired on UM.

Strange that the labyrinth13 site about this case highlighted on crime spider and cyber sleuths still isn't available.

I sent a note from one of my old roomates in the Boston area to the Snohomish County police. The "lease" I had enterd in 1989 or so had handwriting similar to that which was in the letter(s) that were aired on line. Just recently I found this person's myspace profile.
Who can I report this to?

I sent a note from one of my old roomates in the Boston area to the Snohomish County police. The "lease" I had enterd in 1989 or so had handwriting similar to that which was in the letter(s) that were aired on line. Just recently I found this person's myspace profile.
Who can I report this to?

Very interesting. Here is a webpage about the crime and there are a couple of contact names at the bottom. Maybe you should let them know your info:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6865/dt.html

...hence why Jay was beaten brutally and then strangled,

Reading the above, I read elsewhere Jay was not assaulted outside of the strangulation. Can I ask where you read this and the other information here?

I went to school with these two and while I didn't know Jay, I do remember Tanya very very well. She was a very lovely shy girl and this murder haunts me often. I remember her & I got into a car accident together (she hit me but it was my fault) but she helped me concoct a story so I wouldn't get in trouble from my parents. LOL. Seemed important and stressful at the time.
I wish to god they would get who killed them but fear all these years later, they never will. But you never know, right?
Her Dad passed away years ago which breaks my heart that he lost his daughter.

Oh, yes. I remember this one --- very haunting.

And didn't one of the letters mention the Michael Jackson Victory Tour? What the hell... :confused:

Yes those letters were incredibly creepy! I just remember the printing on them. It sends chills up and down my spine just thinking about them. As for the info on Jay being strangled. I got that info on UM, one of the cops on the case, I believe it was a Snonohomish (sp?) County Sheriff's Detective that said that Jay had been beaten but that he ultimately died as a result of strangulation. I am sorry to hear that Tanya's father passed away. You know, Rick Bart who is a former Snohomish County Sheriff is being recruited by the republican party to run for Congress against Congressman Rick Larsen. I wonder if Bart was sheriff when Jay and Tanya's murder happened? He certainly would have employed by the sheriff's office during that time. Also, on Cold Case files, I saw a photo of the man I have long suspected of being Jay and Tanya's killer, serial killer Charles Sinclair. Sinclair looked like a guy that if you didnt know he was a killer, he would look average, unthreatening, trustworthy. Sinclair was living in Washington state in 1987. Sinclair was a suspect in murders in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington and in fact was in jail in Alaska awaiting extradition to Washington state to face charges in a 1989 murder of a female college student when he died in jail of a massive heart attack in August of 1990.