![]() ![]() The Forever Witness has earned a well-deserved place among top-notch true crime.” “Fans of Michelle McNamara’s acclaimed I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” should clear their schedules, because Edward Humes’ riveting account is nearly impossible to put down… Heartbreaking as well as heart pounding. I n an era of diminished privacy, rampant identify theft, and ever-more powerful DNA databases, The Forever Witness is a haunting, dramatic, and compulsive read for true crime lovers and anyone interested in how we can use our collective resources to solve cold cases and bring closure to victims and their families. She isn’t alone: The Golden State Killer was found with genetic genealogy, and use of this investigative tool is expanding rapidly, even as attempts to create laws that balance public safety with personal privacy are only just getting started. Snohomish County Sheriff’s Detective Jim Scharf is one the most memorable characters in The Forever Witness – a cop for the ages, who has arrested one violent criminal after another in more than forty years on the job, yet never fired his weapon in the field.Īnd there’s CeCe Moore, citizen scientist and cold case savant, who went from forensic outcast to national treasure after solving an incredible 200 crimes with genetic genealogy-with more in the works. Through extensive interviews, testimony, and police files, The Forever Witness paints unforgettable portraits of the victims and their families, as well as new revelations about the man charged with the murders, William Earl Talbott II. ![]() ![]() The same unregulated methods that put Tanya and Jay’s killer behind bars can also threaten the privacy and security of us all. But there’s another side of the story, too: how genetic genealogy can lead to a slippery slope. Today, police welcome the breakthrough and what it could mean for the 200,000 unsolved murders on the books. The reporting on this vital story is the most in-depth yet, an inside account of not just the crime, but the dawn of a new age of DNA-based crimefighting powered by volunteers, hobbyists, and citizen scientists. At the same time, the book chronicles the rise of genetic genealogy, its enormous benefits and risks, and the long refusal of forensic scientists to accept that outsider genealogists like Moore could solve cases that had stumped them for so long. The Forever Witness masterfully blends true crime and investigative reporting into a page-turning account of Tanya and Jay’s disappearance, the ground-breaking investigation and trial that followed, and the quirky, gifted cold case detective who never gave up. His last, Burned, which the Washington Post called “riveting…powerful,” helped free a woman in 2021 after she spent decades behind bars because of flawed forensic science. Humes, who won the Pulitzer for reporting on the military and a PEN Award for his juvenile court book, No Matter How Loud I Shout, has written numerous critically acclaimed nonfiction works. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Edward Humes digs into these questions and more in his new book about the killings at the heart of the genetic genealogy revolution. ![]()
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