Chelsea Rustad helped to solve the case of Jay Cook’s homicide, which was pending for over 30 years. Where Is Chelsea Rustad Today? Let’s discover it.
Chelsea Rustad is a Genealogist.
Rustad was propelled to fame because of her involvement in the groundbreaking case of Jay Cook.
She has been the ambassador of the Institute of DNA Justice Chelsea since 2019.
Furthermore, she was invited to speak at the Midwestern Conference for Investigative Genetic Genealogy in 2020.
Rustad had won an AncestryDNA kit in a Facebook contest in 2015.
In addition, she has worked in several documentaries, a notable few being ‘Is Murder In Your DNA?,’ ‘W5: Dirty Tricks: Family Secrets,’ ‘NOVA: Secrets In Our DNA,’ and of course ’48 Hours: A Killer in the Family Tree.’
She has released her first book, a true-crime memoir entitled Inherited Secrets, in 2020.
48 Hours: Where Is Chelsea Rustad Today?
Chelsea Rustad is working as IT Security at the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.
She was one of two genetic witnesses whose DNA was used to identify the perpetrator of the Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg.
Jay Cook and his girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg were found brutally murdered in November 1987.
48 Hours: The Killer in the Family Tree recounts the horrifying murders and shows how the case sat dormant for several decades as there was no match to the DNA evidence.
CeCe went online and began researching the DNA from the crime scene before concluding that it was genetically similar to two samples already on the system.
One of those samples belonged to Chelsea Rustad, and it did not take long for CeCe to trace a path from Chelsea to her second cousin, William Earl Talbott II. Talbott’s DNA was a perfect match to the one from the crime scene, leading to his arrest and subsequent double life sentences.
Chelsea Rustad Husband & Children 2021
Chelsea Rustad was married to her husband Benjamin Joseph Kaufman on September 8, 2018, in Seattle.
They have no children from their marriage as of 2021.
She lives in Olympia, Washington, with her husband, Benjamin Joseph Kaufman.
Chelsea Rustad Age: How Old Is She?
Currently, Chelsea Rustad is 39 years of age.
She was born to her parents Mark and Erin Rustad, on May 28, 1982, in Tacoma, Washington, and is of American nationality.
She started genealogy in 2013 and won an AncestryDNA kit in 2015.