How Digital Forensics Helped Hunt Down ‘The Craigslist Killer’ The case of The Craigslist Killer may not have made news all over the world, but it certainly made shocking headlines in the US, particularly in Quincy, Massachusetts. Philip Markoff was charged with murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and unlawful possession of a firearm. While his crimes drew a lot of attention, what was happening behind the scenes was actually the most interesting part. Finding the man who committed those crimes was nothing less than dramatic. Sharon Nelson, co-presenter of the ABA Techshow’s plenary session program, On the Trail of the Craigslist Killer: A Case Study in Digital Forensics, described it as an interplay between forensic and digital evidence. Investigators …show more content…
They later turned to the FBI for assistance in gathering information about the phone numbers the man used to reach out to the victims. Both numbers came from two prepaid, disposable phones. They then looked into the IP address of the email account used to make an appointment with the murder victim Julissa Brissman. The account turned about to be new, created shortly before Brissman was ruthlessly murdered. Further investigation led to discovery of the murderer 's name, which the police used to search for Markoff on Facebook. One of the key elements in the investigation was the IP address that helped Boston Police homicide unit to find the home address it was linked to. To anyone else, an IP address that resolves to Markoff’s home address may be evidence enough, because it is highly likely that he was responsible for the network traffic. But that proof won’t fly in court. There must be specifics and strong evidence that goes beyond traffic to and from the IP address. Computer forensics processes must adhere to standards set by the courtroom that often complicates what could have been a simple data analysis. In court, knowing who connected to the system based on logs is not enough. There must be facts that will support those connection
On Feb. 2, 2002 a couple from Phoenix left on a trip to Tucson and were never heard from again – but now, a little more than 16 years later, Brian James Ferry stands accused of the alleged murders of Charles Martin Russell and Catherine Nelson. According to the Nicol Green, a prosecuting lawyer, Russell and Nelson drove up to Tucson to purchase a motorcycle being sold by Ferry. He had placed a false advertisement in the Arizona Republic and was selling the nonexistent motorcycle for $12,000.
Dustin Moir was subjected to a Mr. Big operation following the discovery of a young girl’s remains in 2006. Due to his confession during the investigation, he was convicted of first degree murder in 2010 following a jury trial. This case reflects the appeal of his charges with considerations to admissions during the subsequent covert investigation against him. Review of the facts In 2005 fourteen year old Chelsey Acorn left her foster home without permission and was last seen in Abbotsford.
The result of this technique indicated that the victim was killed between October 9 and 13. Using three different techniques they obtained very similar data. The last piece to solve this puzzle was to identify the victim. They got a fingerprint from the victim but there was not a match in the database. They move on into the missing people report in which they found a woman name, Darlene Smith who matched all of their forensic evidence.
The Lindbergh Kidnapping The kidnapping occurred on March 1st, 1932 around 9pm in the second floor of the Lindbergh’s new mansion on a 400 acre lot in Hopewell, New Jersey. Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was 20 months old when kidnapped He was sick at the time of the kidnapping Betty Gow, the baby’s nurse, went to check on him and found the crib empty All that was left behind was a ransom note asking for 50,000 dollars, traces of mud, footprints below the windowsill, and a ladder, broken in two, indicating that it broke during the ascent or descent No blood or fingerprint traces were at the scene of the crime On March 6th, a second ransom note was delivered to Colonel Lindbergh which stated that the ransom demand was increased
During the comprehensive forensic examination Assante’s personal laptop was subjected to an eighteen hour intrusive search using specialized equipment to open and read all files on the laptop, scanning the unallocated space on the hard drive for deleted files, then proceeding to
Every day forensic investigators use tactics just like the ones that were discussed throughout the paper. It’s more than just looking for an admission of guilt, and interrogating potential suspects until they
For this report I investigated the case of Mia Balazowich. She was the treasurer for the “all-sports booster club” at Springfield High School in Canton, Ohio. Balazowich was charged with grand theft in August 2017.the case against Balazowich gained attention because she stole a large sum of money (over $30,000) over a few years. Archived News Articles:
It was a summer Sunday afternoon in 1982, a partially clothed body discovered floating in the river, becoming a gruesome welcome to a serial killer’s trail (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 1). Next to this woman’s body was a naked 17-year-old girl who was strangled in the same manner as the first (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 1). The horrific discovery of these two women, Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, will become the beginning of a trail of serial murders. As murders mounted, the killer would be identified as ‘The Green River Killer” because his identity would remain unknown for 19 years. In 2001 detectives were able to use a new technology that tested DNA samples (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 8).
Thirteen years ago the F.B.I.’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes first formed a task force of federal state and local investigators that numbered twenty-five personnel assigned exclusively to the serial killer investigation. When the killings apparently stopped eleven years ago the task force was reduced, but not disbanded. Two years ago the murderer struck again and then again.
Cesar Aguilera Forensics Columbine The book I choose was Columbine by Dave Cullen, the story of two high school students, 18 year old Eric Harris and 17 year old Dylan Klebold, who terrorize the lives of hundreds of students at Columbine High School. The shooting took place on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School. They’re plan was to plant two propane bombs in the middle of their schools cafeteria and another miles away to distract the police at a certain time.
A Strand that believe to be Laci was found in a pair of pliers in Peterson’s boat. Therefore, the following evidence that was presented on the behalf of the prosecution evidence during trial was Peterson change his appearance by coloring his hair, the purchaser of a vehicle using his mother’s name to avoid been notice by the media and the adding of pornographic television channel services. Prosecution affirm that Peterson knew his wife wouldn’t be returning home. Peterson suggests on the selling of his home that he shared with Laci and sold her
It was a clear night in London, Ontario. Twenty year old Mary Hicks was sleeping peacefully in her apartment. She was in her last year, studying at the University of Western Ontario, when suddenly, tragedy comes her way. That very morning of October 19th, 1973, Hicks was pronounced dead. She was found lying in her bed, still in a natural sleeping position .
True, things might not always work quite as smoothly as they do on the crime drama show "Bones," but a DNA databases, as well as enhanced interagency communication, may have helped capture many would-be serial killers before they were able to amass a large number victims (Justice, 1974, p. 456). In addition, technological had helped like the Amber Alert, sex offender registries, video surveillance systems, GPS tracking of mobile phones and vehicles, and monitoring of social media and chat rooms have helped law enforcement with more tools to identify and apprehend would be serial killers (Justice, 1974, p.
Today, practical methods of using fingerprinting are extremely wide. In 1995, the size of the FBI fingerprint card archive contained over 200 million items, and archive size was increasing at the rate of 30,000 to 50,000 new cards per day [2]. Forensic science was the very first and most important area of its application, which still remains. The rapid development of computer technology has made it possible to create such fingerprint scanners that can be installed on laptops, cell phones, flash drives,
The following section will consider advantages and limitation of the first two mentioned types of digital forensics: Traditional (dead) and Live computer forensics. TRADITIONAL (DEAD) VS LIVE DIGITAL FORENSICS Traditional (Dead) Forensics In order forensic acquisition to be more reliable it must be performed on computers that have been powered off. This type of forensics is known as ‘traditional’ or 'dead ' forensic acquisition. The whole process of dead acquisition, including search and seizure flowchart and acquisition of digital evidence flowchart is shown on Figure 2 and Figure 3 respectively.