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