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A recent murder trial involving the most medieval of weapons has recently concluded with a guilty verdict, thanks to some high-tech sleuthing.
From the BBC's report:
Some modern, expensive cars are installed with electronic systems which can track and store information about its movements. This so-called telematics system can be used as a tracking device if the car is stolen. It can also tell when a car's engine is started or stopped and even when a window, door or boot is opened and closed. When combined with evidence of owning a crossbow and bolts of the type used in the murder, it was enough to secure a conviction.
Like a mobile phone on wheels, the system uses a SIM card. Nick Harvey, risk data manager for Plant-I telematics company, said data is live constantly and GPS tracking could be accurate within 5m.
He said over the past 10 years, such tracking had become more commonplace in car technology and security systems and could now help with investigations. "Wherever a vehicle is going, it is sending into a cloud - no matter what happens to that vehicle there is always data behind," he said.
A car belonging to the defendant was found burned several miles away two weeks after the murder, but the incriminating data had long since been sent to the cloud. It placed the owner outside the victim's house at the time of the murder, with timestamps indicating details like the engine being turned off, and when the doors and boot (trunk) were opened and closed.
The complexity of the case saw it generate 5,500 documents and involve a team of 50 police officers before going to a trial lasting five weeks.
"If it wasn't for the electronics, the black box in the Land Rover - which didn't just record information but sent it to Jaguar Land Rover, [the defendant] Whall would have got away with his lies," the jury was told.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Thursday February 27 2020, @07:33AM (9 children)
Don't use your own car.
Don't burn the car and make it an obvious crime scene.
Don't take your cellphone with you.
Don't drive past any security cameras.
Don't use a credit card when you buy the crossbow.
Don't touch the crossbow bolts with bare skin at any point.
Don't kill people and maybe you won't have a murder investigation looking into your activities. Just maybe, though. No guarantees.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @07:48AM (1 child)
"Skip all instructions, and goto EOL."
Just love how programmers conjugate crime. Except for the Rieser guy.
(Score: 5, Funny) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 27 2020, @08:33PM
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let's keep it civil here; no need to use the G-word.
So in addition to you probably not being a programmer yourself, I'm guessing you've never studied German. For double vowels like that, it's the second one you pronounce (unless there are umlauts involved in the double vowel...then good luck): it's spelled Reiser.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 27 2020, @03:58PM (3 children)
I prefer to live by this one first, but as you say...
Duh.
Seriously, if you're going to do a murder, you'd better be able to at least pull off car theft.
Good luck with that one - I think a better precaution is tinted windows (bring the tint with you when you steal the car, it's not like you have to do a good job on the install...)
I think this one is debatable... a 55 gallon drum filled with gasoline (now, there's a trick: buying $150 in fuel without a credit card...) and a scuba tank to drive the gasoline out through a quick and dirty sprinkler system always seemed like a (suspiciously specific) interesting way to light both the vehicle and the crime scene solidly ablaze - perp can leave the scene on an e-bike.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday February 27 2020, @10:15PM (2 children)
You could probably add to the list 'don't discuss your suspiciously specific methods on a registered forum.'
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 27 2020, @11:51PM
But, the idea is slowly refining... the SCUBA tank was never used in practice - 'twas but a hypothetical plot of how to deal with a crack house that the city lawyers had been unable to shut down for 10+ years. Away from Miami, the SCUBA tank might be harder to come by, but... a propane tank would not only supply high pressure propellant (getting higher as the tank warms up), but also extra fuel, and propane tanks are bloody everywhere.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 28 2020, @03:17AM
This is a poseur thread. Only the most stupid of criminals would use those methods. As others have suggested, stealing cars and/or plates and then ditching them after committing the crime is what most small-time crooks do around here.
To deal with getting rid of a car properly requires a whole criminal enterprise, preferably a cross-border one. And that's insanely difficult to do nowadays in California. I remember back when peoples' cars were getting old and they just wanted the insurance money, they'd have it "stolen" and driven across the border into Mexico when back then there was no traceability. Now, it is goddamn impossible to drive a junker into Mex. You have to let a few middlemen and crooked freight companies that specialize in junked cars to do it for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @04:06PM
Don't have anything to hide, citizen. You are being monitored for your protection.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Friday February 28 2020, @04:19AM
Judging by the number of people the innocence project have saved from execution, that's the hard one if you're part of the wrong demographic.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 28 2020, @03:13PM
Marked insightful. But there are some issues with every one of the items...
Use someone else's car with their permission and then they know. Steal a car and risk being caught (especially in an age of automated license plate scanners), although this is less risky than the murder. Hopefully you aren't pulled over after committing the murder with your crossbow in the vehicle still.
Don't burn the car and risk leaving trace evidence, like your DNA, behind.
Don't take your cellphone and you need to know whatever was happening wherever your cellphone was. ("I'm sorry, sir, but cable service in your neighborhood went out during the whole time you say you were watching the SuperBowl on your TV".)
Don't drive past any security cameras is impossible in the UK, but if you were to do so wear a mask of someone else. It almost worked for Dabney Coleman's character in Columbo episode Murder of a Rock Star...
Using cash for your purchase may make you even more memorable to the staff wherever you bought the crossbow at. Buy used (far less traceable), or use someone else's credit card that you've stolen (a much lesser crime).
You can touch the bolts with bare skin, just wipe them down with a protein denaturer that also degreaser before firing. Or buy bolts with a surface that will not pick up prints and skin flakes.
And as you say, no guarantees. Just because you aren't the murderer doesn't mean the police and prosecuting attorney can't turn your life into a living hell that would make you accept a plea bargain even though you didn't do it.
This sig for rent.