The Crime Scene

CSS350-01-2101B Computer Forensics I

The Crime Scene
Terence Claer
03/03/2021
The Crime Scene

Table of Contents
Introduction: Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy............................................................................................3
Case Evidence..........................................................................................................................................3
Evidence Analyzation...............................................................................................................................4
The Crime Scene..........................................................................................................................................5
Crucial Electronic Evidence......................................................................................................................5
My Crime Scene.......................................................................................................................................6
My Court Case.........................................................................................................................................6
Chain of Custody Concerns..........................................................................................................................7
Digital Evidence and Admissibility...............................................................................................................8
Process for Evidence Used In Legal Proceedings.........................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
The Crime Scene

Introduction: Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy

This is known as the “texting suicide case” (Stringer, 2020). This case was based almost

entirely on digital evidence. Michelle Carter, through texts and a few phone calls, convinced

Conrad Roy to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide. This case was instrumental in

bringing digital evidence to the forefront in criminal cases. Michelle Carter was convicted of

involuntary manslaughter because she was a minor at the time (Stringer, 2020). She has since

been released.

Case Evidence
The main pieces of evidence in this case were the mobile phones of both Michelle

and Conrad (Soen, 2019). These mobile phones contained hundreds if not thousands of text

messages between Michelle and Conrad. Most of the messages were based on Michelle

convincing Conrad that she loved him and then talking him into committing suicide. The text

messages as digital evidence walked the authorities through the entire relationship. The mobile

phones showed that Conrad was a troubled teen and Michelle took advantage of that.

In this case, gathering the digital evidence was not hard. Once they had Conrad’s

phone from the suicide scene, it was easy to track down Michelle. With both of their phones in

hand the pieces of the puzzle we easy to put together, but a case like this has never occurred

before. The were going to be basing the case on mostly digital evidence, the words of the

accused and the texts of a dead teen. The text threads, phone calls, and voicemails supported the

prosecution’s theory very well. Once the text messages were assembled as a conversation, it was

not hard to put the circumstance together (Soen, 2019). The text messages did show that Conrad

was troubled teen and showed how Michelle gained his confidence and then took advantage of
The Crime Scene

him. The authorities were also very careful to secure the evidence and maintain its integrity and

the chain of command seeing that these two mobile phones were their entire case. It was said

that the evidence was “cherry picked” to look bad for Michelle, but the electron forensic team

were very careful to make sure the entire conversations were demonstrated, not just portions of

conversations.

Evidence Analyzation
With both mobile phones as the evidence in this case, it is probable that a

Cellebrite style system was used to pull the text conversations from both devices and then piece

the conversation together by hand. A Cellebrite is a software and hardware-based system that

was used in mobile phone retail stores many years ago to transfer information from an old phone

to a new phone (Cellbrite.com, 2021). That system is no longer being used in retail mobile

phone stores, because of cloud backup and the incompatibility of mobile devices these days. The

Cellebrite will pull the information but may not be able to install that information onto a new

device. The technology was adopted by the digital forensics departments because it does not

alter the information it transfers and can transfer digital evidence directly onto a third-party

system for analysis. This would give a complete picture of what texts were sent to who and how

then responded. Inside the court room, that is exactly how the evidence was demonstrated for

the jury, in conversational format so that it was very easy for the jurors to understand and follow.

With most of the case being based on the conversations and voicemails from digital devices, the

prosecution needs to make sure that the evidence is laid out in a plain fashion so anyone can

understand and follow it (Soen, 2019). That is part of the issue with digital evidence, there are a

lot of people in the world that do not understand the technology that they would see in a

courtroom. It is up to the prosecution to overcome this issue if they are going to be successful in
The Crime Scene

prosecuting the case. Picking jurors has also taken a turn since the prosecution wants tech savvy

jurors and the defense does not.

The Crime Scene

The Murder by Text is an especially grewsome crime. The scene was set by a simple

breakup over text message. Kimmie was a complicated girl she was not only a leader, but a

follower.

Kruse tried to cover his tracks, but only created more digital evidence when he texts

Kimmie about being done with babysitting (Kushner, 2011). At that time Kimmie was already

dead in Kruse’s home. She was bound, beaten, raped, and placed in a freezer (My Crime

Library, 2021).

Crucial Electronic Evidence

Kruse and Cameron were not the sharpest knives in the drawer. They left digital

evidence everywhere. The left is on Facebook, instant messaging, World of Warcraft servers

and phone calls. This evidence ranged from conversation over text messages with Kimmie

included and more when Kimmie was already dead (Kushner, 2011). A phone call was even

made from the grave site of Kimmie, which would be easy to triangulate with the GPS in the

phone and which towers the call was pinging from. Kruse even became paranoid of the digital

footprints that were being left. He did not trust MSN, but ironically, he did trust the World of

Warcraft servers. These server store conversation and gaming information as well. Finally,

Kruse came out on MSN and sent article from the paper about the murder. He had already

confessed inside World of Warcraft. So, all in all the digital evidence was there because of their

huge social media presence. After only a short time looking the police has enough evidence to

obtain bigs for the boys home, computers, mobile devices, and for a local hangout that they were
The Crime Scene

the frequently attended. They were monitoring Kruse’s and Cam’s online activities Within

Kruse’s and Cam’s cell phone they obtained the history of searches and paged viewed. They

also were able to pull up on text message conversations and instant messages from other

application that the boys thought that they deleted. Once all of the information was pulled for all

devices containing digital evidence, they were well over a million pieces of paper.

My Crime Scene
I believe that the first crime scene is not a place, but an action. I feel that the social

media, texting, and instant messaging is what set this how event in motion. The mobile deices

seem to me the main communication means for these teens. What they did not realize is that all

or most of the information passed through mobile devices can be recovered in several ways,

especially if they do not delete conversations through text messaging (Kushner, 2011). If that

does not happen then the digital evidence is just sitting, there waiting to be discovered. I feel

that the crime screen in this case was not difficult for the forensics team since most of the

evidence was just sitting there in plain sight.

My Court Case
Because the police and forensic scientists went through the proper channels and chain of

custody, I believe that most of the of the evidence found could be used in the prosecution. As

long as the prosecution collects and handle the digital evidence in a manner that would allow that

digital evidence to be used in court room proceedings. I especially think that the conversations

and the phone call from the burned body scene would be most damning. It is very hard to refute

evidence like the text conversations, instant messaging conversations, and phone calls. I have

watched live court proceedings and it is very easy to get a jury to follow a text conversation. It is

much easier then getting them to follow scientific or DNA evidence. And the digital evidence

can be just as powerful, because it is taken write out of the person’s “mouth”.
The Crime Scene

Chain of Custody Concerns

TBD
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Digital Evidence and Admissibility

TBD
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Process for Evidence Used In Legal Proceedings

TBD
The Crime Scene

References
Stringer, E. (2020, January 17). 4 cases solved with digital evidence. Retrieved February 25,
2021, from https://www.precisedigital.com/4-cases-solved-with-digital-
evidence/#:~:text=Digital%20evidence%20has%20changed%20the%20legal%20and
%20criminal%20justice%20system.&text=Almost%20all%20crimes%2C%20not
%20just,either%20prosecute%20or%20prove%20innocence.

Soen, H. (2019, October 08). The messages Michelle Carter sent to her boyfriend before he died.
Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://thetab.com/uk/2019/10/08/michelle-carter-texts-
messages-128092

Cellebrite.com. (2021). Home - Cellebrite: Digital intelligence for a safer world. Retrieved
February 25, 2021, from https://www.cellebrite.com/en/home/?
utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=Paid-
Search&utm_campaign=702076&utm_content=digital-forensics-
broad&gclid=Cj0KCQiAst2BBhDJARIsAGo2ldW32eOrVYs8HBNhJD09QRvT2fhUP9K
9hLaOfPUyJPr6zsMsJACLeW0aApCkEALw_wcB

Kushner, D. (2011). Murder, they messaged: The story of a brutal crime, hatched online.
Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/10/world-of-
warcraft-text-murder-201110

My Crime Library. (2021, February 01). Kruse Wellwood And Cameron Moffat TEEN
KILLERS. Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://mycrimelibrary.com/kruse-wellwood-
and-cameron-moffat-teen-killers/