What Kind of Forensic Investigation Can Bust the Morgan Harrington Case?

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26 Written by kelly.solid Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26

The missing person’s case that captured the nation’s attention came to an abrupt end thisweek with the confirmation that Morgan Harrington’s body had been found on a farm near Charlotteville, Virginia.  How was Morgan killed and more importantly, who killed her?

The how part of the murder should be know fairly soon with an autopsy.  Hopefully, the Virginia State Police can garner enough DNA evidence to determine some physical evidence of who might have been involved.  It has been over 3 months since that fateful night, 17 october 2009, but DNA forensic experts know that you can determine a lot with very little. One such article I read indicated that, to the examiner’s advantage was the fact that Morgan’s body was perserved in snow for much of the time.  Heat causes faster decompostion, so hopefully the cold winter will play to the investigator’s favor.

Another area that the investigator’s should look into is finding the perps through cell phone analysis.  Cell phone analysis?  What is this guy on, you might ask?  Hear me out.  Per the police timeline/map,Morgan was last seen about 9:20PM walking away from the stadium (Metallica concert).  Obviously someone picked her up sometime after that and took her body approximately 10 miles away onto a farm where her body was found this week.  What if, the perp(s), any of the them, used or received a cell phone call around the time of Morgan’s disapperance at or near the stadium?  Then what if, that same perp or perps, made or recieved a phone call at or near the farm later that evening when Morgan’s body was dropped off?  We would have a way to identify through correlation analysis matching phone numbers from the appropriate cell towers.  Do a cell tower dump the night of 17 October around 9PM near that bridge and another cell tower dump where the body was found.  It is worth a try and possibly a case buster.

List of Digital Forensics Degrees

Last Updated on Monday, 25 January 2010 09:14 Written by daniel.solid Monday, 25 January 2010 09:14

I was having a hard time finding a list of forensics & investigation related degrees, until I saw this new update from Forensic Focus.  As an author and businessman in the forensics industry, I am making it a goal to connect with most of the faculty running these programs.  I think you should, too.

In fact, I called the computer forensics department at the University of Central Florida – which is about 45 minutes North of here -  the other day and made some fantastic connections.  You guys know who you are.

Often times, these programs offer valuable resources for local law enforcement.  Faculty often volunteer at the local sheriff’s department to help with data collection and extraction.

More than just getting help on individual cases, though, nearby collegiate forensics programs offer a tremendous resource when it comes to staying on top of the latest techniques and technology.  It is their full-time job to stay on top of the operating systems, software, hardware, networking, data-basing, and other related digital forensics issues.  Although law enforcement often like to think that they are the experts, a dose of humility and an ability to ask the right questions can yields some enlightening ideas.

Another opportunity for local law enforcement – and even state agencies for that matter – to take advantage of in their local university is to provide internship opportunities for students.  Not only does it provide a fantastic chance to get some good PR, but in many case, the students need on-the-job training to earn necessary credits.  Therefore, the students are very incentivised to offer some worthwhile help.

Forensic Focus has made an effort to collect a list of computer forensic degrees – and it seems to be a relatively complete list.  Check it out on their course directory.  This nice, state-by-state list makes it easy to see where your nearest forensics course offerings are located.

Attorney General Candidate Plans to use Technology to Fight Crime

Last Updated on Friday, 11 December 2009 02:20 Written by daniel.solid Friday, 11 December 2009 02:20

In what feels like a breath of fresh air to crime investigators and analysts, California Attorney General Candidate Chris Kelly released A Plan to Use Technology to Fight Crime.  Kelly is currently the Cheif Privacy Officer for Facebook, so he has a lot of experience working with law enforcement from across the country to prosecute predator’s on the world’s largest social networking site. Solid Forensics thinks his plan sounds good on the surface, but that actually implementing a cost-saving technology development plan is harder than he makes it sound.

Point number one on Kelly’s plan outlines the need to update crime labs throughout California; both DNA and tech labs, in his opinion, need to be implementing better technology and standards accompanied by better training. The second point on Kelly’s criminal investigations technology plan is to create a “standardized crime mapping system across California”.  This would allow agencies to collaborate on geo-crime data for incidents, suspects, and even live tracking.  The other points are rather vague or somewhat irrelevant for the content on this blog  – so we will focus on these two.

We at Solid Forensics think that Mr. Kelly’s plan to improve lab technology and provide cross-agency mapping sounds great – but the “devil is in the details” as they say.  He claims that implementing new technology will reduce costs for an economically struggling California budget.  But in our opinion, which is based on extensive experience in actually providing this technology to law enforcement, their are plenty of systems out there that will not save anyone money.  Why?  Because they are developed and selected by government bureaucrats.

Kelly’s plan that is missing is the partnership with the private sector to needed accomplish these developments. Kelly mentioned “improving the DNA labs” across the state.   Good luck with that.  You may be able to speed up the processing of DNA samples from high-profile crimes, but you will never reach the level of effectiveness that is possible with a local partnership with a private firm.

Take the Palm Bay, FL successful implementation of a Local DNA Indexing System, for example.  They have managed to reduce their crime by 20% by partnering with DNA:SI labs to develop a LODIS system for use throughout their department.  We will write more on this development in the future, but the point here is that they saved residents millions of dollars in lost assets with a minor investment in a small firm to provide a service that – like the local PDs in California – is also provided by the state.

But the state – just because of it’s size – will NEVER be able to handle the volumes of DNA collection, identification, and analysis required to reduce crime like Palm Bay did.  It takes collaboration with private firms on the local level.  Any state-wide programs will be inhibited by red tape, lack of support for the systems, and sheer sluggishness due to size.

So, although Chris Kelly may have the right intentions, his state-wide, government-based solutions will ultimately end up costing taxpayers even more dollars that in our opinion, will never produce the return on investment that simply promoting local crime-fighting partnerships would generate.