Using information gathered from cell tower records, investigators were able to identify and arrest three individuals involved in a deadly rock throwing crime. As KDVR-TV reports, a Colorado woman was killed when three young people pelted her with a barrage of rocks. Because the perpetrators made cell phone calls around the time of the incidents, their digital trail helped bring them to justice.
A reverse warrant was issued following a “tower dump” of data. The tower dump helped narrow down communications that occurred within a limited timeframe. Four local cell towers zeroed in on one phone number that transmitted several calls at the time and location of the attack. Using the information obtained by the cell towers, the police were able to make an arrest.
The affidavit notes that, “One in particular showed a path that traveled the same time frames of the incidents reported using the four towers, and that phone passed the area of the death of the victim at the same time that the victim, Alexa, stopped talking.” The phone that made the calls is said to belong to one of the suspects, Joseph Koenig, explained University of Denver professor, Ian Farrell.
“Law enforcement is always cumulative in this situation,” Farrell told KDVR-TV. “You find a piece of information that’s a lead, that leads you to other information. That then is a further lead, and that’s how a case is built,” he said. Farrell added that gathering information in this manner can be a sensitive issue and walks the line between privacy and public safety.
“That balance is the challenge,” stated Farrell. “Finding the appropriate balance there, and of course, people disagree about where that particular balance point is, that point of equilibrium, including different members of the court.”
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