Our expertise in Sat Nav analysis and data presentation enabled a UK police force to focus search efforts and bring a swift resolution to a murder investigation, saving months of costly and unnecessary searching, and providing the crucial evidence that led to a successful conviction.

1. How Sat Nav Forensics help to Bring a Murderer to Justice
Our expertise in Sat Nav analysis and data presentation enabled a UK police force to
focus search efforts and bring a swift resolution to a murder investigation, saving
months of costly and unnecessary searching, and providing the crucial evidence that
led to a successful conviction.
THE CASE: We received a Sat Nav from a UK police force, who were investigating a
kidnap and suspected murder. The police force’s own Hi-Tech Crime Unit had
already extracted data from the suspect’s Sat Nav, but this did not provide any
information on the possible location of human remains, to help focus search efforts.
WHAT WE DID: We examined both the Sat Nav’s memory card and internal
memory, and found that data was stored on the device’s internal memory only. A
file was extracted from the internal memory, which contained crucial data relating
to recent journeys made, trip logs, entered locations and favourites.
We also found additional trip logs in archived files, dating back seven months.
These data are easy to miss, however our analysts were able to use their specialist
knowledge to identify that the archived files may have contained valuable data and
so bring them into the scope of the investigation.
By using an in-house developed Python script, the process of extracting the large
amount of trip log data from the Sat Nav was automated, and these trips were
plotted onto a map. Without the Python script, it would not have been feasible to
extract and plot this information on a map manually within the time constraints of
the investigation, due to the sheer volume of data. Using a script to automate this
process meant that this analysis could be completed in a matter of hours, giving
the police the data they needed.
THE OUTCOME: The Sat Nav data that were extracted were key in bringing a swift
resolution to the investigation, which would otherwise have continued for weeks, or
even months. By searching the points that were plotted on the map, detectives
found that an unidentified body had already been found at one of these locations,
later identified as the missing person. The suspect was subsequently found guilty of
kidnap and murder at the Old Bailey in London, and sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
For more about satellite navigation forensics please have a look to our site:
http://www.cclgroupltd.com
Nathan Wilson. Nathan is a digital forensics specialist at CCL Group - the UK’s
leading supplier of digital forensics, including: computer forensics, mobile phone
forensics and cell site analysis services.