IoT Devices Becoming More Important in Criminal Investigations
As of late, IoT devices are becoming more and more important to criminal investigations. And, it seems like only a matter of time before that becomes the case for civil litigations as well.
In fact, recent data from a murdered woman’s Fitbit led Connecticut police to arrest her husband in connection with the death, according to an article in Business Insider. After over a year of investigations, the Hartford police charged Richard Dabate with his wife’s murder, tampering with physical evidence, and making false statements to the police after her Fitbit showed she was still walking around an hour after he claimed she was murdered by an intruder.
The story went like this: In December 2015, Connie Dabate was shot in her home with a .357 Magnum that her husband, Richard, had bought a few months before. According to her husband, after getting a house alarm notification on his phone, he got back around 9 a.m. when he spotted an intruder—a 6’2” man with a stocky build wearing a camouflaged suit and a mask. He said he heard his wife come home and yelled for her to run, but the intruder shot her to death after a short struggle. Mr. Debate said the intruder tied him to a chair and began burning him with a torch, but he struggled with the intruder, getting the torch from the intruder and causing him to flee. With no other evidence regarding an intruder, cops obtained search warrants for Connie Dabate’s Fitbit, both of their cell phones, computers and house alarm logs. Mr. Dabate later admitted to having an extramarital affair where he impregnated a woman. Not to mention, five days after the incident, he also attempted to make a claim for his wife’s life insurance policy for $475,000, police said. Read more…
