For those who do not understand or simply don't want to take the time to think about the facts let me post this tweet that explains the data that does not lie! And in case you choose not to click the link then I'll help and post the entire contents for you to digest. Oh, and if you do open the link read the attachments that are from the CW case in chief where it states that they believe Karen Read hit Officer John O'Keefe at 12:25AM on January 29th, 2022. Happy reading
Why did Investigators Michael Proctor & Nicholas Guarino in the
#KarenRead case use SARTopo App, a consumer Search and Rescue App, NOT a gold standard forensic tool or software used or relied upon by LE, using UNSPECIFIED location data from
#JohnOKeefe’s iPhone’s Cached Locations, to go out to the scene and physically map points to give their “interpretation” of
#JohnOKeefe's iPhone's location data? Not only is this unheard of in the digital forensic investigative world, but their described methodology has overwhelming potential for a lot of user error, thereby removing its ability for scientific repeatability or reproducibility–ultimately rendering it neither credible nor reliable forensic evidence–two important standards & best practices for digital forensics.
If others are able to find any examples of murder prosecutions where the SARTopo App was used to physically map digital forensic location phone data of an individual involved, please let me know. I could not find any application of SARTopo App in a forensic setting.
Lead Investigator Michael Proctor & Digital Forensics “Expert” Nicholas Guarino waited over 15 months after arresting Karen Read to interpret this critical location data which the state so desperately relies upon as their justification for not so much as even bothering to ASK the homeowner, Brian Albert if they could search inside his house where the victim, John O’Keefe had been invited to & dropped off at for an after-party just 6 hours before being found brutally assaulted and left for dead on that same front lawn.
Nobody was stopping Michael Proctor from ASKING to search inside the house. Why didn’t he? Perhaps his conflict of interest being lifelong family friends with his potential suspects, the Alberts & the McCabes, clouded his judgment? Or perhaps the fact that he NEVER went to the crime scene for the investigation he was leading? Yet to be answered.
This means at the time of the investigation & arrest, the state had ZERO evidence proving John didn’t go inside the house he was invited to other than testimony largely coming from the very witness, Jen McCabe, whose inconsistent interviews make her unreliable in addition to the very incriminating evidence found on her phone further inculpating her. In addition to Jen, the only other witnesses who were actually present at 34 Fairview during the time John was believed to be killed who were interviewed before Karen Read’s arrest were Jen’s husband, Matt McCabe, and Jen’s brother-in-law/the homeowner, Brian Albert.
Law Enforcement know that relying on witnesses as definitive proof is of course absurd, because since when are murderers honest & forthcoming? Data don’t lie. People do.
BACK TO THE DATA: To understand what is wrong with Proctor’s & Guarino’s "interpretation" of John’s GPS data, let’s first look at the gold standard approach–how LE & prosecutions across this country obtain this type of information.
HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE
The forensic gold standard for determining one's precise geolocation during a specific time is:
1) Investigators obtain the mobile device itself & the records from the cellular provider.
2) A forensic imaging tool like GrayKey is used to forensically image the phone’s contents, or essentially create a copy of all the data contained therein.
3) The contents of the phone’s image are uploaded into a forensic data recovery & extraction tool like Cellebrite or Axiom for review.
4) Cellphone records (per cellular provider) and cellphone data, (exported from Cellebrite or Axiom), are loaded into a call detail records (CDRs) & native location data forensic parsing tool/software, like CellHawk.
5) CellHawk parses, analyzes & maps location data from several sources including: cellular location records (when phones connect to various towers as they move around), native phone location data (from its apps), datasets from cellular carrier records, location data stored in SQLite, and can even map “interpersonal connections”, with an ability to animate more than 20 phones at once and “see how they move relative to each other".
HOW IT WAS DONE FOR JOHN’S PHONE:
1) Investigators obtained John’s iPhone but curiously did not obtain/utilize John’s cellphone carrier records for this investigation (tracking his phone's location).
2) Investigators claim to have forensically imaged John’s phone using GrayKey (1/31/2022).
3) Investigators uploaded John’s phone’s forensic image to Axiom.
4) Investigators exported UNSPECIFIED location data points from the phone’s Cached Locations and loaded them into the SARTopo Search and Rescue App.
5) Investigators began “measuring the APPROXIMATE location from where O'Keefe's body was discovered. To do this [they] reviewed the Canton PD dash camera video and the photos that were taken by Sgt. Goode when they were searching in the snow”.
From Lead Investigator Michael Proctor & Trooper Guarino’s 15-months after the fact GPS analysis, AFTER the defense had produced compelling evidence implicating members of Proctor’s “second family” & lifelong friends who were inside the house, and AFTER Proctor had already made the bold decision to arrest Karen Read-is it all that surprising that he confirmed his bias in his erroneous & unreliable “interpretation” of unspecified location data, abandoning all forensic SOP, to ultimately determine that ACTUALLY some of those data points DO place John inside the house? Just not for time long enough for Proctor to acknowledge that reality?
Did Proctor & Guarino physically plot ALL of the hundreds to potentially thousands of location data points that'd be parsed from John's native location data, CDRs' location data & cellular provider records location data? And if so, why did they not show them all in their report? Which ones are we not seeing?
Did Proctor & Guarino consider the very real phenomenon of GPS drift? The difference between your actual location & the location recorded by your phone’s A-GPS. Did Proctor consider the fact that all GPS systems have some amount of drift (including GPS-enabled smartphones which can drift by 16 feet or more)? What about the prevalent location data issues with Waze delay or approximate location? Or the effects on the precision of GPS capability relative to the strength of one's network connection OR the significant effect on signal strength due to things like the substantial overcast of a bomb cyclone snowstorm that was brewing overhead that night? How did Proctor & Guarino measure the data points they plotted? How do we know Proctor & Guarino accurately input each data point into the SARTopo app? How accurate and precise is the SARTopo app–an app that is NOT intended for this purpose, NOT used in forensic criminal investigations, and NOT used for obtaining forensic evidence by either LE or prosecutions across this country?
Did Proctor or Guarino consider the overwhelming sources for user error? Did they consider the fact that LAND SURVEYORS use lasers & LiDAR among other advanced technologies solely to measure & plot land? Did they utilize the same level of reliable technology to ensure their “interpretation” was either credible or reliable?
Why didn’t they show us the actual location data points they utilized to determine John’s phone did not go inside 34 Fairview? In Guarino’s GPS report, he selectively only shows 6 data points–John’s phone’s location spanning across 6 seconds–to determine he did not go inside the house. Why just these 6 data points or these 6 seconds?
The state eagerly claims this non-forensic analysis is somehow proof John’s phone did not go inside 34 Fairview. What proof do they have that John HIMSELF did not go inside 34 Fairview? This unreliable “evidence”, based on A-GPS data also relies on cellular network connection or Wi-Fi. What proof do they have that John’s phone wasn’t placed into airplane mode or turned off?
And lastly, does it make any sense to you that these two seasoned investigators would abandon all forensic investigative protocol to opt for a non-forensic tool/software not intended for this purpose, but rather a Search and Rescue & recreational consumer use app, physically go to the scene to physically “plot” out data stored on their computer by plugging it into said app to map it out with yardsticks or something? Instead of using a forensic software where they can simply, at the press of a button, plug ALL the data in including John’s cellphone carrier records–something containing abundant sources of location data notably LEFT OUT of their homemade GPS analysis?
Who opts for the more laborious, more cumbersome, non-forensic, less reliable, accurate or precise option, as Michael Proctor & Nicholas Guarino did? And additionally, if they’re able to establish such precision for John O’Keefe’s phone’s location during the time in question, why didn’t they do the same and produce the same report for Karen Read’s?
What was the forensic tool/software that Brian Tully used when he initially plotted the locations and movements of Karen Read using her cellphone carrier (Verizon) records during her morning search for John (as first referenced in the Commonwealth’s Statement of Case)?
So many questions, so little answers. Does this seem like the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard to you?
P.S. What I forgot to mention? The digital forensic expert, Richard Green, used by the defense ACTUALLY did use a forensic tool, specifically CellHawk, to parse & analyze the phone location data in this case. Particularly of note is the fact that for Jen McCabe's phone location data, the accuracy improves SIGNIFICANTLY upon her leaving the house & subsequently leaving the area of Fairview.
Might this diminished cellular reception in that area play a role in why relying on GPS data down to the meter is simply unreliable?
Come trial, whose GPS report would you trust more?
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