Research Article
Catch Me if You Can: Analysis of Digital Devices and Artifacts Used in Murder Cases
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-031-56580-9_2, author={John Jankura and Hannah Catallo-Stooks and Ibrahim Baggili and Golden Richard}, title={Catch Me if You Can: Analysis of Digital Devices and Artifacts Used in Murder Cases}, proceedings={Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime. 14th EAI International Conference, ICDF2C 2023, New York City, NY, USA, November 30, 2023, Proceedings, Part I}, proceedings_a={ICDF2C}, year={2024}, month={4}, keywords={digital evidence digital artifacts digital forensics murder investigation case analysis}, doi={10.1007/978-3-031-56580-9_2} }- John Jankura
Hannah Catallo-Stooks
Ibrahim Baggili
Golden Richard
Year: 2024
Catch Me if You Can: Analysis of Digital Devices and Artifacts Used in Murder Cases
ICDF2C
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-56580-9_2
Abstract
The rapidly advancing field of digital forensics has become a crucial component in murder trials. We present an analysis of murder investigations that utilize digital evidence within the United States. One hundred six (n = 106) murder cases were examined with an emphasis on associated digital devices and artifacts that played an important evidentiary role. While other works attempt to identify relevant evidence in different types of criminal investigations, few, if any, attempt to do so using real-world cases with multiple digital devices and artifacts. Our results for devices showed favorable trends towards cell phones, where 66.98% of the examined cases employed a cell phone’s contents as digital evidence. An analysis of the digital artifacts identified location services (39.62%), photo/video/audio (33.96%), and SMS/iMessage (25.47%) as high-use evidence when conducting an investigation. Guilty verdicts made up 64.15% of the examined cases and 98.11% of the evidence was deemed inculpatory, or evidence that proves guilt. This work seeks to provide a refined outlook as to how digital evidence is used when conducting a criminal investigation to ameliorate the efficiency of the digital forensics process.
