Cell phone users can't stop incriminating themselves

"Utah real estate agent Kouri Richins once asked a search engine, “What kind of doctor was dr. pepper,” but it was Richins' less innocuous online searches that helped a jury find her guilty of murdering her husband Eric via fentanyl overdose—and of hoping to collect life insurance policies she had opened in his name but without his knowledge. Richins was yesterday sentenced to life in prison without parole; her Internet history played a key role in the trial."

"A few weeks after Utah police began their investigation into Eric's March 2022 death, they seized Kouri's iPhone. Comparisons with records from her cell phone provider suggested that numerous text messages around the time of Eric's death had been deleted from the device. In addition, cell phone tower pings helped establish where Kouri had been in the days before Eric's death, which were a key piece of evidence in the state's case against her."

"But it was her second iPhone that really made headlines. In April 2022, Kouri bought a replacement for her seized device and soon began searching for things which, at the very least, looked suspicious. Here are the five searches prosecutors decided to present to the jury during opening statements: “can you delete everytginv off an old iphind without actually having ut”; “can deleted text messages be retrieved from an iphone”; “how.to.compleltely.wipe.a.iphkne.clear remotely”; “can cops force you to do a lie detector test”; “women utah prison”."

"Later in the trial, prosecutors called Chris Kotrodimos to the stand. Kotrodimos was a cop turned private investigator who specialized in digital forensics, and he created a PowerPoint presentation showing even more relevant searches taken from this second phone. These included:"

Kouri Richins was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering her husband Eric via fentanyl overdose and for seeking life insurance policies opened in his name without his knowledge. Utah police seized her iPhone after investigating Eric’s March 2022 death. Provider records and comparisons with the seized device indicated that multiple text messages around the time of Eric’s death had been deleted. Cell phone tower pings helped place Richins in specific locations in the days before Eric’s death. After police seized her first iPhone, she bought a replacement and conducted searches related to deleting data, retrieving deleted texts, remotely wiping an iPhone, and legal questions about lie detector tests. A digital forensics investigator presented additional search evidence from the second phone.

Read at Ars Technica