Step 1 in commiting murder? Do not google 'how to commit murder.'

[cthomer5000]

Cop: Wife googled 'How to commit murder'

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703130391

BY RICK MALWITZ
STAFF WRITER
At exactly 5:45:34 on April 18, 2004 a computer taken from the office of the attorney of Melanie McGuire, did a search on the words "How To Commit Murder.

"That same day searches on Google and MSN search engines, were conducted on such topics as `instant poisons,` `undetectable poisons,' 'fatal digoxin doses,' and gun laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Ten days later, according to allegations by the state of New Jersey, McGuire murdered her husband, William T. McGuire, at their Woodbridge apartment, using a gun obtained in Pennsylvania, one day after obtaining a prescription for a sedative known as the "date rape" drug.

Jennifer Seymour, who worked for the State Police digital technology unit, testified thismorning how she examined the digital contents of computers and hand held devices obtained as part of the investigation.

Her testimony was the strongest evidence yet in the state's circumstantial evidence case against the 34-year-old McGuire, who allegedly murdered her husband with a .38 caliber weapon, dismembered his body and placed body parts in three suitcases found in the Chesapeake Bay in May of 2004.

While the jury has yet to see any fingerprint, blood or DNA evidence in the case, the evidence presented by Seymour illustrated how computers can be a valuable investigation tool.

Seymour was still being questioned by Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso when Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa gave the jury its lunch break. Testimony was scheduled to resume at 1:45 p.m.

Seymour, now employed by the U.S. Department of Defense, testified how digital investigators can trace activity on a computer, including information the user has deleted.

She testified that she isolated data that was accessed in the weeks leading up to the murder, by inserting the keyword "search," which showed activity by Google and MSN search engines, with the searches center-ing on poisons and gun laws.

The murder took place the same day, according to allegations by the state, that a two-ounce prescription of chloral hydrate was purchased at a Walgreen's in Edison.

A search on April 26, 2004 of the computer seized by the state found that the user accessed the site www.walgreens.com/storelocator.

On Monday Yan Kim Lee, a pharmacist at the Walgreen's on New Durham Road in Edison, testified that on the morning of April 28 she filled a prescription for chloral hydrate for a woman named Tiffany Bain, on script signed by Dr. Bradley Miller of Reproductive Medicine Associates in Morristown.

Melanie McGuire worked at the RMA office as a nurse, and at the time of her husband's death she was having an affair with Miller.

Lee testified that she typically fills only about three or four prescriptions annually for chloral hydrate.

In her testimony Seymour said she was able to trace e-mails on Hotmail accounts allegedly used by McGuire and Miller. She said the e-mails seemed to indicate the two had a romantic relation-ship, with such phrases as "I love you," and "I miss you."

Seymour said that on Sept. 8, 2005, the State Police obtained eight computers, three laptops and eight hand-held devices as part of the murder investigation.

In her testimony today, she said she examined the contents of a computer obtained at the office of McGuire's attorney, though she did not identify the name of the attorney. She also said she tested a home computer used by the Woodbridge couple, and a home computer used by her parents, who now live in Barnegat.

The HP Pavilion computer obtained from McGuire's attorney's office had a 60 gigabyte hard drive, and not all of it was searched by Seymour.

She told the jury that it is known in the computer industry that if information stored on a 12 gigabyte computer was put on paper it would create a stack of paper higher than the Empire State Building.

The first person to testify Tuesday was David A. Barron, a forensics examiner for the state of Virginia, who participated in the initial murder investigation.

Barron testified that he did not examine William McGuire's re-mains for chloral hydrate. He said his office no longer has the samples it used to test for alcohol and certain drugs.

"The protocol is once we complete our testing we submit it to the investigating agency," he said. "My understanding is that it has been destroyed."

Under cross examination by defense attorney Stephen Turano, Barron said no test for chloral hydrate was done on the remains.

When asked by Prezioso if it is routine in autopsies to test for "every substance known to man-kind," Barron said, "We could do a research project on any case we receive, but we don't have the manpower."

The state's second witness, Donna Todd, the director of the Kinder Castle daycare center in Metuchen where the McGuire's 4-year-old son was enrolled, testified for the state about the child's attendance record on April 28, 2004, the day the state alleges the murder take place.

On cross examination by Joseph Tacopina she also testified about his attendance on April 29. Ac-cording to her records the boy arrived at the daycare center at 8:30 a.m.

Todd told the jury that Melanie McGuire explained to her that she was obtaining a temporary restraining order against her husband, and told her about a fight the night before that ended when William stuffed a dryer cloth into her mouth.

Tacopina asked Todd if McGuire looked "upset or crazed."

"She did look upset," said Todd.

[saldana]

this will be an episode of csi or law and order next season

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Hey, she got what she was looking for... She should have added the line "And get away with it."

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to google How to make Halle Berry fall for me, have amazing sex with me and make her act sanely.

[Passacaglia]

So she was having an affair with a doctor, yet she had to do all the research on poisons? Brilliant.

[Lathum]

Thats why when I google "how to make a bomb" I'll do it from a public computer

[QuikSand]

Excuse me, I thought we covered this...

Step One: cut a hole in the box

[molson]

In case anyone's interested, the first site when you Google "How to Commit Murder" is a scholarly article on the possibility of robots murdering people

http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/didhal.htm

And how that I've done that, I'll pretty much have to go murder-free until I get a new computer.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by molson

And how that I've done that, I'll pretty much have to go murder-free until I get a new computer.

Dynasty thread pls k thx

[John Galt]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Excuse me, I thought we covered this...

Step One: cut a hole in the box

[Crim]

Originally Posted by molson

And how that I've done that, I'll pretty much have to go murder-free until I get a new computer.

Awesome!

[Young Drachma]

Thread of the week

[14ers]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Cop: Wife googled 'How to commit murder'

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703130391


"That same day searches on Google and MSN search engines, were conducted on such topics as `instant poisons,` `undetectable poisons,' 'fatal digoxin doses,' and gun laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

How do they know this? I thought Google won their case in court and would not be required to track people's searches?

[Logan]

Originally Posted by 14ers

How do they know this? I thought Google won their case in court and would not be required to track people's searches?

I think what you're saying (Google having to give up its records of IP addresses and what they search) is different than what happened (simply looking through the computer's files to see what websites were visited, and what search terms were put in). Hell, if I go to my browser and start typing in www.google.com, I can scroll through the memory to see what terms I've searched for.

[Crapshoot]

Umm... so.. does anyone want a slightly used computer with a memory wipe on it?

[stevew]

I remember when they found the body parts, it was freaking crazy.

[stevew]

dola-
I just assumed it was some mob hit.

[MIJB#19]

Joe Tacopina sighting!

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by molson

In case anyone's interested, the first site when you Google "How to Commit Murder" is a scholarly article on the possibility of robots murdering people

http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/didhal.htm

And how that I've done that, I'll pretty much have to go murder-free until I get a new computer.

It's more on intentionality. I highly recommend Dennett's The Intentional Stance--or any of his books, for that matter.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by 14ers

How do they know this? I thought Google won their case in court and would not be required to track people's searches?

In this case, it's the defendant's searches, not 'people in the greater New Jersey area' or whatever, and as somebody else pointed out, if the history is turned on, it'll prompt you on search terms if you visit one of those sites, as well as for things like usernames, URLs, etc.

Dude's...I don't want to call it his 'first' mistake, but y'know the old saw about how in the commission of any crime, most criminals will commit something like ten mistakes, and that's how they get caught?

Yeah, not deactivating cookies/history was his second mistake.

Using his own computer to search for those things? That was mistake #1.

I've no idea what #3-10 were, but as he got caught, I'm sure somebody found them!

[cthomer5000]

And I love this story most of all because all of it is within a very quick drive of me. Central Jersey represent.

[Lorena]

Maybe it was research for a movie.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

In this case, it's the defendant's searches, not 'people in the greater New Jersey area' or whatever, and as somebody else pointed out, if the history is turned on, it'll prompt you on search terms if you visit one of those sites, as well as for things like usernames, URLs, etc.

Dude's...I don't want to call it his 'first' mistake, but y'know the old saw about how in the commission of any crime, most criminals will commit something like ten mistakes, and that's how they get caught?

Yeah, not deactivating cookies/history was his second mistake.

Using his own computer to search for those things? That was mistake #1.

I've no idea what #3-10 were, but as he got caught, I'm sure somebody found them!

Mistake 3 not deleting cookies/history/cache after the fact
Mistake 4 not removing HD from computer totally destroying contents and burying in a corrosive environment
Mistake 5...

Whats that?

Sorry, be right back parole officer needs me for a minute

[Ksyrup]

"At exactly 5:45:34 on April 18, 2004 a computer taken from the office of the attorney of Melanie McGuire, did a search on the words "How To Commit Murder."


Defense Attorney: "...And that's why my client is not guilty. The COMPUTER DID IT!"

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by saldana

this will be an episode of csi or law and order next season

Of course then someone else will have broken into the house, and googled on her computer just to lead authorities astray. Most likely the doctor in response to rotten tuna...

[Crim]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Maybe it was research for a book.

Worked for Pete Townsend.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

And I love this story most of all because all of it is within a very quick drive of me. Central Jersey represent.

Damn, I missed all the location details in the original post until I saw yours. One of my offices is in Metropark...I've been to that Walgreens a couple times.

[terpkristin]

I guess this guy in CT didn't read this thread before Googling "how not to rob a bank"... /tk

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2995649

Cyberclues Lead to Conn. Robbery Arrest
NORWICH, Conn. Mar 30, 2007 (AP)— A bank robbery suspect was arrested after leaving a trail of cyberclues, including an online search for "how not to rob a bank," police said.
Kevin Fitzpatrick, 32, was arraigned Thursday on charges of robbery and larceny for a Sept. 28, 2005, robbery. He was held on unrelated charges in New York at the time of his arrest.
Police said Fitzpatrick was staying with a woman at the time of the Norwich robbery and spent a great deal of time on her computer. They had met on the Internet and had never met in person when he asked to stay for several days, borrowing her car the day of the robbery and returning with a lot of cash, claiming he won it at the Mohegan Sun casino, police said.
Police allege Fitzpatrick walked into a Liberty Bank branch and handed a teller a note demanding money. A week later, a tip led police to the friend, who said she recognized Fitzpatrick from a surveillance photo posted on a newspaper Web site.
Police said when the friend checked the log of her computer, she noticed a search had been conducted for "Norwich bank robbery."
A police search of the computer revealed numerous searches concerning bank robberies.
"Most times when citizens get involved, relaying honest and accurate information about what they see, it's a benefit to the investigation," police Capt. Timothy Menard said.