How mobile pings helped convict killer of Joanna Yeates.

[pegasus]

The second  case is the one I keep mentioning.. Joanna Yeates case. Her murderer changed towers while crossing a bridge in Bristol. Bristol is a small town but it happens that the two areas were served by different towers. His phone was there and he was not aware of the changing towers fact.
Etc etc
I know the principles of data exploration and analysis,  I know how much they can stretch the info coming from the large amounts of data like the phone data,  I used to work on a similar data for 6 years.. this is why I believe they can explore this data very well and it can give them great clues.

Do you have source for that please? AFAIK crossing that bridge was determined by CCTV and not by phone tracking.

[VIXTE]

Do you have source for that please? AFAIK crossing that bridge was determined by CCTV and not by phone tracking.

Police are using information from mobile phone masts to try to catch the killer.
Officers are tracing signals from potential suspects’ phones to see where they were on the night she vanished.
The technology shows which phone mast a mobile was picking up a signal from at a particular time, even if it was not used for calls or texts.
One phone mast provides signals for Clifton, where Miss Yeates was last seen alive, and another provides signals for Failand, north Somerset, where her body was dumped.
If the killer’s mobile was on, it will have picked up signals from both.
A source said: ‘This is one line of inquiry and could be crucial in checking out people’s alibis.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345764/Joanna-Yeates-murder-Anonymous-letter-scrap-pizza-box-posted-pub.html#ixzz363NNZJoa

I remember this placed Vincent Tabak on the bridge where the masts area change. His car could not have been identified on the CCTV.

The Bristol area served by two different masts is a bit bigger though

[Eleanor]

Police are using information from mobile phone masts to try to catch the killer.
Officers are tracing signals from potential suspects’ phones to see where they were on the night she vanished.
The technology shows which phone mast a mobile was picking up a signal from at a particular time, even if it was not used for calls or texts.
One phone mast provides signals for Clifton, where Miss Yeates was last seen alive, and another provides signals for Failand, north Somerset, where her body was dumped.
If the killer’s mobile was on, it will have picked up signals from both.
A source said: ‘This is one line of inquiry and could be crucial in checking out people’s alibis.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345764/Joanna-Yeates-murder-Anonymous-letter-scrap-pizza-box-posted-pub.html#ixzz363NNZJoa

I remember this placed Vincent Tabak on the bridge where the masts area change. His car could not have been identified on the CCTV.

The Bristol area served by two different masts is a bit bigger though

And that clobbered him.  I wonder if anyone is complaining because he was asked to explain what his phone was doing in these places?

[pegasus]

There is no report anywhere I could find which states that tracking of the perp's mobile proved going over Brunel's bridge. Also the bridge cameras' images were too fuzzy. I think the evidence for Failand came from the direct evidence, not from phone tracking, not from bridge cameras.

[VIXTE]

There is no report anywhere I could find which states that tracking of the perp's mobile proved going over Brunel's bridge. Also the bridge cameras' images were too fuzzy. I think the evidence for Failand came from the direct evidence, not from phone tracking, not from bridge cameras.

I have seen a newspaper article stating that Tabak was identified on the bridge and that the phone changes masts when on the bridge. All articles about Tabak were deleted before his court case but I am sure I have seen it..

[pegasus]

I have seen a newspaper article stating that Tabak was identified on the bridge and that the phone changes masts when on the bridge. All articles about Tabak were deleted before his court case but I am sure I have seen it..

Well the article you posted is interesting but I think contains the journalist's unscientific conjecture that there is a distinct sudden cell boundary at the bridge. I would have thought that if phone tracking did prove he crossed that particular bridge, it would be in post-trial reports.

[Eleanor]

Well the article you posted is interesting but I think contains the journalist's unscientific conjecture that there is a distinct sudden cell boundary at the bridge. I would have thought that if phone tracking did prove he crossed that particular bridge, it would be in post-trial reports.

Was it The Clifton Bridge?  I thought it was a back lane's bridge.

[pegasus]

Was it The Clifton Bridge?  I thought it was a back lane's bridge.

I don't know whether or not police ever established which bridge the perp drove over.
Or even if the perp had his phone with him for that drive.

[Eleanor]

I don't know whether or not police ever established which bridge the perp drove over.
Or even if the perp had his phone with him for that drive.

I did see photos of a map of The Bridge.  I don't know Bristol all that well but I don't think it was The Clifton Bridge.

I don't know if he had his phone with him, but I thought he did.

[pegasus]

I did see photos of a map of The Bridge.  I don't know Bristol all that well but I don't think it was The Clifton Bridge.

I don't know if he had his phone with him, but I thought he did.

Anyway I can see that with phone data, it might be possible to tell whether a phone is in Clifton, or in Failand, because they are several kilometres apart.
But it is not possible with phone data to tell whether a phone is near 5A, or near the Smith sighting, because they are only about 400 metres apart.
In yet another case (Soham), police supposedly managed to pinpoint a phone to one place in the small town, because the phone pinged a distant mast in another town, but that is an exceptional analysis and normally that sort of accuracy is not possible.
 

[sadie]

Was it The Clifton Bridge?  I thought it was a back lane's bridge.

I don't know which bridge for sure, but the shorter route would have been across Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Also I would have thought that in the panic, Tabak would have wanted to keep away from as many people as possible.  To take the Hotwells bridge route would have taken him more into the City, first  The Suspension bridge route was sort of directly out of the City into initially leafy suburbs then country. 

Mind he had to pay automatically at the Suspension bridge.  That would slow him down and be a bit scary for him.  He could throw the money into a catcher thingy, from the drivers seat IIRC.

[VIXTE]

Unfortunately I cannot find the info but I followed that case closely.As long as I remember Tabak had his phone on a d even drove ro the supermarket with Joannas corpse in his car..and after the supermarket he crossed the bridge..his girlfriend at the time was at works xmas party and he kept the phone contact with his girlfriend..I also remember that the area from the other side of the bridge was served by different phone mast and that that mast recorded the movement of his mobile phone..
Also his google searches showed he googled the area where he dropped the body before the body was found and reported in the media.

[sadie]

Unfortunately I cannot find the info but I followed that case closely.As long as I remember Tabak had his phone on a d even drove ro the supermarket with Joannas corpse in his car..and after the supermarket he crossed the bridge..his girlfriend at the time was at works xmas party and he kept the phone contact with his girlfriend..I also remember that the area from the other side of the bridge was served by different phone mast and that that mast recorded the movement of his mobile phone..
Also his google searches showed he googled the area where he dropped the body before the body was found and reported in the media.

Interesting Vixte.  Thankyou.  You brought back memories.