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[Posted on Wed, Feb 1 2006]
Northland lab helps solve major crimesComputer forensics used to crack high-profile cases throughout area
By Steve Vockrodt
Source: Dispatch Tribune
clayplattedispatch.com
February 1, 2006
A quick question: What do Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer, Lisa Montgomery, the lady arrested on suspicion of murdering Bobbie Jo Stinnett and removing an unborn baby from her womb, and Thomas Murray, the former Kansas State University professor convicted of murdering his wife, all have to do with Kansas City?
The answer is they're all among the high-profile cases that were solved in large part at the Regional Computer Forensics Lab in Kansas City North just off of Briarcliff Parkway.
Inside the lab, which appears unassuming from the outside, sits a labyrinth of more than $4 million in computer and electronic equipment aimed to crack complex criminal cases that involve the digital medium.
“Who out there doesn’t have some sort of digital medium?” said Kevin Steck, director of the lab.
Many criminals possess one sort or another, oftentimes to their undoing. BTK eluded police in Wichita, Kan., for decades until he used a floppy disk in several computers to draft taunting letters he would later send to The Wichita Eagle and police in 2004. The Regional Computer Forensics Lab was called upon to dissect obscure digital data from that floppy disk to determine that it was written on computers Rader had access to. Now Rader sits in jail for the rest of his life.
The same is true for Murray, who left hardly any physical evidence when he murdered his wife in Lawrence, Kan., but left myriad Internet searches about the best way to bludgeon a person that were extracted from his computer.
“That was a very interesting case in that there was little physical evidence,” Steck said
But in the law-enforcement world, digital evidence has become a factor to put technologically-bent criminals behind bars.
The Regional Computer Forensics Lab serves more than 800 law enforcement agencies in Missouri and Kansas. In the Northland, the Platte County Sheriff’s Office joined the lab starting today with an agreement that it will provide a staff member who will be trained in computer forensics as well as provide money for the lab.
In exchange, the lab will provide additional services to further the department’s investigations.
“It ensures that we’re going to be able to remain focused on the types of crime we’re encountering,” Platte County Capt. Frank Hunter said. “Crimes that involve computers and the Internet.”
The county expects the agreement will further its mission of seeking out Internet criminals with its Cyber Crimes Unit.
“The RCFL is a tremendous resource we use in every one of our cybercrimes cases,” said Eric Zahnd, Platte County prosecutor.
North Kansas City hasn’t had many encounters with crimes involving digital technology but contributed $55,000 each year for the past two years to the lab anyway.
“Which is roughly the equivalent of an entry-level position,” Police Chief Glenn Ladd said. “It's been mostly a resource for the region, which is mostly why we got involved with it.”
Should a crime involve digital data, stored on anything from a computer, an iPod or a watch, North Kansas City, Platte County and other agencies can rely on the Regional Computer Forensics Lab. And in doing so, it’s helping shape the way law enforcement pursues crime.
Voice mails and text messages have been fruitful evidence the lab has used to crack some cases beyond computers, even though Steck estimated that 60 percent of their work was examining computers for child pornography.
“It forces investigators to think differently,” Steck said. “If you arrest someone for using drugs, what would be a good thing for you to take from them? That would be their cell phone.”
Staff writer Steve Vockrodt covers crime. He can be reached at 389-6633 or at svockrodt@npgco.com.
[Original Article on the Dispatch Tribune web site ]