Case 7: Cell Phone

1

Texting Natalie Steel

Jonathan: Nat this case is absolutely ludicrous, I'm trying to be safe, but this is just, idk

Natalie: What? Wait John what's going on, are you ok?

Jonathan: Yeah I'm fine, I'm not really in danger it's just... it hasn't been long at all, and I've already encountered the cartel.

Natalie: The Mexican Drug Cartel!? That's bad news. You gotta get outta there... they are behind Rich's disappearance?

Jonathan: No it's not that, I don't think they're involved in the disappearance. But, Rich's dad is in the cartel. It's bad.

Natalie: Jesus Christ, surely the police didn't miss that... it's almost protocol to investigate the father right away.

Jonathan: Yeah, I don't know, if I found him so quickly, I wonder what's really going on, there's probably some corrupt police getting paid by the cartel.

Natalie: Please please please be careful John, I don't want what happened to data to happen to you, please, if anything gets worse just come home!!

Jonathan: Yes, I will. I will be very careful, I'll come home right after I solve the case I promise.

Natalie: But seriously, I know you're being your old detective self... but you aren't a detective anymore, and I don't think the cartel is afraid of private investigators, come home if there's anything wrong.

Jonathan: Yes, sounds good sis, I will. Okay I gotta go, April is texting me, she has good news for me, talk soon.

Natalie: Alright good luck, stay safe John, keep me in the loop. Cya

 

The Riveras have good news for me, they've unlocked Rich's old phone.

 

2

Jonathan: Do you mind if I look at his phone?

Mark: No, of course not. You wanted to see it right away.

Jonathan: How were you able to unlock it?

April: Some of his friends knew the phone pin, I think, but we didn't so we mailed the phone to the manufacturer and they were able to unlock it.

Jonathan: I'll need to take a look at this for a while.

April: We know, you can take it home, if you like, just bring it back once you're done.

Jonathan: Both of you have been a great help. I'll call if there are new findings.

Mark: Sounds good, Mr. Steel. We made the pin 1984, just to keep it secure.

 

 

Unlock Cell Phone

 

3

His background image is a gray-scaled image of particles and smooth curving lines. He chose quite a minimalistic background picture.

 

4

He has many social media apps, and all the normal apps such as maps, calendar, and search engines. There aren't any games or anything like that.

 

5

There are hundreds... most of the pictures are just random screenshots of funny social media posts. There are also pictures of many different people, and party scenes. Rich and Emma are in a few pictures together.

 

Investigate Phone Pictures

 

6

Emma, Tyler, Connor, Jesse, Mitch, and his parents.

 

Investigate Emma's Texts

 

Investigate Tyler's Texts

 

Investigate Connor's Texts

 

Investigate Jesse's Texts

 

Investigate Mitch's Texts

 

7

February 14, 2007.

 

8

Most of the pictures are just memes on the internet, the ones that stand out are the few that Rich looks slightly annoyed in. In all of these weird pictures there's the same tall blond-haired guy standing next to him, does he not like this guy?

 

Tall Blond Man

 

9

The earliest picture was taken April 9th, 2006, and the latest picture was taken on February 2nd, 2007. But... there is something strange about these file details...

 

Imagine File Details

 

10

There are a total of 208.

 

11

The pictures use about 8% of the storage, the phone's storage is only 45% used.

 

12

What is striking me as odd is that most of these pictures contain the same people but there are just four of them that have a blond guy in them. He is in no other pictures; he must not be very close to Rich... hmm.

 

13

The last message was sent February 14th 2007, from Emma to Rich.

"Happy Valentine's dayyyyyy! <3"

 

14

The first message was sent from Rich to Emma, April 9th, 2006.

"Yo Em, new phone, we won't have that weird texting issue lol"

 

15

I get the impression that Emma and Rich began dating or being close before Rich's parents knew of it, which was June 3rd, 2006. Also, I think that they both liked each other, but Rich liked Emma more. Additionally, Rich's response time was faster than Emma nearly every time there was a spree of texting back and forth.

 

16

Emma sometimes didn't respond for over a day... Also, I think Rich deleted some texts, because at times there isn't a fluent conversation, and yet the messages were only minutes apart. Another point to make... on December 20th, Emma and Rich had a long conversation about how Rich was injured and how he was too drunk to remember what happened. Emma said she didn't see what happened because she was talking with other friends. Emma also said she took Rich home after the fight occurred and couldn't tell what happened because of all the drunk people chanting and screaming. This seems very far-fetched, Emma is likely lying.

 

17

Emma and Rich messaged each other daily. They usually sent at least 10 texts per day to each other, most of which contained standard unimportant conversation or jokes, and occasionally it was flirty.

 

18

The last message was sent January 25th, 2007, from Rich to Tyler.

"Hey man, ur coming over at 9 right? I'm already logged in and ready to game it up haha"

 

19

The first message was sent from Rich to Tyler, April 10th, 2006.

"Sup this is my new number, ur still coming over tonight right??"

 

20

They seem like pretty close friends; the texting is usually about meeting up to play games.

 

21

There's nothing that stands out to me after reading this conversation. The messages are quite boring... it seems like 95% of their interaction always took place in-person rather than through text.

 

22

Texts weren't very frequent, a couple per week is the norm.

 

23

The last message was sent February 10th, 2007, from Rich to Connor.

"Hey what's up, the normal meeting spot right?"

 

24

The first message was sent from Rich to Connor, November 2nd, 2006.

"Yo it's rich, just wondering if I can stop by again, was good bro"

 

25

These messages are much more serious in tone... they are also extremely vague, and some could have been deleted.

 

26

There are only 4 messages total! How strange to have a contact, but never actually contact them... and then when you do, having it be about some kind of meeting?

 

27

The texts were extremely rare, once a month or so.

 

28

The last message was sent January 4th, 2007, from Jesse to Rich.

"It's gonna be hard to get you invited to the party after last time dude."

 

29

The first message was sent from Jesse to Rich, June 29th, 2006.

"July 4th, the address is 825 South Hill, rooftop party, starts around 10"

 

30

There aren't many messages, but Jesse seems like he's a party animal. He always had an invitation for Rich to go to a party. I will need to see him in-person and identify his daily routines to fully understand him though.

 

31

Texts were almost always just a time or an address to meet at. Also, Rich rarely responded to the texts from Jesse, but this doesn't mean he didn't attend the parties... or whatever they were meeting for.

 

32

The texts were roughly weekly with a couple weeks that were skipped.

 

33

The last message was sent December 19th, 2006, from Mitch to Rich.

"yeah its gud, im late too, im going around 1030"

 

34

The first message was sent from Rich to Mitch, April 10th, 2006.

"Its Rich, this is my new phone"

 

35

Mitch seemed like a good friend of Rich's. The texts aren't very frequent though, so it is hard to deduce much else. I think they knew each other fairly well due to Rich's first text to Mitch.

 

36

The texting suddenly stopped after December 19th, but for no apparent reason. The conversations were all quite normal and there weren't signs of any trouble.

 

37

Texts were relatively rare, usually not many more than 10 a week.

 

38

I can't seem to be able to find out who he is with just this phone. I'll need to check Rich's social media.

 

Rich's Social Media

 

39

The man is tall obviously, he looks like he is about 6 feet tall. This guy also is quite muscular and definitely works out a lot. Another point, he has some tattoos, it is difficult to make them out though. Finally, I can tell that he is a motorcyclist because he's carrying a motorcycle helmet in one of the pictures. Muscular biker guy... I think I know his type, but I won't judge a book by its cover. I wonder who you are...

 

40

Nothing pops out at me... he's wearing a watch but we all know some watches are fake and very cheap... Rich is upper-class though, so maybe his friends are somewhat wealthy too, I need to keep this in mind.

 

41

He appears in image_0171, image_0172, image_0173, and image_0174. These images were all taken on October 31st, 2006.

 

42

There are many pictures that come up in the search, but none are the same, so this picture was never posted online anywhere.

 

43

There are 208 pictures, and they start from image_0079, which is slightly strange... Another thing is, there are almost no gaps in any file names... except these file names are missing image_0202 to image_0283. Why did he delete these 81 images?

 

44

The start of the image files, image_0079 was taken on April 9th, 2006, image_0202 was taken on December 17th, 2006, and image_0283 was taken on December 30th, 2006. So, something happened in this time frame... but what?

 

45

Something tells me these images are showing a false image of Rich's life... it just seems... too clean, too nice, too staged. There are literally no compromising pictures, no illegal things... and above all, a very small collection of people appear in pictures. There aren't even pictures of his parents? It's strange. So how does such a normal, nice guy just vanish into thin air?

 

46

Yes! He is in more pictures on Rich's social media, he was tagged as Mitch Reese, how interesting... I can see him a lot actually, Mitch Reese is very prevalent on Rich's social media, up until December 20th.

 

47

Were they living under a rock? They didn't look at any social media, I guess? Hmm, maybe Rich hid this side of his life from them.

 

48

Social media wasn't as popular in 2006, but he still used a fair amount. He posted in a few special groups; I don't have access to these groups. I wonder who is in them besides Rich.

 

49

He has very few pictures on social media, but many others posted pictures containing him. This must have been at the parties he attended. Maybe Rich wasn't as popular as he wanted to be? He did have a lot of money though. Maybe people were using him for his money... his parents' money.

 

Conclude Investigation

1. Who is the tall blond guy in some of Rich's pictures?

  • Tyler
  • Connor
  • Jesse
  • Mitch
  • Someone Rich didn't know well
  • A friend of a friend

 

2. What was Rich's status with Tyler in the early months of 2007?

  • Good friends
  • Acquaintances
  • Rich barely knew him
  • Used to be friends but now enemies
  • Use to be friends but now not close
  • They were never good friends

 

3. What was Rich's status with Mitch in the early months of 2007?

  • Good friends
  • Acquaintances
  • Rich barely knew him
  • Used to be friends but now enemies
  • Use to be friends but now not close
  • They were never good friends

 

4. What was Rich's status with Connor in the early months of 2007?

  • Good friends
  • Acquaintances
  • Rich barely knew him
  • Used to be friends but now enemies
  • Use to be friends but now not close
  • They were never good friends

 

5. What was Rich's status with Jesse in the early months of 2007?

  • Good friends
  • Acquaintances
  • Rich barely knew him
  • Used to be friends but now enemies
  • Use to be friends but now not close
  • They were never good friends

Correct Answers

1. Who is the tall blond guy in some of Rich's pictures?

  • Mitch

 

2. What was Rich's status with Tyler in the early months of 2007?

  • Good friends

 

3. What was Rich's status with Mitch in the early months of 2007?

  • Used to be friends but now enemies

 

4. What was Rich's status with Connor in the early months of 2007?

  • Acquaintances

 

5. What was Rich's status with Jesse in the early months of 2007?

  • Used to be friends but not close