Amber's Cell Phone and Ping

[Lipin One]

I am not sure the phone company would know if someone did check her contacts, phone numbers, etc. on her phone. I imagine they would only know of an action that resulted in communication with them. If I found a phone and wanted to know if it worked I might call the voicemail before I called someone I knew or randomly called one of the contacts stored in the phone.

I do not think it was Amber that turned it on as she would have surely called 911.

I am sure the phone records were thoroughly searched for previous calls/voicemail messages that may have been related.

The news said that the only activity was to check voice messages, for 30 seconds.

To me this means that the phone was OFF the whole time, except for those 30 seconds.

In order to check contacts, the phone has to be turned on, even if only to get to the SIMMS card.

From CNET.com:

So how does it all work? Mobile devices, when they are within range, constantly let cell towers and the mobile switching center, which is connected to multiple towers, know of their location. The mobile switching center uses the location information to ensure that incoming calls and messages are routed to the tower nearest to the user.

If a subscriber is unable to get service, this location information is usually purged from the mobile switching center. But some location information may remain in call detail records. Some mobile operators may store the most recent communication between a device and a mobile switching center for a certain period of time, usually 24 hours.

When someone is missing, even this small bit of information can prove useful in determining the approximate location of a device using the updates from the mobile switching center. If the mobile subscriber is still within cell phone range, authorities can track his or her general movement by following the sequence of towers the phone has contacted or pinged. And if the cell phone goes out of range or runs out of battery power, the mobile operator may be able to use the last recorded location before the cell phone either lost its signal or lost power.

But the most useful information for locating people when they are lost comes when someone has initiated or received a call or text message on their phone. Mobile operators keep records of these events for billing purposes in what is known as a call data record, or CDR. And they can go back to these records to get a historical account of the cell phone's location.

http://news.cnet.com/Turning-cell-phones-into-lifelines/2100-1039_3-6140794.html

I think that if it was turned on more than to check messages, it would've pinged the towers in the area, and her location better pinpointed.

IMO

 

[Voice4theSilent]

The news said that the only activity was to check voice messages, for 30 seconds.

To me this means that the phone was OFF the whole time, except for those 30 seconds.

In order to check contacts, the phone has to be turned on, even if only to get to the SIMMS card.

From CNET.com:

http://news.cnet.com/Turning-cell-phones-into-lifelines/2100-1039_3-6140794.html

I think that if it was turned on more than to check messages, it would've pinged the towers in the area, and her location better pinpointed.

IMO

Yes, I get that it was turned on for (actually less than) 30 seconds only. What I am saying is that perhaps her contacts were checked in that 30 second time frame, too. I could easily turn my phone on, scroll through my contacts and access my voicemail in well under 30 seconds. I don't know if the phone company would actually know if anything else (contacts, last number called, text messages, etc.) was accessed on her phone in that 20-30second period (?)

 

[cloudajo]

March 19, 2010 article about Larry Olmstead, a P.I. hired by Amber’s grandmother (not the same as Garcia, who was the family’s P.I. earlier). He said there were two pings from Amber’s cell phone, however, this has never been reported before, so not sure if it’s true. Long Beach is about 1 hr, 37 min north west of Escondido.

Feb 22, 2009 article
[snipped]
Her cell phone was turned on once for about 20 seconds the day after she disappeared and has not been turned on since then, Escondido Police spokesman Lt. Bob Benton said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/22/amber.dubois/index.html

Feb 13, 2010 article
[snipped]
On Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009, Amber's cell phone was turned on briefly and then went silent, police said.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_17edfcec-657a-5398-8295-4b1ada991f56.html

Mar 19, 2010 article
[snipped]
He also said there were two pings on Amber's cell phone -- one in Escondido shortly after she disappeared, and another one the next day in Long Beach where her aunt lives.

http://www.10news.com/news/22890061/detail.html

Map: Escondido, Long Beach: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...0.280613,0.705185&g=escondido,+ca&ie=UTF8&z=9

 

[Winnts]

Verizon phones do not have removable simm cards so if you find a phone it's useless to use since you cant' put in another simm card. The simm is built into the phone.