GUILTY DC - David Messerschmitt, 30, murdered in Washington hotel room, 9 Feb 2015 #1

[Momoffourboys]

Interesting! The precise location of the phone can be found through the text message or GPS? I thought the location of a cell phone could be traced in general, such as the nearest cell tower, but not specifically to that hotel.

MOO

Or if DM had FB messenger. That gives the exact location and address. (Which is why I don't have it!)

Yes it can - so long as the gps is turned on. My partner and I both have 'Find My Android' on our phones. All we need to do to see where each other are is to log into our Google account. It's accurate to just a few metres

 

[FindHG]

Yes it can - so long as the gps is turned on. My partner and I both have 'Find My Android' on our phones. All we need to do to see where each other are is to log into our Google account. It's accurate to just a few metres

If he had any locator apps, then VB would possibly have been able to locate him. His phone could have been turned off, it seems, as LE didn't track him to the Donovan until hours after she reported him missing. He was found just before check-out time. Wouldn't locators apps have worked faster?

 

[mellie89]

If he had any locator apps, then VB would possibly have been able to locate him. His phone could have been turned off, it seems, as LE didn't track him to the Donovan until hours after she reported him missing. He was found just before check-out time. Wouldn't locators apps have worked faster?

I'd imagine so, yes. I wasn't implying that that's how he was located - just showing a previous poster that it is possible to track a phone to its (almost) exact location and not just the nearest cell phone tower.

 

[McFluffy]

maybe someone who knew the couple decided to get all "To Catch A Predator" on him, posed as a trick, and it worked.

 

[TTF14]

I belong to another forum (not crime related) and someone recently posted a story about her husband being "missing" after he was very late coming home from work. She started to call all of the hotels near his work to see if he was in one of them/if they had a guest of the same name. She found him, and they connected her to his room.

 

[1&2&3]

Thanks to all of you that have responded to escabeche's post on his/her comments on hotels not putting a bill under the door, amongst other things.

I backed out of that discussion because it was so different from my experiences in the USA that it felt like we were in two separate countries. To answer escabeche's question, I have worked for Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, and Holiday Inn. Even the 5-star hotels put the bill under the door in my experiences.

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

I travel for work a lot, and each hotel is different...last July, I was at the new Marriott in downtown DC, and they encourage emailing your receipt/statement, as part of their "go green" campaign.

Ugh, I wish there would be breaking news in this case!!!!

 

[Dushi]

I would like to know more about his habits, schedule.
Did he go to a gym after/ before work?
Have drinks with colleagues? Where?
Did he always call/text and let his wife know he was coming home?

This case has fewer personal details about the victim than any case I have ever followed
No information leading to the days before his murder
Nothing is coming out.. nothing

 

[Luvrosco]

I would like to know more about his habits, schedule.
Did he go to a gym after/ before work?
Have drinks with colleagues? Where?
Did he always call/text and let his wife know he was coming home?

This case has fewer personal details about the victim than any case I have ever followed
No information leading to the days before his murder
Nothing is coming out.. nothing

Good points. The silence in this case is deafening. I wonder why.

 

[CocoChanel]

I belong to another forum (not crime related) and someone recently posted a story about her husband being "missing" after he was very late coming home from work. She started to call all of the hotels near his work to see if he was in one of them/if they had a guest of the same name. She found him, and they connected her to his room.

This surprises me, unless it was not a question posed by the wife to the front desks of the hotels she called, but rather a "please connect me to the room of Joe Schmo" type command. Most would answer "we have no guest registered by that name" uhtil she happened upon the right one. OT: How did this story play out?

 

[TTF14]

This surprises me, unless it was not a question posed by the wife to the front desks of the hotels she called, but rather a "please connect me to the room of Joe Schmo" type command. Most would answer "we have no guest registered by that name" uhtil she happened upon the right one. OT: How did this story play out?

Yes, that is the more likely scenario, and perhaps I'm remembering her wording wrong, too. I just tried to find that post and I can't. It's a huge forum, but if I come across it again, I'll have to read the rest of her posts and see how it all played out. Since it was likely a "coping with infedility" forum I was reading on that particular site, I'm guessing it did not end too well for that gentleman! (For some reason I think she might have been replying to someone else's thread, but I'm not sure......I've unfortunately been doing a lot of reading on that forum lately..... )

 

[CarolynV]

My boyfriend just showed me an app to use if your phone is lost, stolen or misplaced and when he looked it up online it showed that the phone was at my home address, which it was.

 

[jadejazzkayla]

My boyfriend just showed me an app to use if your phone is lost, stolen or misplaced and when he looked it up online it showed that the phone was at my home address, which it was.

which app? what type of phone will the app track?

 

[cluciano63]

It seems to me that a second phone used by the victim must have been taken away by the perp. Arrangements would have had to be made, Imo, and it does not appear that LE has come across anything useful.

If so...not sure how this person can be tracked. If anyone recognized him/her, should have happened by now. Jmo and very frustrating.

 

[CocoChanel]

l

It seems to me that a second phone used by the victim must have been taken away by the perp. Arrangements would have had to be made, Imo, and it does not appear that LE has come across anything useful.

If so...not sure how this person can be tracked. If anyone recognized him/her, should have happened by now. Jmo and very frustrating.

Agreed. We can see the POI's face clearly in the video, it has been widely publicized, yet to our knowledge has not resulted in a positive ID of who that is. Frustrating for sure. The people who know who that is apparently aren't talking.

 

[MsFacetious]

This surprises me, unless it was not a question posed by the wife to the front desks of the hotels she called, but rather a "please connect me to the room of Joe Schmo" type command. Most would answer "we have no guest registered by that name" uhtil she happened upon the right one. OT: How did this story play out?

My husband went looking for his now ex-wife when she left to "have some time to herself."
He was concerned about her state of mind and wanted to make sure she was okay.

He saw her distinctive car (in his name which he paid for) in a hotel parking lot from the freeway so he went there.

He asked for her by her married name and maiden name.
They not only said "yes, she's here" they gave him the key to her room. :laughcry:
(It may have been partly the new baby he had with him... that compelled the clerk to give him the key.)

This was like a Motel 6/Best Western. It wasn't a high dollar place worried about security. :twocents:

 

[FindHG]

I would like to know more about his habits, schedule.
Did he go to a gym after/ before work?
Have drinks with colleagues? Where?
Did he always call/text and let his wife know he was coming home?

This case has fewer personal details about the victim than any case I have ever followed
No information leading to the days before his murder
Nothing is coming out.. nothing

Let us hope the next thing we hear are a suspect in hand and solid charges.

 

[Miss Muffet]

My husband went looking for his now ex-wife when she left to "have some time to herself."
He was concerned about her state of mind and wanted to make sure she was okay.

He saw her distinctive car (in his name which he paid for) in a hotel parking lot from the freeway so he went there.

He asked for her by her married name and maiden name.
They not only said "yes, she's here" they gave him the key to her room. :laughcry:
(It may have been partly the new baby he had with him... that compelled the clerk to give him the key.)

This was like a Motel 6/Best Western. It wasn't a high dollar place worried about security. :twocents:

Let me preface this story by saying I truly did have a wonderful childhood. This happened when I was a young adult about a year before my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. She wasn't herself and started acting crazy. We had no idea why.

While my first husband and I were visiting my parents, my mother went nasty on my father and he left the house in his car. As she continued to bang around, I got my little sister, who was probably 15 at the time, and she, my husband and I loaded into my car. I have always had a talent for finding people. There were only so many places my father could have gone. Low and behold, I found his car at hotel. I walked up to the front desk, asked for my dad, and was told what room he was in. He answered the door to find the three of us standing there. The poor guy could never get away from us. We all stayed there for the night.

 

[CarolynV]

Mine is a Samsung, but it works on his too, which is not. It was quite impressive, if you zoomed in it would show my street and neighborhood. I have to admit I do not know the name or the app because it is hidden in my phone in case it is stolen. I guess he can track me now.

 

[hockeymom4]

Many of my friends and family and I use Life360. Not sure if that's what is being referred to above. It is wonderfel and if you don't have it, I strongly suggest it.