Possible IT, Computer & Tech. Connection to the Long Island Case, Perp & Victims

[inspctrgadget]

Dwntwn,

Your thread really got me thinking. Thanks.

Let me offer my analysis.

I basically see 3 scenarios that can explain the serial killer's calls to Melissa's sister that were traced to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Madison Square Garden:

1) The serial killer has a great deal of technical sophistication. He understands the inner workings of E-911, and understands GPS tracing versus triangulation. I will dispel this scenario in a moment.

2) The serial killer works in NYC. As some in the MSM have suggested, the serial killer may live on Long Island and commute to the city. I will also dispel this myth.

3) (And this is my theory...) Neither #1 nor #2 above are true. The serial killer has no "real" technical sophistication, and doesn't work in NYC.


Let's look at these 3 scenarios.

Scenario #1
This scenario cannot be true because the fact of the matter is that anyone with any real sophistication would never have chosen those locations to make those calls. Why? Because in a city like New York, your cell towers are closer together. This means that the the police can trace you quicker, and more precisely. Because of the close proximity of the phone to the tower, you have an extremely strong signal. These signals are the basis for a "live trace" (we're talking about triangulation here). The stronger the signal, the quicker that phone can be traced. In New York City, you're going to have multiple towers reporting the phone's signal strength and direction, all extremely accurately. Also, the serial killer always hung up in under 3 minutes. In New York City, the triangulation trace would take about 1 second. It would be nearly instantaneous. If you were calling from a rural location, it may take much longer, maybe even up to 3-4 seconds, because the towers are much farther apart and the signal strengths are much weaker relative to an urban environment. In a GPS phone scenario, there is no delay - as soon as it's powered on, its traced. I learned all of this after googling around for an hour, and I used google's "daterange" function to make sure all of my results were prior to August 2009. No self respecting techno geek would have chosen Madison Square Garden and the Port Authority as the location to make those calls, especially given the sophistication of the NYC police technical folks in a post-9-11 world. If ANYTHING, they maybe would have chosen a skyscraper like the Empire State Building, where you can get the location but not the altitude. Even this would be dumb given building security, and a real techie would never attempt it.

Scenario #2
This scenario is easily dispelled with some basic logic. Here you've got someone who is going to extraordinary lengths to maintain anonymity by placing calls from crowded locations. He's also staying on the line for less than 3 minutes. He's also calling at night, probably during rush hour is my guess. Now you're telling me that someone taking great pains to remain anonymous is going to be nonchalantly making these calls on his way home from work? Are you kidding? That would be a total violation of even basic security measures. This is ridiculous, and those who mentioned it in MSM are, in my opinion, idiots. I'll admit though, prior to this analysis of mine (thanks Dwntwn) I've many times tried to find a NYC connection to any of my POIs. So I feel kind of duped - don't believe everything you read.

Scenario #3
This scenario makes the most sense to me. Here you've got a guy that goes to the entirely wrong place to make an "anonymous" or "untraceable" call (from a technical standpoint). He takes the absolutely RIDICULOUS countermeasure of staying on the line for less than 3 minutes. I mean, this is some crap that you see in movies ("You've got to keep them on the line for 3 minutes!"), even though in reality it is totally unnecessary in this day and age. Not since the mid-1980s has an incoming call been required to last 3 minutes or longer to trace. This has to do with manual versus electronic switching. In 2006, we start seeing GPS phones, and those traces occur instantly. So, our guy is taking countermeasures, but they're the wrong ones, which tells me that he's a IT moron. He's not even good at using the computer, since it took me only about 20 minutes to get pretty educated on ways to defeat even an instant trace in 2009 (I won't elaborate). So I can safely assume he's not from NYC, and he doesn't work there, yet he traveled there specifically to make the call. He got away with it a few times, and felt pretty smart. Damn that Buffalo News station that revealed the existence of the police attempts to locate him. I'd bet everything in my pocket that he'd be busted by now if Buffalo TV had never done that. It's my belief that our guy has only slightly more IT sophistication than the average juvenile calling in a bomb threat in order to avoid a test. He heard or read somewhere to make calls from another city, and came up with the brilliant (really stupid) idea to go to NYC, and find a busy place at a busy time and stay on the line for less than 3 minutes. Don't get me wrong, he definitely THOUGHT HARD about how to make these calls anonymously, but he came up with a POOR method that nearly got him caught. His "technical education" is limited to what he's seen on TV and what he read from some basic google searches for "How to make an untraceable call" or "How to make an anonymous call". Probably somebody on some board mentioned to make the call from a crowded location or from another city, and he thought that was effective and took it to the extreme. It almost got him busted, with evidence in his hand to boot! I think the most revealing fact about this analysis is the fact that this guy has the time and the inclination to go to the city on (at least) a workday, August 26th, 2009, the last reported call to Melissa's sister. Even though he doesn't work in the city or have any real reason to be there, he still went there about half-a-dozen times. This tells me he's got the ability to duck away from his family or regular life and go out gallivanting with no questions asked. Furthermore, it tells me he's underemployed, and that there was some other reason for him to go there. What was this reason? My guess is that these trips were "pleasure" trips where he's spend some time walking around the city at night basically up to no good. Seeing as he actually "gets off" by placing these sadistic, vulgar phone calls, my guess is that his trips to NYC actually play a dual purpose - after these calls, he probably spent his time at the sex shops, probably in the private "video booths" which are common over there by the PABT, or he's participating in other sex related nightlife activities in NYC, like peep shows, prostitutes, shopping for S&M stuff, etc.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Great post as usual inspctrgadget! It's going to take me a while to digest all of this. I'm still in the process of learning about phone technology myself. I do have some questions for you though.

1. In your theory, are you assuming that the perp is actually voicing the call himself?

2. For your theory to work, does the perp have to know the difference between GMS and CDMA networks?

3. Are you assuming the the perp made the phone calls from Melissa Barthelemy's actual phone?

4. If the perp made the calls from Melissa's actual phone, how do you explain LE's inability to turn the phone's internal mic on, eaves drop & then trace the call, given that it was possible to do that since at least 2006?

5. Given that there is technology (in 2009) to trace a call when the phone is powered on but, not engaged in a call, how would your theory work?



ZDNet
FBI taps cell phone mic as
eavesdropping tool
Declan McCullagh
December 1, 2006
http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-c...ng-tool/150467

"The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations."

"Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off."


**I have a feeling LE might of tried to do the above with Melissa Barthelemy's phone.**


The Wall Street Journal
'Stingray' Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional
Clash
September 22, 2011
By Jennifer Valentino-Devries
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...723197574.html

"Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries."

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Here is the link where both Lynn Barthelemy and Johnny Terry discuss the phone calls they received:

The Daily Beast
The Serial Killer Victims' Secret Life
By Christine Pelisek and Roja Heydarpour
April 24, 2011
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...cret-life.html

"Meanwhile, Barthelemy's sister, Amanda, began to receive calls, about one each week."

"The caller ID indicated the call came from Melissa's cellphone. The man who sounded like an "older white guy" wanted to know if the person on the line was Melissa's little sister. "The whole year I continued to pay for the phone bill," Melissa's mother, Lynn, told The Daily Beast. "It was only turned on when the guy would turn it on, when he made the phone calls. He would only keep it on for three minutes."

"Around the same time, Terry said he began to get his own taunting phone calls. His calls were from a "white guy," he said."

"He was threatening me," recalled Terry. "He said, you like to do some crazy stuff with Melissa, I know where you be at. Most of the time he seemed to be drunk. He knew who I was. He knew I had tattoos on my back. Maybe he felt [Melissa] was doing something he didn't like."

"Terry said the anonymous caller called him more than 30 times over a period of eight months. He said he reported the calls to the cops. Months later, Terry said, he was approached by the police again, but this time not as a suspect. They wanted to know about the john on Long Island. They asked if he could describe the house and if he could pick it out if he was taken there. He said he could."

"They already knew about the guy in Long Island," he said. "I said if they come to get me I would go. They didn't come."

 

[Dwntwnslim]

There are basically two types of cell phones: Type one is a GSM phone that uses the Global System for Mobile Communication to send and receive calls. GSM is the standard used by Europe and most of Asia. GSM phones are used in North America too but it is not the dominant standard. It is the phone with a SIM card. Type two is the CDMA phone. CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access. It is the dominant network standard for North America.

Here are some links that explain both standards and the differences between them:

wiseGeek
What is a GSM Phone?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-gsm-phone.htm

wiseGeek
What is CDMA?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cdma.htm

wiseGeek
What is the Difference Between GSM and CDMA?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-...m-and-cdma.htm


Prepaid cell phones or “burn phones” utilize the same networks as contract phones. So, the brand and model of the cell and the service provider the device is working through determine which network the phone uses. Some prepaid cell phone companies offer access to both networks. Here are some examples:

"T-Mobile's To Go Phone also provides national coverage through their GSM network. Out of network calls are not permitted."

"Tracfone has been around for some time, and provides nationwide coverage primarily through their own network, but provides roaming through partnerships with 30 CDMA and GSM networks. Roaming is free on select GSM handsets. CDMA phones and other GSM handsets are charged double the minutes used."

"Net 10 is a sister network to Tracfone, and offers virtually the same network coverage and service plans. Free roaming is provided on both CDMA and GSM networks."

The-Cell-Phone-Advisor.com
A Comparison of Prepaid
Cell Phones and Service
http://www.the-cell-phone-advisor.co...ll-phones.html


Here is a link to an article on how a person might crack/hack GSM and CDMA phones. The article includes info on how someone might obtain a phone's PIN or get into a cell phone without needing the PIN:

IT World
How to hack cell phones better than News of
the World
By Kevin Forgarty
July 08, 2011
http://www.itworld.com/security/1813...ter-news-world

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Something just dawned on me about the calls made by the perp with Melissa's phone. Keeping the call under 3 minutes might not have been relevant. It would of not been enough for the perp to hang up or turn-off the phone at the 3 minute mark to keep from being tracked. LE could still turn it on and off remotely. The perp would have had to do one of three things to keep from being tracked: 1. If Melissa's phone was a CDMA phone, the perp would of had to remove the battery. 2. If Melissa's phone was a GMS phone, the perp would of had to remove the SIM card. 3. The perp could of simply put the phone, whether CDMA or GMS, in a Faraday bag.

Choice #3 would be the quickest, IMO.



**This post was originally posted by me in the Melissa Barthelemy thread on 2.19.12**

 

[Dwntwnslim]

LE did try to track the phone calls that the perp made from Melissa's phone to her sister.

The New York Times
Serial Killer in L.I. Case Is Seen as Versed in Police
Techniques
By William K. Rashbaum
Published: April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/ny...pagewanted=all

"One investigator said the brief duration of the calls thwarted efforts by the New York Police Department to use the signal to pinpoint the caller’s location and find him, something Lynn Barthelemy said they told her they tried to do four times."


**This post was originally posted by me in the Melissa Barthelemy thread on 2.19.12

 

[susan1122]

Nope. But, I have been thinking about getting my own sockpuppets because clearly my ability to influence is.........not very good. So sad.

You should go for the meat puppets, Slim. They may be more influential. ; ) kidding.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

You should go for the meat puppets, Slim. They may be more influential. ; ) kidding.

Yeah. All my posts in this thread should be titled "How Not to Win Friends and Not Influence People"!

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Maureen Brainard-Barnes disappeared on July 9, 2007.


New York Magazine
A Serial Killer in Common
By Robert Kolker
Published May 29, 2011
http://nymag.com/news/features/long-island-serial-killer-families-2011-6/

“The weekend she disappeared, Maureen had taken the train into the city with friends, but she left them once she got to Manhattan. Cann says her sister usually worked from a hotel room and never saw johns at their places. Maureen was adamant about working only in Manhattan and never said anything to Cann about working in Long Island. At one point that weekend, Maureen called a friend from the Port Authority and said she’d been robbed of all the money she’d earned. She needed a ride home, but the friend couldn’t come get her. After that call, no one heard from Maureen again. For three years, the NYPD had reported no trace of her—except, in 2008, for one cell-phone-signal ping off a Long Island tower, just a few miles from Gilgo Beach. “Someone was trying to access Maureen’s cell-phone voice-mail,” Cann says. When she saw the news about Gilgo Beach, Cann knew Maureen had to be one of the bodies.”

 

[Theforeigner]

Yeah. All my posts in this thread should be titled "How Not to Win Friends and Not Influence People"!

Dwntwnslim, I alway enjoy to read your posts and I find them VERY helpful and interesting, SO... Thanks you VERY much for all the great info you provide in this case, and please keep up the great work :great:

 

[Seaslug44]

Inspector's mention of altitude and the Empire State Building got me thinking about Times Square-

There are at least two levels of subways under times square plus all of those tall buildings. The perp most likely made his call from a one-person restroom in a building or from a dark corner of a subway stairwell.

Same for Port Authority but only worse. Call could have been made from an adjacent building or from within an idling bus or train or from any of the levels under ground or above. Triangulation does not determine altitude because it is only three dimensional.

So the perp was indeed extremely tech savvy to choose those locations.

 

[dc20015]

I don't believe I've ever heard Melissa's sister say anything about if she heard anything in the background during these calls. That would be interesting to know. Certainly, outside in the TS area, there would've been all kinds of voices, horns, etc.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Dwntwnslim, I alway enjoy to read your posts and I find them VERY helpful and interesting, SO... Thanks you VERY much for all the great info you provide in this case, and please keep up the great work :great:

Thank you for your kind words and you are very welcome!

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Inspector's mention of altitude and the Empire State Building got me thinking about Times Square-

There are at least two levels of subways under times square plus all of those tall buildings. The perp most likely made his call from a one-person restroom in a building or from a dark corner of a subway stairwell.

Same for Port Authority but only worse. Call could have been made from an adjacent building or from within an idling bus or train or from any of the levels under ground or above. Triangulation does not determine altitude because it is only three dimensional.

So the perp was indeed extremely tech savvy to choose those locations.

Dang! You brought up ideas I never thought to contemplate. If what you say is correct, the perp is "techier" than I thought.

Thanks for this info!

 

[Dwntwnslim]

I don't believe I've ever heard Melissa's sister say anything about if she heard anything in the background during these calls. That would be interesting to know. Certainly, outside in the TS area, there would've been all kinds of voices, horns, etc.

I do remember reading in the New York Magazine article, (the link is in the MSM links thread & I think somewhere in this thread) that LE asked the Barthelemys not to talk about the details of the phone calls in public due to the ongoing investigation. I too would be interested to know what background noise Melissa's sister might of heard during the phone calls. I wonder if it's even possible for her to remember details like background noise due to the stress?

 

[Theforeigner]

We know that the LISK choose (got a kick out of it) to make several calls to, at least one of the victims relatives, Melissa Barthelemy's little sister.
And the calls were made from Melissa's own cellphone in July-Aug 2009 .

But there are reports that the killer also called:

Melissas Barthelemy's boyfrind Johnny Terry.
According to JT the anonymous caller called him more than 30 times over a period of eight months beginning in the same timeperiod Mb's little sister recived calls, and that was in July-Aug 2009.
He said he reported the calls to the cops.


Megan Watermans mother: The caller pretending to be a police officer
from Long Island.

http://blog.scarboroughleader.com/2011/04/21/families-bonding--after-tragedy.aspx

Posted by Leader Editor at 4/21/2011 8:47 AM

Quote : Although the heartache of losing a loved one has proven difficult for Ela, she has faced yet another hurdle in recent weeks. An anonymous caller has left her several voicemails at work stating that he is a police officer from Long Island who wants to speak with her. Ela said the caller had an unusual tone and that police in Long Island have her proper contact information and would not call her at work. She said she was not able to identify the number because the person is calling from a private line. She said she contacted Long Island police about the issue, who told her to note the time and let her know when the caller dialed again. “It’s someone trying to scare me to keep my mouth shut, but I’m Megan’s voice, and I’m going to keep it out there whether they like it or not,” Ela said.


Now, the killer seems to possibly present another cellphone activity/trait ; to accsess victims voicemails.
(did he also do that to any of the victims relatives?):


“Someone was trying to access Maureen Brainard-Barnes’s and Melissa Barthelemy cell-phone voice-mails” after they disappeared, in Maureen's case probably after she was killed (she disappeared in July 2007, the call was in 2008, month and date not released) and concerning Melissa the call was made the same day she disappeared..

The other two victims Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello didn´t bring their cell phones when meeting the killer, so as far as we know, noone tried to access teir cell-phone voice-mails.

However, I would like to know if somone (the killer) DID try to access the voice-mails on the phones Megan and Amber left behind? Or in any other way hacked himself into their phones?

What I´m thinking here is; if this cellphone intruding activity is some kind of killers signature?

I also wonder if the killer tried to enter any of the victims relatives voicemales etc?


Maureen Brainard-Barnes

New York Magazine
A Serial Killer in Common
By Robert Kolker
Published May 29, 2011
http://nymag.com/news/features/long-...milies-2011-6/

“The weekend she disappeared, Maureen had taken the train into the city with friends, but she left them once she got to Manhattan. Cann says her sister usually worked from a hotel room and never saw johns at their places. Maureen was adamant about working only in Manhattan and never said anything to Cann about working in Long Island. At one point that weekend, Maureen called a friend from the Port Authority and said she’d been robbed of all the money she’d earned. She needed a ride home, but the friend couldn’t come get her. After that call, no one heard from Maureen again. For three years, the NYPD had reported no trace of her—except, in 2008, for one cell-phone-signal ping off a Long Island tower, just a few miles from Gilgo Beach. “Someone was trying to access Maureen’s cell-phone voice-mail,” Cann says. When she saw the news about Gilgo Beach, Cann knew Maureen had to be one of the bodies.”
Melissa Barthelemy

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...island-serial-killer-victims-secret-life.html


Investigators also discovered that a call made to Barthelemy's voicemail the day she vanished came from Massapequa, a Long Island town about 20 miles from where her body was later discovered.

Detectives and family members combed through her phone records......
Other numbers were traced to throwaway phones purchased in Manhattan. One of the phones was linked to the name Mickey Mouse.



SO, if anyone have any additional info on LI (or AC victims), and/or their relaives, where somone tried to or did access their voicemail, or in any other way found that their phones were hacked? Please let me know.

(If admin belive this deserve a thread of its own please feel free)

 

[Theforeigner]

FYI, and I don´t know what, if anything this might mean?
Just wanted to share it due to that, IF there is a connection between the LI and the Atlantic City case, this might have some significance?:

Atlantic City victim Kim Raffo´s x-husband, who had not been with his wife since ca 2000 (except for, according to the x-husband, 5-6 weeks from Sep 4-Oct 14 2006 in AC and LI) posted on LISK.com that he accessed Kim Raffo's missing cellphone's voicemail after she was found killed.

I asked him (on LISK.com forum) how he was able to do that since the phone was missing and it was after she was found dead, and he replyed that he had the passcode to Kim Raffos phone:
The x-husband: "yep i called her phone and it went to voice, i knew kims passcode! checked into it to see who was calling her"

The x-husband also stated that he called Kim Raffo´s phonenumber the same day (Nov 20, 2006) he was informed that she had been found dead (Nov 20, 2006), and that somone answered the phone but didn´t say anything.


The x-husband also stated on LISK.com:

quote:
"(I told) the police about my call that night and someone answering the phone, to track the signal for i knew it was still on (she had boost connect) and it was goin thru.to no avail for nothing was ever found"

Quote:
" nobody said anything on that call, just picked it up. and as i said it was boost with the quick connect thing that was goin thru, not that busy tone that happens when its offline...... ...and when i was notified of her murder my brother in law called me, her sis and mom was alerted by police. and the phone was never recovered"

Quote:
"i believe maybe he took trophies, like phones, jewelry and …shoes."

Quote:
"one thing that stands out to me is that kim did have someone in queens and LI that she knew. i told police about that too for one was on her voicemail after she was murdered. but the police never answered my questions only saying “were handeling this” obviously it was MISHANDELED… "

Quote:
"i called her phone and it went to voice, i knew kims passcode! checked into it to see who was calling her. and let the police know her code as well. so they can triangulate the phone, being it went thru when i first called(not the second time though) but then i tried the direct connect (boost, nextel, and sprint have this) and iIT went thru as well. meaning the phone was still active when i was in florida (TF note: Nov 20, 2006 I presume) trying to reach her…. simple really once you know whats really behind my words! to " nasty" (TF note: "nasty" isanother poster on LISK.com)…yes please report to only the FBI cause the police cant catch a cold! i seen that AC is corrupt and egg harbor all were waiting to retire!"

Quote:
"oh and btw i only said it sounded like that guy kim introduced me to, sounded like! old school NY accent!"

 

[snowstar]

This is an interview with Lynn Barthelemy and her attorney. The attorney talks about the killer and his knowledge of technology.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/long-island-killer-victims-mom-speaks-13346548

 

[Theforeigner]

This is an interview with Lynn Barthelemy and her attorney. The attorney talks about the killer and his knowledge of technology.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/long-island-killer-victims-mom-speaks-13346548

Thanks for the link, I haven't been able to re-view it (I did watch it some time ago) due to some internet connection problems I have today.

But I think that if Lynn Barthelemy's attorney belive that the killer has great knowledge of technology, I think we should listen to him and take his views seriously, because he knows a lot more about the killers calls than we do.

And Snowstar what happened to the next post you posted??? it's gone now?! It was a GREAT question you asked, when you asked somthing like this:

"How could the killer know where Megan Waterman's mother worked, if Megan didn´t bring her cellphone when she met the killer? because Megans mother has another lastname than Megan, megans mother's last name is Ela.

And I have a suggestion how the caller could/might have gained personal knowledge/info about Megans mother; I belive he might have befriended her on facebook? pretending to be a friend, and later change his voice when calling.

Megans mother said: " Ela said the caller had an unusual tone "

 

[Dwntwnslim]

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