Your posts have been saying this for months now, Scooby. And yet here we are.
I have no idea why it is thought that the police will not be able to link PS to Sam's phone. Obviously in the police claiming that PS murdered Sam in a deliberate attack at Mount Clear, PS was in the same vicinity as Sam's phone.
About 8am – Murphy is believed to have reached the Mount Clear area by foot, according to mobile phone data later obtained by police. Link
Police allege Murphy was murdered on the day she disappeared, in the Mount Clear area – where mobile phone data allegedly led police to return to the area previously searched. Link
'We will be alleging that murder occurred at Mount Clear on the day she disappeared,' Mr Patton said. Link
Here we are, waiting, hopefully a trial ?
I wouldn't be getting hung up on the "volume" of evidence.
Convictions are based on the quality of evidence, not quantity.
Hours and hours of CCTV footage from multiple cameras, pages and pages of phone pings do not prove anything unless they can be indisputably linked to the prosecution's theory or account of events.
But on the other hand, a single frame captured or a couple of isolated phone pings may on their own be enough to prove guilt.
But the defence needs to show it is possible that someone else could have been there. They need to also prove beyond reasonable doubt that nobody else was there. How can they do they prove that ? Just because no other phone pinged? Maybe the other person didn't carry a phone.
It is reasonable to posit that another person was also there at around the same time who has not been identified, and the accused was just a passer-by with his phone on.
We don't know if the circumstantial evidence of phone pings / GPS data etc..will be enough to prove a connection between the two parties, enough to suggest a motive?
Yes, if the data proved that Samantha and the accused were in the same place at the same time on multiple occasions leading up to her alleged murder.
For e.g. the accused shown to have witnessed more of Samantha's runs in the forest, and be shown to be stalking her Or, can they both be placed in another location where they might have had some sort of disagreement or altercation?
If Samantha's body was deliberately moved and hidden, then it seems likely her phone would have been turned off or destroyed at Mt Clear.
But It did not keep pinging, or it would have revealed the path taken by the accused with her body, at least initially.
The accused though is aware enough of the situation to do this, yet he allowed one final ping from another location hours later.
If he is found guilty of murder without a body
It means the other evidence which we aren't aware of
would need to be absolutely irrefutable and compelling.
Otherwise, the defence could immediately appeal to have the decision set aside with grounds that no reasonable person could convict beyond reasonable doubt.
