Missing cell phones

[powayparent]

How could they have tried to get the phones to do that if the phones were missing? Did I miss something...

I believe the story is that when they went to call 911 - presumably went to the counter where they phones were left - they discovered the phones were not there.

 

[Kamille]

How could they have tried to get the phones to do that if the phones were missing? Did I miss something...

They claimed that they reached for the phones to call 911 and that's when they noticed them missing.

 

[sarx]

They claimed that they reached for the phones to call 911 and that's when they noticed them missing.

Gonna ask again, cuz I haven't found it yet.... If they reached for the phones to call 911, noticed they were missing, what phone did they use to call 911?

 

[IrishMist]

Gonna ask again, cuz I haven't found it yet.... If they reached for the phones to call 911, noticed they were missing, what phone did they use to call 911?

Jeremy's work cell phone that was in his pocket. Some people find that to be hinky, but I've looked all over heck and gone and ended up finding my phone in my pocket. :crazy:

 

[LCoastMom]

I believe the story is that when they went to call 911 - presumably went to the counter where they phones were left - they discovered the phones were not there.

I remember reading this counter is where the cell phones were normally 'left' or 'kept', any mention of the chargers? Any mention of D or JI attempting to call the cell phones when they discovered Lisa and the phones missing?

 

[Shutterfly]

Phones were supposedly on the counter...
Phones were supposedly being reprogrammed.....
Person at the home was drunk.....
Maybe person programming the phones got a little angry, alcohol does limit one's inhibitions....

Does anyone know if the Irwin house has a garbage disposal???

 

[bessie]

I think I put a piece of the puzzle together by researching how pings work:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/cellping.asp

Debbie probably has a MODERN cell phone, that has current location technology equipped into the phone.

This is probably why she got the old school cell phone from her Grandpa on Sunday night - in preparation for the excavations she would be taking the following day. She switched to that phone so that she would not be detected by her modern cell phone giving away her location.

MOO.

from the link in your post, bbm:

"the "Location On" setting does not turn one's handset into a beacon that is traceable whenever the handset is turned on..."

"...enabling the "Location On" only allows authorized applications other than 911 (like Verizon's Navigator and Family Locator systems) to determine a handset's location."
http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/cellping.asp

 

[PlainJaneDoe]

Jeremy's work cell phone that was in his pocket. Some people find that to be hinky, but I've looked all over heck and gone and ended up finding my phone in my pocket. :crazy:

Same here. It's not where I think I left it, I get flustered or panicky, and overlook the obvious.

 

[powayparent]

I remember reading this counter is where the cell phones were normally 'left' or 'kept', any mention of the chargers? Any mention of D or JI attempting to call the cell phones when they discovered Lisa and the phones missing?

There is a quote in one of the interview threads that DB and JI said they did not call the "missing" phones.

 

[Kamille]

from the link in your post, bbm:

"the "Location On" setting does not turn one's handset into a beacon that is traceable whenever the handset is turned on..."

"...enabling the "Location On" only allows authorized applications other than 911 (like Verizon's Navigator and Family Locator systems) to determine a handset's location."
http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/cellping.asp

The IPhone has a compass in the utilities. If the location is on for the compass it will read the co-ordinates wherever the phone is. It's not a downloadable app...it is on the phone when purchased. Not sure if it can be traced through the phone company however.

And it's true that other location services only really work when you are using the internet, camera, or other locator type apps that you may have downloaded.

I tried this with my phone. The compass co-ordinates are very close to my home. They actually show up in one of my neighbour's yard when looking them up on the internet. So perhaps that's why they are searching where they are? If they did get co-ordinates from the phone, they are not exact but probably within a few hundred yards?

Now if they were only able to ping the phone, then that would open up a larger search area I would think. Whatever the radius of the tower it was pinging I suppose.

 

[keeponsearching]

My husband has a work cell, but whenever he goes to make a call he grabs my cell. I think in there mind they don't remember it being on them. Of course I misplace my phone somewhere in my kitchen, thankgoodness for clutter, not.

 

[Abby Normal]

I looked up pinging to see if they would ping on restricted service. It seems impossible to know without knowing their phone and provider.

However, snopes says it only tells them what tower you ping to- IOW if they had stayed around the house, which is where LE is searching, it should all show up to the same tower. If they had pings beyond the closest tower, they would be looking further IMO.

 

[Abby Normal]

I wonder if finding the phones would allow them to access the GPS history? Everything I read says that unless you send information (a picture for example) the gps locations are not "submitted" wirelessly. GPS being an internal function. Only pings, which only tell what tower you accessed.

 

[LCoastMom]

There is a quote in one of the interview threads that DB and JI said they did not call the "missing" phones.

Thank you poway. Interesting, I think the first thing I would have done after finding both my child and phone missing would have been to call the missing phone (after calling 911). I would be thinking they must be together and maybe the lunatic that has my baby is waiting for my call to give a ransom demand or something...IDK.

 

[Kamille]

I wonder if finding the phones would allow them to access the GPS history? Everything I read says that unless you send information (a picture for example) the gps locations are not "submitted" wirelessly. GPS being an internal function. Only pings, which only tell what tower you accessed.

Here is a good article regarding GPS tracking and cell phones

http://www.travelbygps.com/articles/tracking.php

I do believe that Blackberry phones have a GPS tracking feature that can be turned on and can be traced by the service provider.

I also read an interesting article quite a while ago about how your service provider can turn on your phone remotely. This is only used when a request is made by LE in cases of missing persons when the phone may be off and needs to be on to ping. It can be done.

So even if the phone were turned off, LE can get the service provider to turn them on and start pinging them as long as there is battery life.

MOO

 

[Apostate]

The cell phones are the key for me that tells me who knows what happened. A kidnapper would have no use for them and depriving the parents of them would not form any part of a logical plan - the alert could easily be raised in other ways. They've disappeared to destroy evidence.

 

[Snowball58]

Question:

If one of the phones were a smartphone, and on restricted status, would the family still be able to do any wifi web browsing on the phone? And if so, would that activity be available via the carrier, or would that history only be contained on the device itself?

 

[jjenny]

Question:

If one of the phones were a smartphone, and on restricted status, would the family still be able to do any wifi web browsing on the phone? And if so, would that activity be available via the carrier, or would that history only be contained on the device itself?

Don't know about the phone, but I believe DB also had a computer.

 

[Snowball58]

Right, so she may have had a wireless wifi connection via her computer. I assume if she was conducting any unsavory searches that evening, that she wouldn't have done it from the home computer since odds are LE would search the computer.

I wonder if it was possible that she did some web searches on one of the phones, related to whatever happened that night, and that's why she got rid of the phones and why LE is so adamant about finding them. What could be contained on the phone that they can't access via the carrier?

Web searches, maybe texts (if those were even allowable in the phones' restricted status)...what else?

 

[Snowball58]

Another thought. As I recall, DB said their phones wouldn't make outgoing calls and were in restricted status, but because one phone died, she had borrowed another phone from a relative. Is it possible that this phone was not on their cell plan, but still on the plan of whomever she borrowed it from, therefore working and active? And that this is the phone that registered some activity at 2:30am?

It's difficult for me to believe that a mom responsible for 3 children, including an infant, would be without a working phone for outgoing calls.