Still Missing UK - Bernadette Walker, 17, left parent's car, Peterborough, 21 July 2020 *Arrests* #3

[Sooty]

As I’ve said before I am useless with phone tech.

I don’t think you need a SIM card in a smart phone to connect via WiFi though. I think you can send messages (email/iMessage/ messenger/ Instagram messages) via WiFi. Can anyone confirm?

I do think that for the handset to connect to 4g or 3G you need a SIM card, although maybe it would work via a hotspot? ?

 

[CSIAngus]

As I’ve said before I am useless with phone tech.

I don’t think you need a SIM card in a smart phone to connect via WiFi though. I think you can send messages (email/iMessage/ messenger/ Instagram messages) via WiFi. Can anyone confirm?

I do think that for the handset to connect to 4g or 3G you need a SIM card, although maybe it would work via a hotspot? ?

You can use wifi with an iphone with no sim. That's what my children do. The question though is whether the sim card is connecting and disconnecting rather than BW's iphone, i.e. from the mobile phone mast data, could LE determine which device the sim card was in - BW's iphone or an old iphone in ScW's possession?

 

[Ruthbullock]

As I’ve said before I am useless with phone tech.

I don’t think you need a SIM card in a smart phone to connect via WiFi though. I think you can send messages (email/iMessage/ messenger/ Instagram messages) via WiFi. Can anyone confirm?

I do think that for the handset to connect to 4g or 3G you need a SIM card, although maybe it would work via a hotspot? ?

You absolutely can use an iPhone without a sim to send iMessages (like a text to another iPhone) and all other messenger services also work equally well on WiFi. iPhones can also do calls without a sim if on a WiFi network.

 

[Becky53]

Don’t know if this helps but After googling “Can a phone be tracked by IMEI?”

The basic information that an IMEI number holds is all about the device. ... The primary reason that IMEI numbers are important is their ability to help track down and secure lost or stolen phones. With every connection your phone makes, your IMEI number is shared with the provider.

How do police track IMEI numbers? Every phone has a specific 15-digit number known as the IMEI(International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. This number can be used by the police to locate your lost or misplaced cell phone.

Edited to add further information

 

[Ruthbullock]

What still baffles me about this case is why did she not run away (if she had run away before), or at least go and stay with a friend. The whole tight timeline of disclosure to mum, sent to grandparents, disappears the next day doesn’t sit right. I find it very hard to decide what actually happened and what is pure fantasy by the parents. Knowing the pastoral care available at colleges, it seems odd that she tells her friend and her friend advised her to tell her mum and not speak to the support team at college first. It just baffles me- every comment or declaration made so far I feel I need to take with a pinch of salt- I have no idea at which point the parents storytelling began (but I’m certain it was before the night she apparently spoke to her mum about it).

 

[Skigh]

What still baffles me about this case is why did she not run away (if she had run away before), or at least go and stay with a friend. The whole tight timeline of disclosure to mum, sent to grandparents, disappears the next day doesn’t sit right. I find it very hard to decide what actually happened and what is pure fantasy by the parents. Knowing the pastoral care available at colleges, it seems odd that she tells her friend and her friend advised her to tell her mum and not speak to the support team at college first. It just baffles me- every comment or declaration made so far I feel I need to take with a pinch of salt- I have no idea at which point the parents storytelling began (but I’m certain it was before the night she apparently spoke to her mum about it).

It was the holidays so college would have finished for the summer.Perhaps she did not want to go away as she was worried about a sibling. I agree it is really difficult to work out what really happened. I certainly do not think the story we have heard so far is the truth.

 

[Ayashley]

What still baffles me about this case is why did she not run away (if she had run away before), or at least go and stay with a friend. The whole tight timeline of disclosure to mum, sent to grandparents, disappears the next day doesn’t sit right. I find it very hard to decide what actually happened and what is pure fantasy by the parents. Knowing the pastoral care available at colleges, it seems odd that she tells her friend and her friend advised her to tell her mum and not speak to the support team at college first. It just baffles me- every comment or declaration made so far I feel I need to take with a pinch of salt- I have no idea at which point the parents storytelling began (but I’m certain it was before the night she apparently spoke to her mum about it).

Iirc it was a friend from a different country. We don't have that same stuff in the US so maybe they didn't know about that stuff. Also, iirc it was another teenager who suggested that, they don't always give the best advice bc sometimes they just don't know better. I feel bad for the poor kid, they probably will carry this with them their whole life.

What's weird is July 15th B posted a SS on Instagram of a Convo between her and her Mom and her Mom said "I'm probably just gonna be a lesbian." And B goes "same Mom, same". It sounds like Sarah's love life wasn't going so smooth.

 

[CSIAngus]

Don’t know if this helps but After googling “Can a phone be tracked by IMEI?”

The basic information that an IMEI number holds is all about the device. ... The primary reason that IMEI numbers are important is their ability to help track down and secure lost or stolen phones. With every connection your phone makes, your IMEI number is shared with the provider.

How do police track IMEI numbers? Every phone has a specific 15-digit number known as the IMEI(International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. This number can be used by the police to locate your lost or misplaced cell phone.

Edited to add further information

So, to be identified as BW's phone connecting and disconnecting, it would need to be transmiting the code (IMEI) via BW's sim card. I would have thought this was sufficiently important to be explained in court: it couldn't be BW's phone with a new sim and it couldn' have been BW's sim in another phone, it had to be BW's actual device.

 

[Ruthbullock]

So, to be identified as BW's phone connecting and disconnecting, it would need to be transmiting the code (IMEI) via BW's sim card. I would have thought this was sufficiently important to be explained in court: it couldn't be BW's phone with a new sim and it couldn' have been BW's sim in another phone, it had to be BW's actual device.

It doesn’t need a SIM card, just WiFi, or differing SIM cards. The IMEI is the phones I’d number so you can track and find a stolen phone or literally stop it ever working again if it has been stolen and you don’t know where it is. But yes you are correct that it has to be her phone!

 

[Skigh]

Iirc it was a friend from a different country. We don't have that same stuff in the US so maybe they didn't know about that stuff. Also, iirc it was another teenager who suggested that, they don't always give the best advice bc sometimes they just don't know better. I feel bad for the poor kid, they probably will carry this with them their whole life.

What's weird is July 15th B posted a SS on Instagram of a Convo between her and her Mom and her Mom said "I'm probably just gonna be a lesbian." And B goes "same Mom, same". It sounds like Sarah's love life wasn't going so smooth.

I think it was discovered some time ago that the Instagram post about mum going to be a lesbian was a joke which was doing the rounds on Instagram and several people had seen others posting the same comment and replies they received.

 

[Ayashley]

I think it was discovered some time ago that the Instagram post about mum going to be a lesbian was a joke which was doing the rounds on Instagram and several people had seen others posting the same comment and replies they received.

I thought that was the "tell the cops I was with you" Screenshot?

 

[Beckxsy]

The Police have two methods for tracking your phone when it’s stolen, they can use your phone number or your IMEI number. The problem with your phone number is that thieves can easily just discard your SIM card and replace it another. Because the IMEI number is registered to your specific handset the Police will be able to track the device itself, even if the SIM card has been changed.

 

[Joey100]

It was the holidays so college would have finished for the summer.Perhaps she did not want to go away as she was worried about a sibling. I agree it is really difficult to work out what really happened. I certainly do not think the story we have heard so far is the truth.

Also I think the colleges were closed due to covid before the summer holidays. It may well have been because of covid that she told SW about the abuse, because she would have been stuck in the house with SCW due to lock down. MOO

 

[Sooty]

Trying to educate myself with your help

so the IMEI can be transmitted via the gps chip if there isn’t a Sim or no data credit ?

 

[Mammaalli]

I wonder how SaW boyfriend feels about SW fb profile still being him and SaW. Surely he can't be comfortable with it.

 

[Mandalas]

To be completely honest, I cannot keep up with the movements, texts, phone locations and overall timeline, I find it all impossibly confusing, so I just go to my 'blissfully ignorant' place in my head and wait for the posts and reports that help to bring clarity (one hopes).

In the meantime, I have discovered ScW and SaWs profiles on LinkedIn. These guys were SERIOUS social media users, creating content multiple times a day. Interestingly on LI, he presented himself as a Telegraph tipster (horseracing), and she a cake baker...

He gave pretty consistent regular updates about horseracing over a long period of time. His latest post was of him and their new baby... There is also a random, out of context (and very creepy) 'Happy Halloween' selfie in the style of Pennywise a few posts prior. What is it with this couple and their obsession with the 'horrific' and dressing up? I get that it's a hobby and pastime for some, but they seemed to take it very, very seriously and I find some of their posts across all their social media more sinister than spooky....

MOO

 

[Mercsw]

It was the holidays so college would have finished for the summer.Perhaps she did not want to go away as she was worried about a sibling. I agree it is really difficult to work out what really happened. I certainly do not think the story we have heard so far is the truth.

we were in lockdown and colleges had been shut since March. So it was months since she was in college I’m afraid

 

[Mammaalli]

To be completely honest, I cannot keep up with the movements, texts, phone locations and overall timeline, I find it all impossibly confusing, so I just go to my 'blissfully ignorant' place in my head and wait for the posts and reports that help to bring clarity (one hopes).

In the meantime, I have discovered ScW and SaWs profiles on LinkedIn. These guys were SERIOUS social media users, creating content multiple times a day. Interestingly on LI, he presented himself as a Telegraph tipster (horseracing), and she a cake baker...

He gave pretty consistent regular updates about horseracing over a long period of time. His latest post was of him and their new baby... There is also a random, out of context (and very creepy) 'Happy Halloween' selfie in the style of Pennywise a few posts prior. What is it with this couple and their obsession with the 'horrific' and dressing up? I get that it's a hobby and pastime for some, but they seemed to take it very, very seriously and I find some of their posts across all their social media more sinister than spooky....

MOO

My daughter got his Instagram up to show me the tic tok where he is in the wheelchair, kind of strapped up and being freaky. Flipping frightened me lol.

 

[Mammaalli]

Oh and I'm also not allowing my brain to even attempt to figure the phone stuff out, I'm confused enough as it is haha.

 

[Beckxsy]

So the sim card and top up was used on Bw phone. New simcard needs credit. Perhaps trying to imply bernadette obtained new phone, new phone number saying I'm ok mom. Dad has my phone. I'll be home soon.
Little did scw and saw was aware it was tracked by the imei number so efforts with new sim was to create a false trail im still alive etc FAILED