Joshua Coon
Christian. Student. Photographer.
4/28/2017 4 Comments [13] Fitbit used to solve murderOn December 23rd, 2015, two days before Christmas, in the small and quaint town of Ellington, Connecticut, Connie Dabate was murdered in her own home. She was shot twice, once in the back and once in the head. The murderer, reported to be “a ‘tall, obese man’ with a deep voice like actor Vin Diesel’s and wearing ‘camouflage and a mask,’” [1] could not be located by police. Why? Because this large, mask wearing man did not exist. Connie, a mother of two, was in fact, murdered by her husband, Richard Dabate. Mr. Dabate claimed that he watched this tall and obese man shoot his wife after having fought and then subsequently been tied up by the alleged perpetrator. After the purported home invader had left the scene, police arrived to find Mr. Dabate “with an arm and leg bound by zip ties to a chair in the kitchen at the crime scene.” The weapon that he said the large man used to kill his wife was Mr. Dabate’s own .357 handgun that he acquired two months prior. Mr. Dabate showed “superficial knife wounds” and claimed of a struggle between him and the man, which according to investigators, the “physical evidence showed no sign of the struggle described by Mr Dabate.” Lastly, a highly trained police dog indicated no scent of an intruder. To top this all off, Mr. Dabate “was in a relationship with another woman, who was expecting his baby.” Arguably, Richard Dabate is a perfect example of a horrible human being. Although incredibly tragic and disheartening, all of these thrilling details are not the reason why this case is making national news. Rather, it is the fact that the most substantial piece of evidence was not the aforementioned evidence. Instead, it was Mrs. Dabate’s Fitbit that broke the case. Once the Fitbit’s data was collected and analyzed, in showed “that she had walked 1,217 feet around the house during the time her husband said they were being attacked.” [2] Additionally, “the Fitbit showed her last living movement was at 10:05 a.m.,” which was over an hour past when Mr. Dabate claimed the ‘intruder’ shot and killed his wife. Currently, as of today (April 28th), Richard Dabate is currently under trial for the charge of “murder, tampering with evidence, and providing false statements,” and he will most assuredly, with the evidence at hand, will be found guilty. Without the data received from the Fitbit, the case might have grown cold. Although Mr. Dabates alibi was faulty at minimum, with his money and resources, there would of been a high likelihood of him walking free. The collection of the personal and sensitive data that’s stored on a device such as a Fitbit in a trail like this sheds some light on how we might use such data in future crimes. Our data can point to the most sensitive details about our lives, yet in this instance, was likely the decisive evidence for justice.
4 Comments
Anita Garcia
5/3/2017 10:08:24 pm
This is really awesome, but also suggests that anything can be deduced by the data collected by one's fitbit. I suppose it's up to the person who is choosing to wear to technology to wear it. In any case, cases like this, to me, make me lean on the side of having this sort of data accessible to the authorities.
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Mariel Calande
5/13/2017 02:47:57 pm
I think it's incredible that the fitbit could be used to solve cases such as these. I wonder if the type of people who wear fitbits are aware that they can be used as an alibi of sorts. I feel that it's vital that suspects with fitbits have that data looked at by police, especially in these cases, where the story of a suspect seems suspicious.
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Darren Chan
5/13/2017 10:51:47 pm
This is very interesting. I have never owned a fitbit but I have worn one a couple of times, and that is surprising to me that it could solve cases. It is good to learn hidden things that you wouldn't expect in the first place. You learn something everyday
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Noemi Cuin
5/15/2017 12:43:12 am
Hello Josh,
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