Introduction of Criminal Case Study on Digital Forensic

Alicia Kozakiewicz was a victim of kidnapping, internet luring and child abduction at the age of 13. The case received a lot of media attention. She was raped and abused and after three days of her kidnapping she found the authorities at Washington D.C in a bedroom, she was tied up but not seriously injured. The kidnapper was a computer programmer. The kidnapper trapped by his online status because he shared a photograph of Alicia tied up in the basement through Yahoo Messenger (Fuoco, 2002). 

Body of Criminal Case Study on Digital Forensic

Alicia was kidnapped by a man named Tyree at the age of 13. During the crime, he sent Alicia's picture to another man by using Yahoo's Instant Messenger. After some time via news that man realized that she was a missing girl so, he alerted the authorities. An investigation has begun and FBI obtained the IP address of Yahoo and by using that information they traced the physical location of criminal. At the first stage of the investigation authorities started to gather the initial pieces of evidence. This process contains the recovery of picture and evidence of that particular scene. They attained the arrest warrant and sent the picture in the forensic center for transportation. The evidence examined in the laboratory with the help of modern investigating tools such as two bit-stream copies and MD5 checksum for images to make it sue that if this evidence were actually original or it was a trap. The reports proved these were original photos.

After proven the originality of photos, authorities tried to take access on IP address of the sender. His Yahoo screen name was “master fourteen slave girls”. The FBI team obtained the IP address that used that screen name to find out the physical address of that person. The FBI team contacted the Yahoo to attain the address from where the picture was sent. Then further they contacted about the version of that messenger and where it was installed. They detached the version subscriber and where the IP address was allocated. Through IP address of that particular ID they traced the physical location of Scott Tree and after four days of kidnapping, the FBI team found the Alicia from a bedroom of Washington tied with ropes but not so injured. Digital forensic played a very important and vital role in the kidnapping case of Alicia (GARFINKEL, 2013).      

Conclusion for Criminal Case Study on Digital Forensic

 The case resolved by the effectiveness of digital forensics. Without it, no one could find out the Alicia In such a short time. With the help of computer forensic FBI team traced the IP address of the picture sender and that through this IP address they traced out the location of criminal and found the Alicia in a very short time period. In this case, digital evidence provided a link between victim and crime. Digital evidence provided the base to digital forensics.   

References for Criminal Case Study on Digital Forensic

Fuoco, M. A. (2002, January 5). Missing teen found safe but tied up in Virginia townhouse. Retrieved from post-gazette.com: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20020105missingp1.asp

GARFINKEL, S. L. (2013). Digital Forensics (Modern crime often leaves an electronic trail. Finding and preserving that evidence requires careful methods as well as technical skill.). American Scientists.