The next day, on June 4, WorldCom's Internet division, UUnet, identified the user the evening of May 20 as MSN/maurytravis, Jimenez said. The question wasn't just who used 65.227.106.78, but who used it at the time in question. WorldCom assigns a temporary IP address to each customer for each Internet session. To translate the IP number, the FBI turned to WorldCom Inc., which provides local telephone numbers to connect Internet services to their dial-up customers. Just an address that is meaningless to most people: It was the Internet Protocol address of 65.227.106.78. The company said that on May 20, the computer had "zoomed in on the map of the West Alton, Missouri, area approximately 10 times in a chronological order to end with an exact match of the map" sent to the Post-Dispatch, Jimenez said in the affidavit.īut Microsoft could provide no name. On June 3, Microsoft reported back that only one computer had done it. So the FBI, using a subpoena, requested records of any maps of West Alton made between May 18, the date of the newspaper story that spurred the letter, and May 21, the postmark on the envelope. On May 30, Expedia told Jimenez that Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., provides the information for its map site. Detectives found an apparent match on, according to affidavit by FBI agent Melanie Jimenez. Accompanying the letter was a map of part of West Alton, marked with an "X" to show where a body could be found.Īfter finding a skeleton there, authorities focused on the map, which appeared to have a come from an Internet service. Travis' arrest June 7 was set in motion two weeks earlier, when a Post-Dispatch reporter received an anonymous letter praising a story profiling a slain prostitute. The stunning breakthrough in what had seemed a difficult case underscored why such information is a valuable resource for police - and sometimes a concern for civil libertarians. and other Internet companies keep on people who visit their Web sites and use their services. Instead, agents simply tapped into the wealth of information that Microsoft Corp.
When the FBI and police tracked down suspected serial killer Maury Troy Travis, they didn't need bloodhounds, lab tests, fingerprints or other standard tools of criminal investigations.
Update News updates for cases that have been posted recentlyĬontent such as images/videos may be submitted that are not safe for work. Suicide Those stories of people using social media to document their suicideĬlose Call Those that fell victim to people on the internet but somehow survived their ordeal Stories about those that have been the victim of a killer through social mediaĬrime Stories of those that have utilised social media to lure their victims and commit different kinds of crimeīlackmail Stories of those that have used the internet to blackmail others Victim Stories about those that have commited suicide due to cyber bullying.
Killer Those that have used the internet/media in order to lure their victim and commit murder Personal blogs/videos/photos of CriminalsĬontent such as images/videos may be submitted that is NSFW Stalkers/Murderers using social media/internet to lure or research about their victims
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