If You're Going To Kill Your Spouse, You Probably Shouldn't Google 'How To Commit Murder'
from the just-a-suggestion dept
Back in 2005, we noted that your Google searches can be used against you in a court of law, after a man who searched on Google for "neck snap break" just before his wife was murdered, saw that evidence presented at his trial. The latest is that a woman is accused of searching for a variety of incriminating phrases days before her husband was murdered. Among the searches were "How to Commit Murder," "instant poisons," "undetectable poisons," and "fatal digoxin doses." She also researched various gun laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A week and a half later, her husband was murdered using a gun bought in Pennsylvania (and soon after the woman had obtained a prescription for a well-known "date rape" drug). Whether or not the woman is actually guilty, it is a reminder that your Google searches can (and probably will) be used against you, if you happen to research your crimes that way.
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by Alex on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 7:44am
Yeah, so use a proxy!
... I mean, don't kill people!
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by sammy on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 7:52am
how do they know it is you who is searching. Especially if you have dynamic ip address?
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Re: by Bill Gates on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:05am
Bill gates knows ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: by mit on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:13am
could it have been on her search history?
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Re: Re: by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:19am
could it have been on her search history?
Well then, maybe she should sue Microsoft for not clearing her history when she closed her browser?
er.. um...
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by Doc on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:26am
Even reading this article could be incriminating!
Do the crime, do the time.
Uh.. divorce is messy, but at least you don't have a cell-mate who'll think of you as his new girlfriend. Murder is SOO stupid. Use some imagination!
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this article by g'diz on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:28am
I am asking the same question as you Mit, did they confiscate her computer and see the search results save in the form history? Or did google and/or the ISP provide the court with this evidence????? Article does not state this...
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LOL by Cixelsid on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:31am
Freedom of Information!
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id be more worried about.. by Int on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:31am
some of your searches 'flagging you' for an investigation
then them starting trouble with you
like i look up a ton of weird shit all the time cause i like to investigate .. news
like the other day i was looking up '3000 children missing from florida CPS' cause apparently florida CPS literally lost 3000 kids, and half of them turned up in other countries, some turned up dead, with no heads, or being used as sex slaves in saudi arabia... nice work CPS..
i was also following info about pedophiles in the CPS... i mean these searches could flag me and get me investigated without any real probable cause..
just for trying to be informed you end up with people spying on you..
any information that can be collected can and will be abused as well...
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by Lar on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:41am
".. news like the other day i was looking up '3000 children missing from florida CPS' cause apparently florida CPS literally lost 3000 kids, and half of them turned up in other countries, some turned up dead, with no heads, or being used as sex slaves in saudi arabia... nice work CPS.."
This comment really has nothing to do with the original post - is sounds more like a vendetta against CPS than a comment pertaining to the main subject. By the way, I did a Google search using that exact phrase and got no hits.
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Re: this article by Dam on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:50am
In any criminal investigation, searching a victim's computer is now standard. If you're signed into Google, your search history is captured and can be viewed at any time. You can turn off the search history, but it's on by default and I'll bet most people don't know it can be turned off.
Your search also stays in your browser, unless you've cleared your history, again, something average users won't or don't know how to do.
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Re: this article by rtfa on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:51am
i believe these phrases (included inthe article) should answer your questions:
"At exactly 5:45:34 on April 18, 2004 a computer taken from the office of the attorney of Melanie McGuire, did a search on the words "How To Commit Murder."
and
"Jennifer Seymour, who worked for the State Police digital technology unit, testified thismorning how she examined the digital contents of computers and hand held devices obtained as part of the investigation"
and
"She testified that she isolated data that was accessed in the weeks leading up to the murder, by inserting the keyword "search," which showed activity by Google and MSN search engines, with the searches center-ing on poisons and gun laws."
and a few more references to the computers which were confiscated and had the search histories pulled from them.
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Serves Her Right... by TheDock22 on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:53am
I think this is great evidence against her. The Internet is a vast tool for information, but come on...searching for the perfect murder strategy is bit much.
Just watch CourtTV for a few days, no one can trace that back to you and it's a wealth of forensic evidence.
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Google keeps up with your searches. by Charles The Tech on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:54am
If you are logged in to google for your customized homepage, by default google keeps up with your searches, I found this out about a month ago when I went "hrm I wonder what that "Search history" link is."
Found out I had searches saved from 2005.
Made for a good laugh but I quickly turned that off.
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FireFox2 by |333173|3|_||3 on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:01am
Those with the sense to use FF2 would realise that (at least for the en-GB version), it comes with "prompt to clear private data" or words to that efect checked in the privacy tab of the options panel. If you are searching for how to commit murder, then logging in to google is not smart either.
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Re: Serves Her Right... by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:05am
So then she Tivo's CSI and CourtTV's murder episodes and has them saved....
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Re: Re: Serves Her Right... by TheDock22 on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:08am
I think that could somehow come back to haunt her...
If she really wanted to learn how to do it, she needed to be commited (no pun intended).
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I didn't get something by Ale on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:41am
How did they get to know what the woman searched?
Did they search her personal computer? Or Google gave the court the search results?
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Re: by Al_D on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:43am
If you have a google account and are signed in EVERY search is recorded. Clich the "Search History" link your google search pare (after you sign into your account). Every search that we done while you were signed in is recorded and saved forever!
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Re: I didn't get something by dorpass on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:55am
How did they get to know what the woman searched?
Did they search her personal computer? Or Google gave the court the search results?
I don't get something, do people even read the links before posting dumb questions? Way to go Ale.
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Re: Re: by ehrichweiss on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 9:57am
"Every search that we done while you were signed in is recorded and saved forever!"
Not "forever" just until you tell Google to clear them and not to ever save them.
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by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:04am
It's called an internet caffe...duh!
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by Bob on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:07am
Anyone doing a search for "how to commit murder" should be thrown in jail for life anyway. Nobody does a search for that unless they are contemplating doing it which is the crime of conspiracy to commit murder.
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xD nub by Ongman on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:16am
You can delete your saved form information and use a proxy so people can't find these things, she a murderous nub.
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Re: by Anonymous of Course on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:20am
What if I'm researching it for the mystery novel
I'm about to write?
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Search smarter by dallas on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:25am
She should have searched for "how to commit murder AND get away with it."
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Re: Re: by Pinky on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:27am
Take very good care of your spouse until after the novel is published???? Basically, don't kill anybody, and it's not a problem.
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Re: Re: Re: by TheDock22 on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:34am
I didn't even know this feature existed, but I went to my search history and nothing was there.
I like when things work out like that.
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by Ak on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:42am
Not if you google " How to erase my google searches "
lol :p
gotta love google
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dynamic IP by Marko on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:50am
Is traceable and can be corrolated to an assigned computer for a particular duration.
In addition most ISPs who use DHCP use PPoE (Point-to Point of Ethernet) which can require you to "log in" before you are assigned the IP address. if you don't think your ISP keeps track of this your kidding yourself. It is used to troubleshoot network issues should you call in for customer support.
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Re: by Ima Pseudonym on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 10:53am
Yesterday I did a search for "hot wookie sex" just to see what I would get. By your logic that makes me a heinous wookiephile.
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by a on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 11:11am
There is nothing wrong with searching, but if there is a wave of wookie rape, maybe you would be a good suspect.
Should the government be looking at people that might need to be looked at? I sure think so. Think maybe someone should talk to your next door neighbor if he is searching and downloading information on how to build bombs? Do you think maybe someone should?
As for writing a book, unless its a really bad book, there is nothing illegal about your activities. Whats your problem?
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What about privacy? by Emilio on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 11:20am
She is not the brightest in town, thats for sure, since I would have done my search in public computer, or through a proxy, or whatever, but the problem is that this leads to privacy issues related with your web searches.
Check this out:
http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~thedude/bbs/index.html
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by WhatThe!?! on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 11:52am
Yeah, definitely pretty stupid considering the old Google
cache...all designed to "make your searches better" my a$$!
Google's privacy policy is the worse in the industry and it all stems from popularity. Now where do I google "how to kill Google"?
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An item by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 11:56am
She obviously forgot to search:
How to get away with murder
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Re: Re: this article by pilotmickey on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 12:15pm
Even if you clear the history cache, good computer forensic analysts can still retrieve the information. It doesn't clear it from your hard drive....IT CAN BE RETRIEVED....unless you use some special software that totally wipes the drive
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Nothing is tracked by IP anymore by The Bill on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 12:15pm
In todays world with pretty much everyone using DHCP no one tracks anything anymore that way everyone has started tracking people by MAC address because it is unique to each computer and can not be changed when a normal user is using it. Also most ISP's keep track of most of the data that goes through them for 2 to 4 days.
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Re: by Lulu on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 12:32pm
Anyone doing a search for "how to commit murder" should be thrown in jail for life anyway. Nobody does a search for that unless they are contemplating doing it which is the crime of conspiracy to commit murder.
Sure, Einstein. I'm writing a novel and have had reasons to look up many strange search terms over the past year.
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Re: Nothing is tracked by IP anymore by gmojo on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 12:44pm
I agree they are tracking MAC addresses but dont kid yourself. IP addresses, MAC addresses, date, time, what was searched you name it is logged somewhere. I dont no where you got your info on 2 to 4 days but I would have to say they can pull up searches from last year if they want.
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At least there aren't that many of them by Petréa Mitchell on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 12:47pm
A few years ago, I discovered I was getting a few hits a month on my Harry Potter reference pages from people searching on "undetectable poisons". I imagined that the small percentage of total searches where the searcher was digging down to the third or fourth page of results and clicking on everything.
Then I checked on Google and discovered it returned pages from my site at #1, #3, and #4. (IIRC, #2 was an essay on how there are no undetectable poisons.)
They were eventually knocked off the first page of results by all the news coverage of the UK ricin scare.
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Re: by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 2:34pm
Because even dynamic IPs are logged at the ISP.
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Re: by Stephen Paulger on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 3:24pm
> which is the crime of conspiracy to commit murder.
Conspiring with who?.. Google?
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Re: Re: by Mike on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 3:48pm
...and lets not even mention the writers who use the net for research...
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by sinergy on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 5:28pm
th8ink about it. they just sieze your computer and see what is in your history. What you download, if your music in winamp is all in an album called Downloaded Music. Sh*t.... Better do a low level format on my machine right away..
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by Anonymous Coward on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 5:45pm
cookies
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how to clear yourself by DB on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 5:53pm
After you search "How to commit murder" follow up with
"It wasn't me, I swear" and
"it was someone else. I didn't do it."
and
"it was my neighbour. or someone else on my street."
and
"Check their search histories."
and
"You'll find something, I'm sure."
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The Right Way to Commit Murder by how.to.commit.murder on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 6:04pm
Oops my name is how.to.commit.murder that must make me a murderer.....it's unfortunate that we have people that exist with pathetic logic like some of the commenter's that could be allowed to be on juries...
Everyone's guilty lets not bother to explore other scenarios that may prove a person's innocence.
Now future searchers for this phrase will likely have this site included in their search....amazing how this search technology works....
We are living amongst the idiotic america...god help us
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Another Search by anonymous cow on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 6:08pm
How about search:
How to Kill (and here you enter the name of the person you want to kill)!!!
That should be effective
and then search
How to Save Children from Molestors
and
How to Avoid being known as a Hero
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extensions by mu-tiger on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 6:45pm
Ever hear of privoxy or customizegoogle or *drumroll* scroogle?
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Murder is easy--so is the STUMBLE defense by KatManII on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 8:43pm
While it is no difficulty to either surf anonymously or well hide your cyber tracks, if you are caught, blame STUMBLE UPON and an unknown but strangely entertaining sort of page that appeared with each click. Entirely possible with the correct (or incorrect settings...as you choose) Claim it peaked your curiosity as an intellect. I believe I read of this in a hacking defense case. The curiosity defense.
Murder is so incredibly easy that any intelligent person could commit a completely untraceable act of first degree premeditated murder and remain completely above proof! There are natural agents that will mimic a heat attack so well that physicians are fooled, and there are at least ten other drugs that will kill without providing need of medical suspicion or leave easily detectable trace evidence.
Murder Anyone.... Ummm?
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Re: Re: I didn't get something by Ale on Mar 15th, 2007 @ 1:23am
You're right. Now I get it.
;)
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by mike on Mar 15th, 2007 @ 11:42am
The article uses the word "trace" but it looks like they are just doing computer forensics stuff to retrieve data from the suspects hard drive that was deleted. The person who did all the "tracing" is described as:
"Jennifer Seymour, who worked for the State Police digital technology unit, testified thismorning how she examined the digital contents of computers and hand held devices obtained as part of the investigation."
The first article thats linked about Google searches being used against people explicitly says that its just data retrieved from a hard drive.
The headlines of these articles are misleading, but they are eye catching because as soon as you see it you think what the people in these comments asked "Does google or our ISPs archive and hand over our searches to the police." Since the content of both articles say nothing about that I dont think the question can be answered using them.
A better question might be, "Why do headline writers think that its ok to mislead people with these sorts of tricks?" Surely they know that once a person realizes that the headline is crap that the person is less likely to believe future headlines and click on them.
For those who are a little slow, the fact that the evidence is a google search is not important. What is important is that the evidence came from the suspect's computer not google. If instead of a google search the evidence was a MS Word document detailing the suspects plans the headline could have been "MS WORD USED TO COMMIT MURDER.!@!!!! OMG MURDERERS DONT TRUST MICROSOFT WITH YOUR PLANS."""!!!""!"
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by mike on Mar 15th, 2007 @ 11:42am
The article uses the word "trace" but it looks like they are just doing computer forensics stuff to retrieve data from the suspects hard drive that was deleted. The person who did all the "tracing" is described as:
"Jennifer Seymour, who worked for the State Police digital technology unit, testified thismorning how she examined the digital contents of computers and hand held devices obtained as part of the investigation."
The first article thats linked about Google searches being used against people explicitly says that its just data retrieved from a hard drive.
The headlines of these articles are misleading, but they are eye catching because as soon as you see it you think what the people in these comments asked "Does google or our ISPs archive and hand over our searches to the police." Since the content of both articles say nothing about that I dont think the question can be answered using them.
A better question might be, "Why do headline writers think that its ok to mislead people with these sorts of tricks?" Surely they know that once a person realizes that the headline is crap that the person is less likely to believe future headlines and click on them.
For those who are a little slow, the fact that the evidence is a google search is not important. What is important is that the evidence came from the suspect's computer not google. If instead of a google search the evidence was a MS Word document detailing the suspects plans the headline could have been "MS WORD USED TO COMMIT MURDER.!@!!!! OMG MURDERERS DONT TRUST MICROSOFT WITH YOUR PLANS."""!!!""!"
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Re: by Officer Friendly on Mar 15th, 2007 @ 12:52pm
Because Google keeps LOGS. Every time you do anything on Google, they log what you do, what you searched for , and also the IP address and time and date. So, even though you have an IP address that changes every time you logon, only YOU had that address at that particular date and time.
Between the USGOV and the BIG CORPS, we have absolutely no privacy at all.
Just remember, every thing you do or say on the Interweb, can be traced back to you. Consider email like a postcard. Dont write anything that you would not want the entire world to hear or see what you wrote.
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Re: sammys comment by Secret Agent on Mar 15th, 2007 @ 12:56pm
"by sammy on Mar 14th, 2007 @ 7:52am
how do they know it is you who is searching. Especially if you have dynamic ip address?"
Google says they've revamped their privacy practices, announcing they'll make search data largely anonymous after 18-24 months "unless we’re legally required to retain log data for longer" (which is very possible). "By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices," says the company. Either way, if you're planning a murder, you should probably avoid Google entirely.
Also, read Officer Friendly's post. Good advice for all.....
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Re: by OJ on Mar 31st, 2007 @ 10:34am
When I did my murder search, they found nothing on my computer because I used the computer at the library!!!!!!!
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? by Deanna on Aug 25th, 2007 @ 5:58pm
Comment is good If your thinking about it you shouldn't
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Re: by sad on Sep 9th, 2007 @ 4:32pm
please someone help me. my husband has mentally abused me for 30 years. i have not the guts to leave, help! we have a gun i want to die. i cant take this presure of every day living on egg shells. never know when he go off. answer me this why do i love him at times?he used to beat me. he hasnt in years but he always digrades me. in front of people.that really hurts.i wish i could of met a man who was different
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Re: by See for yourself on Dec 16th, 2007 @ 7:49am
You got no hits , cause you add """" in yout search.
Just search 3000 children missing from florida CPS, or 3000 children from CPS, and you will have hits . But search without "" .
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LOL by CRAZY BITCH! on Jan 20th, 2008 @ 1:45pm
I was pissed at my husband and I told him I was going to Google how to kill him, lol... and we came across this message, lol... THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!
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