Seeking the truth

I delve into the contents of a computer, looking for the truth. So far the woman who owns this computer seems to lead a normal life.

The analysis of her web browsing history reveals various interests: chat rooms about politics, cooking, children and sports. Online shopping websites are mixed in with local and national news websites. A few online dating sites could lead one to believe she was not fully satisfied by her marital life or more likely that she played with her erotic fantasies. I’m not a psychological expert.

Reading her emails seems more relevant : she’s got several webmail accounts besides the one furnished by her Internet service provider. Three accounts actually. The first one she uses to talk with her family and friends. The second one seems to be used only when buying online. The third one is the same as her Internet pseudonym.

She seems to lead a normal and happy life with the ups and downs everybody goes through.

There are also digital photos, neatly sorted by year or event. Among them I discover weddings, the children, the family, the holidays.

My mission requires me to look at every document, to read every email, to open every document. I am required to look for all deleted files, to reconstruct the whole recent activity of this woman.

According to her husband, only she used the family computer. She spent an hour a day on it, no more, except on Sundays when she could surf the web for several hours while her husband was tinkering in the garage or in the house, was gardening or repairing the car. She was a geek even before the word became fashionable.

Instant messaging conversations are often personal and written concisely as appropriate to the tool. They deal with the weather, everyday life, work or the moods of the moment…

As usual I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t like prying into somebody’s private life without their consent. It’s something I loathe doing. I like privacy and I like it to be respected.

However the mission I’ve been given requires me to look for the truth.

So I search the hard disk and I dig out an unbelievable quantity of piled, arrayed, stacked and deleted data. I find administrative mail, certificates and bank statements; emails of all kinds, spam, chain letters, jokes, Christmas invitations and confidential talks with friends of both genders.

It’s getting late. I’ve been working on this case for several weeks, a little bit longer every night. This woman is becoming less and less a stranger to me as I get to know her habits, verbal tics, emotions, phobias, passions and little ways… I’m tired and I start confusing Internet commands with dating websites pop-ups, spams for magic pills, party invitations and unpaid bills.

I’ve been looking for the truth, searching into her computer for more than a hundred hours.

I’m doing this to find out why this woman died, hanged, two hours after her computer was switched off.

I’m doing this so that her husband can find out, so that the investigating magistrate can find out, so that her children can find out.

So that I can find out whether her death was a suicide or a crime.

I never found out.


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Translation by Clem, checked by PrometheeFeu.
Photo credit Koscum

The original note is here: http://zythom.blogspot.fr/2012/06/je-cherche-la-verite.html

Just a Regular Weekend

She is dressed in colorful clothes and is running along a dirt road. Several people are running with her. The video quality is not very good. It is difficult to identify what the people are holding in their hands.

The videographer zooms in awkwardly.

The woman comes into focus before me, a simple viewer watching a computer screen, and I see that the people running with her are men, armed with machetes, chasing her.

One of them catches up to her and plants his machete into her skull.

The woman's eyes bulge as she as she falls, screaming. This video has no sound but her cry jumps out at me. The man iterates his gesture shattering her skull.

Pieces of brains scatter on the road, while the remaining pursuers catch up.

They laugh.

And I, despite my ten years of experience as a legal expert, I cry.

I endured this sequence while examining the contents of a hard drive kept under seal. As is customary, I was commissioned by the magistrate to analyze the hard drive in search of images and movies containing child pornography. And as usual, I view a large number of images and films, among which there are a large number of pornographic images and movies, of which some could be child porn... as well as this clip, probably filmed during the massacres in Rwanda.

And I have to carefully view each and every film and image to do my due diligence.

Those who think that violence on TV shows or movies trivializes real violence are making a mistake. A movie like "The Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal," "Alien", or any other slasher movie, sends shivers up my spine, but everything is false. It is always "just a movie". Even when it is based on a true story, the viewer knows it is staged.

But when you sense it is true, that the images are real, it's very different. You are witnessing the violent death of a person and are not prepared. Can one even be prepared for such a thing? Even the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" did not prepare me for that, though they shook me.

I quickly scanned over the rest of the video to make sure that no child pornography had been inserted in the middle of the massacre scenes. There was none and I found none elsewhere on that disk, just pornography. This video of massacres was in a file labelled with the name of a pornographic film.

But this scene will remain etched in my mind.

Prime Minister Michel Rocard said that "France cannot accommodate all the misery of the world, but we must learn to do our part". I certainly had my share for that weekend.

It was just a regular weekend for a small provincial court expert.

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Translation by P., checked by PrometheeFeu.
Photo credit darkroastedblend.com

The original note is here: http://zythom.blogspot.com/2009/09/un-petit-week-end.html

Manon13

Manon is thirteen. She works well in school, where she has many friends. She plays, she laughs like many children her age.

Her parents love her, pay attention to her education, buy her things, but not all she asks. Well, she does have a cell phone like everyone else and a computer in her room. But they are careful not to let her have TV in her room.

Manon loves to chat with friends at night on her computer. She is internet savvy and knows all the stuff like lol, smileys and emoticons. She uses Windows Live Messenger to easily follow a dozen simultaneous conversations. She has a webcam she uses from time to time when her friends have one. Her nickname is manon13from31 because she was 13 and she lives in Haute-Garonne (31st french county), and it's funny because 31 is 13 backwards.

Manon also uses the Windows Mail system to send her friends all the texts she finds fun. Her father does not like that, he calls that "chain-mails", but she finds it so funny. And isn't it true: if you do not forward the email to 15 people, you might not know who is in love with you the next day. And that's too important to miss out on. Of course, the parents cannot understand, they are too old. Her love is for Killian. But he isn't quite ready to kiss her yet.

Manon subscribes to several websites: the one where you can play with virtual animals, the one where her friends discuss the latest celebrity gossip. And of course, Manon has a blog where she puts online photographs of herself and her friends. But she changes often, because her father does not like her publicizing her life on the internet. He does not want her to open a Facebook account, and she thinks that sucks because Cindy, the popular girl at school, already has one. She regularly creates a new blog with a new nickname: manon13_from31, manonfrom31_13, manonLOL1331, manonXX13_31 ... She even created a blog cindy13from31 where she put a photo of Bob in the pool. Bob is the dumbest guy of the school, haha.

One evening, Manon speaks with her friends on Messenger. For several weeks, she has been nibbling a few extra minutes from her parents who want her to go to bed early. Gradually, she managed to stay later, and now she is the last to disconnect. She is currently discussing with her new girlfriend Celia, who is really nice and who she has known for a month.

What Manon did not realize was that this girl is a boy. A 20 yr. old man.

What Manon did not realize was that every time she used her webcam, her "girlfriend" recorded sequences. It was a pity they couldn't chat live because "her girlfriend"'s webcam was always defective.
What Manon did not realize was that the sequence where she goofs around in her room in ridiculous pajamas had been recorded by "Celia".

And now the boy threatened her to put it on YouTube! He tunes in on his perfectly functioning webcam, and she hears him speak clearly. He tells her that if she does not do what he wants, he will broadcast the video on YouTube...

So she does what he asks.
And he records.
And he records himself.
And she has to watch.

What Manon did not realize was that a police officer would also look at the videos, and a court too.
What she did not realize was that a computer forensic expert would look at all the videos, even those "Celia" had deleted, every chat, and all her emails, and all her pictures, and all her blogs.

What she did not realize was that her parents would have to see all this as well.

In fact, Manon, 13, from 31, did not know much.
But now she feels wrong.

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Name, age and department have been changed.
Translation by P., checked by PrometheeFeu.

The original note is here: http://zythom.blogspot.com/2009/11/manon13.html
Photo credit: Series Cold Case .

Starting point

I am working occasionally as a computer forensic investigator.
Since 2006 I've been writing some stories on Zythom's french blog about French justice. 
I have decided to try my best to translate some of these stories into English.