Last Call: Everything After Jen's Phone Call to John's Phone at 12:28:44 - Theorizing on Steps and Battery Temp Data

 * To read this and get any use from it, you'll have to buy in to something resembling this - John was incapacitated in the family room, dragged to the basement (2 flights of stairs - there's a landing) and his phone had been taken up through the bulkhead door to the backyard, and that Jen's phone spoke to someone other than John on John's phone (likely Brian Albert) for 8 seconds from 12:28-44 to 12:28-53 after Karen drove away from 34 Fairview. And to be honest, if you don't think the basement was used, you're welcome to switch my references to the back yard to the four seasons room (back porch) or garage.

For my purposes, Brian Albert is in the backyard with co-conspirators when a call from Jen's phone comes in - John's phone is "ringing." John's phone is in the backyard and is lying still. Maybe it is sitting on the grill or on the blue tub that is shown in the Zillow pictures of 34 Fairview. Both are near the back gate.

No steps are recorded from 12:24:37 - 12:31:56. The phone stays still. 

We should keep in mind that from the time when John is incapacitated until the time his body is found, John's phone showing steps does NOT mean that John's body is moving.  

So, from the end of Jen's call answered by John's phone - there are no steps. There's no movement on John's phone from 12:28:53 - 12:31:56.

3 minutes. In 3 minutes, Brian Albert, Higgins, and whoever else was in the basement or in the back yard make a decision. The last steps recorded on John's phone before he is found near the flagpole at 34 Fairview Road are recorded from 12:31:58 - 12:32:16. 

On the bottom of page 32 and the top of page 33 of his report, Ian Whiffin parses out the data he's been given. I have combined the two tables. 

 24 steps are recorded prior to the last time the device was locked. During this time, there is an anomaly when the phone is unlocked, at 12:32:04. "The unlock event at this time is different from all other lock events listed as there is only one Biometric Unlock record instead of the two records found on all other unlock events listed." 

We don't know if this is significant or not, but it was worth noting in the mind of Whiffin. 

My theory is this: John's body was likely in the basement, potentially even at the top of the bulkhead door, which could have remained open during this stretch of time. The phone was picked up from a spot near the back gate and walked over to John in order for face ID to open the phone. 

It may also be possible that during this time John's body is not at the top of the bulkhead steps but is instead near the grill area shown in the photo of the backyard - closer to the back gate.

Regardless, the holder of the iPhone (and my belief is that it must be Brian Albert, who is leading the charge) hustles out of the back gate with John's phone at or around 12:32:04, locks it using the side button with his own finger at 12:32:09, and leaves it near the flagpole where is slowly loses temperature over the next hour.

Now, we know John was not left in the backyard all night. But what is happening with John's body isn't being tracked and hasn't been since around 12:24am. My belief is that John's body is moved from the backyard to the basement as Brian Albert and friends decide on next steps.

A plan has been crafted to - in my opinion - Brian Albert and company tried to leave breadcrumbs so investigators would think John fell when he decided to walk to a neighbor's house (rather than heading into 34 FV) after Karen drove away. Someone like Tom Beatty. Or Bella's mom. OR, that John fell trying to race to catch Karen before she drove away. The damage to John's arm under his hoodie sweatshirt sleeve could have been chalked up to a wild animal. Maybe Brian Albert thought investigators might consider that he'd been hit by a plow.

Anyway. If the phone was placed near the roadway by 12:32:16, it is possible that something was sat on top of it, both blocking the infrared camera light (continuous pocket state checks) and causing the temperature to drop at a slower pace until 1:30 am. This could have been useful for Brian Albert for a couple of reasons - it would obscure the phone and make it less likely to be seen by passersby. And it would "mark the spot" for laying John on top of the phone later in the early morning hours, between 3:30 and 4 am. What was placed on the phone? A heavy blanket? A wooden slat? A shoe or a hat? Perhaps something that would have affected the phone battery temperature - the temp didn't drop as quickly as one might expect.

 But it's the GAP in the battery temperature data from 1:30am - 6:06am that I find so compelling:

There is reason to believe that John's body was not placed by the flagpole until AFTER Lucky Loughran saw the Ford Edge blocking that area at 3:30am. The Ford Edge being parked there does not equate to that being the moment John's body was moved - it could have already happened, or it could have happened shortly thereafter. However, Lucky did not see a body there when driving his plow past 34 Fairview at an earlier time (For that matter, neither did anyone else.)

But, between the hours of 1:30am- 6:06 am, and specifically, later than 3:30 am - did the battery temperature change significantly? Did the battery temperature of the phone start to WARM UP when a body at 80 degrees was placed on top of it? Was this data something that needed to be "hidden?"

There could have easily been an arc in which the phone warmed up a bit over the hours after 3:30am and then began to cool again, certainly after John was found and his body was moved in the few minutes between 6:03am and when the phone was picked up, presumably by Kerry Roberts.  

Was the data in this timeframe hidden by the MSP through manipulation of the phone extraction?  

Page 49 of Whiffin's report does show the "gap" in phone activity itself from 1:30am to approximately 4:30am, but as Karen and others start to call John at that time, the backlight is illuminating, Doppler is "pocketing" and notifications are coming through, and call history is showing up. It seems probable that the battery temperature would also resume reporting as well at that time as well if the break in the data had to do with phone inactivity. 

As I have sifted through the timeline and the data over the past couple of weeks, I am left understanding that I can only speculate and make inferences based on the data. I cannot "know." It's helpful to draw some conclusions from the testimony of people who saw or claim to have seen Karen and John leave the bar, on the roadway, and/or in front of Fairview Road. It's helpful to look at how their retelling changes from trial to trial, or from initial police statement to taking the stand. 

That said, I hold out hope that one day we will have the accurate data and the actual truth. What I do know is that the Commonwealth's theory of Karen's taillight shattering and ripping apart John's skin does not make sense. No broken bones. No bruises. And it's not scientifically possible for John to fall on the ground and sustain the type of injury to the back of his head that he did.

So, we're left to ponder, but not without cause: The taillight was manipulated, or dozens of pieces would not have been "found" at 34 Fairview. 

Why wouldn't we think the cell phone data was also tampered with?

LALLY: Now, the hash mechanism that you testified as far as detecting whether or not someone has surreptitiously and deletes things, did you see any evidence of that in your review....

As Ian Whiffin relayed, "I didn't have access to the hash information, uh, to see whether any changes had been made, uh, that's something that the original examiner would have had access to, uh, from my point of view there was nothing in there that would indicate that tampering had occurred. The timestamps all made sense for the files, uh, the historical pages all made sense. I'll say it's probably possible, but it would take a large amount of skill to do."

If I were inclined to give a compliment to the MSP (I'm not,) it would be that they appear to have a large amount of ego to believe they can successfully manipulate, delete and hide all sorts of phone data. The compliment is that they were confident.

That skill needed that Ian Whiffin mentions?

It seems that may have been lacking, and has led us to the "Find Out" stage.