Value of Cellphones to Law Enforcement Can’t be Overstated

Police increasingly using cellphone data in crime investigations

Taherah Ghassemi’s body might still be buried in the woods — and the men accused of abducting and killing her might still be free — if it weren’t for cellphones.

The increasingly computerized devices played a pivotal role in ending the five-week search for Ghassemi and her alleged killers, reflecting the increasing usefulness of smartphones to law enforcement as the devices become near necessities for Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Ghassemi disappeared in early April, and detectives over the weekend arrested her ex-husband, Hamid Ghassemi, and three other men accused of accepting $10,000 from him to abduct, kill and bury his ex-wife. The killing occurred several weeks after the Ghassemis settled a decadelong divorce battle, which resulted in Taherah Ghassemi receiving more than $1 million and two homes from her estranged husband.

Specifically, cellphone records aided detectives several ways in the investigation into Taherah Ghassemi’s disappearance.

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