{"id":437,"date":"2015-08-03T03:21:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T03:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/?p=437"},"modified":"2024-12-23T08:04:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T08:04:49","slug":"da-hillar-moore-cellphone-encryption-hurting-murder-investigation-of-woman-her-baby-family-holds-onto-hope-the-case-will-be-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/da-hillar-moore-cellphone-encryption-hurting-murder-investigation-of-woman-her-baby-family-holds-onto-hope-the-case-will-be-solved-437\/","title":{"rendered":"DA Hillar Moore: Cellphone encryption hurting murder investigation of woman, her baby; family holds onto hope the case will be solved"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DA<\/a><\/p>\n

Cellphone encryption practices could be keeping investigators from solving the murder of Brittney Mills and her son, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Saturday, but family members remain hopeful the truth will surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy no means have we forgotten them,\u201d said Mills\u2019 mother, Barbara Mills, on Sunday. \u201cThis will be in the forefront until it is solved.\u201d<\/div>\n

Brittney Mills, 29, who was eight months pregnant, was shot and killed April 24 at her Ship Drive apartment. Authorities believe Mills opened the door for someone who wanted to use her car and was shot multiple times when she refused. Doctors delivered her baby, but the baby boy,Brenton Mills, died May 1.<\/p>\n

Three months later, the case is still unsolved.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the shooter likely was someone Mills knew. They have looked to her cellphone for evidence, but her phone, like many others, uses software that is said to block anyone from accessing its data, including investigators.<\/p>\n

While they have tried to crack the phone using possible pass codes suggested by family members, investigators have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know her code number,\u201d Mills\u2019 mother said. \u201cIt may very well be a very important part of the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Apple, the manufacturer, claims it cannot decrypt the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what we\u2019re told by the company that makes the encryption, the only way we can get into a phone is if the phone subscriber gives the password to us,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re dead, it\u2019s hard to give that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s most recent software upgrade is a response, Moore suspects, to Edward Snowden\u2019s decision to leak U.S. National Security Agency information surrounding a national spy program. The iOS 8 software is fully encrypted, meaning the only way to access Mills\u2019 phone data is to enter the pass code.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you attempt to use (too many) false passwords, though, it shuts it down for good,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe are cautious about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While only a few cellphones previously used this technology, Moore said, this software is installed in more than 80 percent of cellphones now.<\/p>\n

Moore recently wrote to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary to urge representatives to address this failure of balance between public safety and privacy, citing Mills\u2019 unsolved case.<\/p>\n

Mills\u2019 \u201cfamily indicated that she recorded all activity on her phone and join law enforcement in their frustration due to the inability to access this phone, that would in all likelihood provide information necessary to obtain justice and remove this murderer from the street,\u201d Moore wrote.<\/p>\n

Moore said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is \u201cleading the charge\u201d for Congress to create legislation to address this problem, specifically in Apple\u2019s and Google\u2019s latest encryption technology. Moore said criminals, like most citizens, use their cellphones to communicate regularly and do business, which often makes their cellphones integral to many investigations. Even so, seizing someone\u2019s phone requires a warrant, Moore said, to protect citizens\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way Apple, the way that community has built their operating systems, they\u2019re beyond the law,\u201d Moore said Saturday. \u201cIt is the only way I know that you cannot court-order information. Without us being able to get into the phone itself through a subpoena, we are really at a disadvantage and at a loss to solve crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating for us and people like the Mills family,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThere\u2019s a darn good chance that there is info on the phone that could be extremely helpful for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the investigation continues, the family held a memorial Friday night in memory of Mills and her son for what would have been her 30th birthday. The estimated attendance was more than 150 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we wanted to do because she talked a lot about turning 30,\u201d Barbara Mills said.<\/p>\n

She added that Mills and her son were \u201cso special to us\u201d and will not soon be forgotten.<\/p>\n

Mills\u2019 family has stayed involved with the case, encouraging investigators to do all they can to solve it, Barbara Mills said, because the family needs closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to find out what happened,\u201d Mills\u2019 mother said. \u201cWe\u2019re wanting results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbara Mills agreed with police that the killer must be someone her daughter knew because she would not have opened the door for a stranger.<\/p>\n

Still, neither the family nor police have any leads as to the killer\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

A few days after Mills was killed, the case received heavy attention when Baton Rouge police said they wanted to question former LSU star offensive lineman La\u2019el Collins as part of the investigation into her death.<\/p>\n

Collins was in Chicago for the NFL draft at the time, but once national media got wind that the police wanted to speak to Collins, the first-round prospect went undrafted.<\/p>\n

Although he was never considered a suspect in the shooting, Collins was said to have had a relationship with Mills. After meeting with police, however, a paternity test ruled Collins out as the father of Mills\u2019 son.<\/p>\n

Barbara Mills said the family is leaving the details of the investigation up to the police but added that investigators could seek another paternity test sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

After he was questioned and cleared by police, Collins signed as a guard with the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cellphone encryption practices could be keeping investigators from solving the murder of Brittney Mills and her son, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Saturday, but family members remain hopeful the truth will surface. \u201cBy no means have we forgotten them,\u201d said Mills\u2019 mother, Barbara Mills, on Sunday. \u201cThis will be in … Continue reading DA Hillar Moore: Cellphone encryption hurting murder investigation of woman, her baby; family holds onto hope the case will be solved<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[177,176],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-baton-rouge","tag-cellphone-encryption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}