CAP cell phone expert helps find missing N. Dakota students

 

 

Kristi Carr
Staff Writer

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS – Though the search for three missing Dickinson State University students in North Dakota ended tragically this week, the case points out how a cell phone can be used to locate missing people, many times with happier results.

One of the pioneers in cell phone forensics is Capt. Justin Ogden of Arizona Wing Headquarters, whose expertise pinpointed the students’ Stark County, N.D., crash site within 730 feet based on information he gleaned from their last cell phone hit.
 
The emergency manager for Stark County, Brent Pringle, told Lt. Col. William E. Kay, North Dakota Wing director of operations, in a phone conversation that the students’ vehicle would not have been found without CAP’s assistance.

The bodies of the three Dickinson State softball players -- Kyrstin Gemar, 22, Ashley Neufeld, 21, and Afton Williamson, 20 -- were found Tuesday in their Jeep, submerged in a stock pond. They had been reported missing Sunday night after friends received a pair of frantic phone calls.

Although CAP had aircrews from Dickinson and Bismarck on the scene with a ground team standing by, it was Ogden’s work conducted from some 1,000 miles away that yielded results. Ogden helped search and rescue controllers from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center refine the search area down significantly, by more than 91 percent, from a 1 ½-mile radius.

Under federal law, cell phone companies can voluntarily divulge phone data to federal agencies such as the AFRCC when it is being used for lifesaving purposes involving the owner.
 
Ogden collects and analyzes data to determine approximate coordinates. “Even if a cell phone is not being used but is still powered up, and within coverage of the network, we can often receive enough information to allow us to concentrate the search in the right area,” he said.
 
Sometimes cell phone data is merged with other information, such as radar if the search is for a missing aircraft.
 
Ogden said nearly all cell phones and networks have some sort of location-sensing methods, whether through GPS hardware in the cell phone or through the phone network and towers. With the technology already in place, it is important to involve a cell phone forensic specialist early in a search, he said.

“Once the cell phone battery dies, there’s no hope of getting GPS-type coordinates from that phone,” he said.
 
Ogden, employed by General Dynamics and recently assigned to a new project to develop a nationwide communications system for the Department of Justice, became interested in radio signals and computer programming when he joined CAP as a cadet at age 12. He is routinely called in by the AFRCC to help with searches and last year participated in 27 search and rescue missions, resulting in the rescue of 19 survivors.