Scenario:
Initial Contact: 2:12PM, Thursday, February 25, 2016. A call is received from the Dean of Students from the University of New Haven (UNH). The Dean is calling to report that a student at the school is receiving threatening e-mails and online via several social media sites for several days. The student, Mary Jones, told one of her professors about the threats and the professor went with Ms. Jones to the Dean of Students to report the threats. The Dean is concerned and feels that law enforcement should be contacted to aid in an investigation of the threats against a UNH student.
Initial Interview: 4:36PM, Thursday, February 25, 2016. Your investigation team meets with Rebecca Johnson, the Dean of Students, Mary Jones, Sally Drapier, and Dr. Stanley Phelps, Mary’s academic advisor and faculty advisor of UNH’s criminal justice club. Dr. Phelps begins by telling your team that Ms. Jones came to him today, visibly upset, and told him that she has been receiving threatening emails from numerous email addresses from both inside and outside the University as well messages through Facebook as well as on Yik Yak social media. Ms. Jones showed Dr. Phelps some of the messages she had been receiving and he was concerned enough to go immediately to Ms. Johnson who contact law enforcement.
When questioned, Ms. Jones, who was still visibly upset, stated she was 20 years old and was a Junior majoring in criminal justice at UNH. When asked what prompted the barrage of email threats and messages, Ms. Jones told the team that the past Saturday, February 21, 2016, as the president of the criminal justice club at UNH, she was participating in a competition for criminal justice majors that was hosted by UNH from 1PM to 4PM. She was attending a reception following the competition when at approximately 4:30PM her friend, Sally Drapier, showed her a text message from Ms. Drapier’s boyfriend, Michael Davis. The message asked Sally if she had seen the cartoon that Ms. Jones had posted on Facebook that afternoon.
Ms. Jones said that she immediately logged on to her Facebook account and was horrified to see someone using her account had post a cartoon at 1:16PM that day that made fun of racial minorities. There was also a comment that appeared to be from Ms. Jones stating “LOL, so true, isn’t it!.” Ms. Jones stated that she immediately deleted the cartoon, but there were already numerous messages from people she had friended on Facebook expressing surprise and disgust that she would post something like that. Ms. Jones also said that Ms. Drapier told her that her boyfriend, Michael Davis, had seen a posting on Yik Yak that also showed the same cartoon and gave Ms. Jones’ name as the source as well as Ms. Jones’ UNH email address. When Ms. Jones check her email, she found over fifty email messages from other students at UNH as well as from other schools in the area, some threatening her over the cartoon from Facebook. Over the past few days, Ms. Jones stated that she has received hundreds of emails, some from as far away as England, most containing threats against her over the cartoon.
When questioned about her use of Facebook, Ms Jones replied that she used Facebook frequently to keep up with her friends, family, and various clubs she participated in on campus. She stated that the last time she had checked Facebook on Saturday was approximately 10:30 AM, immediately before she went to help set up for the criminal justice club competition. Ms. Jones emphatically denied posting the cartoon to Facebook.
At this time, Dr. Phelps stated that he had been in Ms. Jones company from 11:00AM until approximately 4:20PM on Saturday and during that time Ms. Jones had been actively involved with the competition and didn’t have time to check her cell phone or Facebook account. Dr. Phelps, who appeared genuinely concerned about Ms. Jones, stated that Ms. Jones was one of his best and brightest students and he was sure that she would never post anything like that.
Next Ms. Drapier was questioned about her involvement. Ms Drapier stated that she was a 19 year old sophomore and a criminal justice major at the school. She had also participated in the competition this past Saturday with Ms. Jones. Ms. Drapier stated that after the competition she checked her text messages and saw the message from her boyfriend, Michael Davis, about Ms. Jones Facebook posting. When asked about Michael Davis, Ms Drapier stated that Mr. Davis was a 21 year old senior in the criminal justice program and that the two had been dating for six months. When asked if Mr Davis was also at the competition Ms. Drapier stated that Mr. Davis was not a member of CJ club and was not at the competition.
Ms. Drapier appeared to be very nervous while giving her statement. When asked why she was nervous, Ms. Drapier stated that she was concerned about her friend and that she had never been questioned by the police before. At this point, Dr Phelps added that Sally was another of his best students and even though she had recently run against Mary for the position of CJ club president, that Sally had been a gracious loser.
Ms. Jones was asked if there was anyone who might have done this. Ms. Jones said that she couldn’t think of anyone who was angry at her. When asked about boyfriends, Ms. Jones stated that she was too busy with school to be involved with anyone at the present time. After a moment though, she remembered that several months ago a boy from the CJ club, Pete Sampson, had asked her out, but she turned down the invitation. Ms. Jones stated that Pete didn’t seem too upset when she turned him down.
Lastly, Ms. Jones was asked if she had shared her Facebook password with anyone else. Ms. Jones stated that she had not shared her password with anyone, but that she had changed the password on Saturday after she deleted the cartoon. When asked what her old password was, Ms. Jones said the the old password was “maryj2017”, the year she anticipated receiving her degree from the school. The initial interview concluded at 5:32PM.
Tasks:
At the end of this assignment, your investigation team will be turning in a police report for grading, but in the meantime, completing the following tasks will guide your team in this investigation and much of the information will become part of your final report.
A) Determine where the crime scenes are and what information about the crime you will be able to get from the log files at each crime scene.
B) Start a list of potential witnesses and possible suspects who should be interviewed and what questions you would ask them.
C) Begin to construct the timeline of the crime. This will aid in the reconstruction of the crime and can possibly aid in eliminating suspects as the investigation progresses.
D) Research the Connecticut state laws that could potentially be used to charge a suspect if you find one.
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