FBI investigation: Cell phone data could narrow down pool of suspects in Moore County power grid attack
Investigators from the FBI are using cell phone data to try to find the person or people responsible for the Moore County power grid attack.
Law enforcement has not filed any charges or named a suspect, but experts say understanding, from cellphone data, who was in the area when the attack happened can help narrow down the search.
“Literally everybody who made a phone call, received a phone call or used data around the time of this incident, their phone records will indicate that they were hooked up to this cell tower near the substation," explains Ben Levitan, an expert in cell phone data, who has testified in cases when this kind of data is used.
He says the FBI request could mean investigators will need to comb through hundreds – if not thousands – of phone numbers.
“It can give you a pool of suspects," he says. "But more importantly, it can give you a pool of witnesses.”
Here’s how it works:
Levitan says every cell tower covers about a 2 mile radius, which equals about 12 square miles.
“One square mile is the same as 484 NFL football fields, so this is like the same area as 4,500 NFL football fields," he says.
Levitan says that dataset does not show an exact location of any phone within that area, but can determine which devices were active within that 12 square-mile radius at the time of the shooting.
Investigators have used this type of data to identify suspects in other recent high profile cases – like helping to identify suspects in the murder of Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd.
Investigators will use this data to narrow their list down to a few people and hopefully identify a suspect in this attack, according to Levitan.
“This is a lot of just good ole police work," he says.
The FBI is also analyzing bullet shell casings recovered at the scene at the Moore County substation, as well as other casings found at a second shooting at a Duke Energy hydro facility in South Carolina. However, so far they have not said if the two shootings are connected.
