A Smartwatch Helped Police Caught A Dangerous Killer In A Case From 4 Years Ago

Usually, a smartwatch is a helpful assistant to keep track of our fitness routine and help us stay in connection without smartphones whenever the phones are not nearby. At least, that’s what they’re designed for.

However, a fitness tracker recently became an unusual witness for a murder case in a UK court, helping put a dangerous killer in prison.

Last year, Mark Fellows was arrested for being the main suspect in a series of murders in the country, probably for his gang. In 2018, the police arrested Fellows after his rival mob was killed. According to the surveillance footage, Fellows was riding a bike around the murder area like he was looking for something.

Then, local police also suspected that Fellows might have been related to another murder in 2015 of Paul Massey, the boss of a rival mob.

During an investigation in 2018, police discovered that Fellows kept a GPS jammer in his car. Unluckily, he hadn’t install the jammer back in 2015, which means the police managed to collect his 2015 data from his Garmin Forerunner. Eventually, they could put him at the scene of the murder. Pairing that with his presence that CCTV camera captured in another murder scene of 2018, the police had a solid case.

A Garmin Forerunner

The judge ruled that Fellows was sentenced to death and he deserved it. The arrest of Mark Fellows shows smart devices can reach and provide help to every corner of our lives, including the ones we least expect.

But once again, that also shows how deeply technology can intrude into our lives, in this case allowing police to pull off data on us. Imagine if that hadn’t been police but a malicious criminal that targeted us, he (or she) could grab the most personal information about us and use it to do harm to us or our loved ones.