’09 Conference Exceeds Expectations

TThough the recent search for
three missing Dickinson State
University students in North Dakota
ended tragically, 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 Justin Ogden, a captain in the Civil Air
Patrol’s Arizona Wing, whose expertise pinpointed the
North Dakota students’ crash based on information he
gleaned from the students’ last cell phone hit.
The coeds, reportedly out for an evening of stargazing,
had driven into a stock pond in r ural Stark
County. They made frantic phone calls but perished
when they could not extract themselves from their
vehicle. Their calls, however, set in motion a fullblown
search operation, eventually involving the Air
Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) and CAP,
which provided aircrews from Dickinson and
Bismarck, a ground team on standby and Ogden
poring over cell phone data from a distance of more
than 1,000 miles.
Ogden used this data to help the AFR CC search and
rescue controllers refine the search area to within only
730 feet from where the students were finally located.
When cell phones are involved, Ogden is a go-to
resource for search and rescue operations. And while
the North Dakota story ended in sorrow, many of
Ogden’s cell phone data searches yield positive results.
In 2008, he participated in 27 search and rescue
missions, resulting in rescues of 19 survivors.
That year, cell phone GPS coordinates were the key
to Ogden’s guiding searchers to an 82-year-old man
hurt while hiking in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.
Despite 30 hours in the cold and sno w, the man was
found alive.
“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,” Ogden
explained. “Once the cell phone battery dies, there’s no
hope of getting GPS-type coordinates, though less
accurate location information may be obtained fr om
historical data.” That is why he advocates involving a
cell phone forensics expert early in the search.
Sometimes cell phone data are merged with other
information, such as radar if the sear ch is for
It was Ogden’s work that yielded results.
In a phone conversation with Lt. Col. William E.
Kay, director of operations for CAP’s North Dakota
Wing, Brent Pringle, emergency manager for Stark
County, said the students’ vehicle would not have been
found without CAP’s assistance. Under federal law, cell
phone companies can voluntarily divulge cell phone
data to federal agencies such as the AFR CC when it is
being used for lifesaving purposes involving the owner.
With their vehicle
submerged in this stock
pond, the bodies of three
young coeds, all members
of the Dickinson State
University softball team in
North Dakota, might not
have been found without
cell phone data analysis by
Arizona Wing Capt. Justin
Ogden.
Photo courtesy of Tom Stromme,
Bismarck Tribune
Ogden, CAPʼs cell phone expert,
worked to find the students from
his work station more than 1,000
miles away.
Photo by Cadet Capt. John E. Smith, Pennsylvania Wing
Citizens Serving Communities...Above and Beyond
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