Digital Forensics Dispatch

Forensic Exam Recovers Deleted Texts and Photos of Murdered Mother and Child on Suspect’s Phone

October 26, 2021

According to a recent report on TheRecord.com, the forensic review of a mobile phone owned by Robert Leeming uncovered some potentially pivotal evidence in his ongoing second-degree murder trial. Leeming is accused of the murder of his girlfriend Jasmine Lovett and her daughter Aliyah Sanderson. Leeming has pled guilty to the murder charge relating to Lovett but not guilty to the charge in relation her 22 month old daughter. The pair were found dead in the same shallow grave with indications of blunt force trauma and Lovett had suffered a gunshot wound as well. 

The forensic examiner who analyzed Leemings phone was able to recover deleted text messages sent between Leeming and Lovett and over 30 photos. The photos included pictures of the mother, daughter and several photos of a firearm. The examiner explained to the court that the photos were actually not completely deleted. Instead while the user of the device had chosen to delete them, they were still in the recycle bin of the device. This is not an uncommon scenario when dealing with some models of android devices that store deleted media in a recycle bin for 30 days after a simple delete action before actually deleting the files.

One of the key points made by prosecutors was that it was clear from timestamps associated with the files that the deletion that moved the files to the recycle bin occurred the same day the mother and daughter were reported missing. 

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