Law Enforcement Officers Report Google Maps Aided in Resolving a Missing Person Investigation
During its worldwide exploration, a Google Street View automobile seemingly captured the instant that alleged criminal suspects deposited what strongly appears to be a completely wrapped-up corpse in the rear of a vehicle.
This questioned corpse is assumed to be a Cuban man whose relative reported him missing the previous year. The man had journeyed to Spain and was residing in the secluded municipality of Soria at the time of his disappearance, purportedly hoping to locate a woman whom he believed was his romantic partner. The relative got suspicious texts from the man's phone, prompting him to believe something was amiss. Fast forward to this year, a portion of the man's dismembered body was discovered buried in the local cemetery of Tajueco, verifying that he had been killed.
In a recently issued statement (transferred from Spanish to English via, you guessed it, Google), investigators stated that two individuals had been apprehended in relation to the man's disappearance. Fascinatingly, a critical piece of evidence that led the police to the suspects were "images in a location application" that seemed to have "detected a vehicle that may have been used during the commission of the crime." Said application, apparently, was Google Maps.
In fact, a Google Street View car happened to be cruising by a street in Tajueco when one of the suspects in the case was loading...something...into the back of a red car. BBC reports that this was the first time in 15 years that Google had visited the minuscule Spanish town, a settlement of about 56 inhabitants.
The two individuals who were detained were identified as "a woman, a partner of the vanished, and a man, who had been a partner of the detained." Police described the couple as "alleged perpetrators of a crime of aggravated illegal detention for failing to provide a justification for the whereabouts of the vanished person."
It is crucial to mention that while the picture making the rounds online appears to show someone packing a dead body into a vehicle, the accused have yet to be found guilty. They are merely accused of committing crimes.
This would not be the first instance where Google Maps has played a significant role in a police investigation. In 2019, a 22-year-old cold case was solved thanks to Google Earth images that uncovered the location of a submerged car in a pond in Florida. So, it seems that the surveillance technology complex has its advantages.
The role of technology in policing continues to evolve, with artificial intelligence and tech giants like Google making significant contributions. For instance, Google Maps data was instrumental in the recent investigation of a missing person's case in Spain, leading to the detection of a vehicle possibly involved in the crime. Furthermore, in 2019, Google Earth helped solve a 22-year-old cold case by uncovering the location of a submerged car in Florida, highlighting the future potential of such technology in solving crimes.
