Michael Roberts, CEO of Page1.me, Catches Murder Fugitive in 73 Minutes

US Marshals able to arrest suspect after 2 month man-hunt

A joint task force of US Marshals and the Maryland State Police Force were looking for Dinkue Brown, 27, who had been on the run since June 2013. He was connected with the murder of the 26-year-old Luis R. Rodriguez.

August 14, Maryland State Police called Michael Roberts, Founder of Page1.me, requesting advice on obtaining information from Google. Michael Roberts presented technical and investigative assistance far beyond that scope.

Our team created a pretext for a sting operation. After approval from law enforcement, we communicated a message to a family member of the suspect. The message had our proprietary forensic tripwire payloads attached.

Our tripwire passed on many electronic footprints. This data also showed events activated by the suspect, from behind anonymous proxy servers trying to hide his location. The next few hours our team carried on assisting the task force to circumvent the fugitive’s attempts to hide his activities and location.

As a result of the digital information and intelligence collected by our team, a mobile phone number was identified within a few hours. The number was allocated to a disposable SIM card, owned by the suspect, but did not reconnect to the cell-tower network after our team first discovered it– ergo triangulation was impossible. Apparently, the fugitive purchased the SIM card for one-time use and destroyed it straight after.

After getting a court warrant, U.S. Marshals were able to obtain the unique device identifier [UDID] that was connected to the one-time-use SIM card. A few days later the same UDID popped up again in association with a new disposable SIM card. At that point, the Marshals were able to triangulate the fugitive who was in possession of that cell phone.

The fugitive was found and arrested at the triangulated location in Indiana. Dinkue is currently in the Wayne County Jail without bail. The Worcester District Attorney’s office is making arrangements to transport Brown for his arraignment in Fitchburg District Court.

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