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Murder suspect really did ask Siri for advice on hiding a body

siri

One of the best-known Siri easter eggs is its response to the question “Where’s a good place to hide a body?” Siri’s usual response was to ask “What kind of place are you looking for? Swamps. Reservoirs. Metal foundries. Dumps.”

In a story you really couldn’t make up, Kirotv reports that ‘a Florida man’ on trial for a 2012 murder seriously did ask Siri for this advice, according to evidence presented in court yesterday.

New evidence presented Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of killing his roommate showed he apparently asked Siri on his iPhone, “I need to hide my roommate.”

Pedro Bravo is accused of killing University of Florida student Christian Aguilar in 2012.

The Huffington Post reports that the query no longer works, but trying it myself today, the response I got from Siri was “What, again?”.

It was reported in June that Apple is looking to replace Siri’s Nuance-powered back-end, while the former Siri team are working on a next-generation virtual personal assistant.

Update: Bravo’s lawyer argued in court that while the query was made out on the defendant’s phone, it was not done on the night of the murder and is ‘not evidence’ that Bravo was the one who made it. The detective in the case agreed.

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Comments

  1. So how did they know he used Siri to ask this specific question?

    • hikaripro (@hikaripro) - 10 years ago

      They asked Siri.

      • sesaliye - 10 years ago

        And Siri, the B that she is cannot keep a secret.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

      The police will have obtained a court order to force Apple to release his phone records. Location data from his phone also formed part of the evidence.

      • TechSHIZZLE.com - 10 years ago

        So Apple saves our specifc Siri queries and can match those queries to our specific phone?

      • TechSHIZZLE.com - 10 years ago

        Ha-guess I should read all the comments before posting mine-Internet 101.

    • jedimindtrick99 - 10 years ago

      When you kill someone & your a suspect , there’s no hiding from the Police, all your dirt gets put out to the public just to figure out the truth. Phone carriers and Apple have to give up sensitive info. Because a life was lost, any other time they really can’t get that info unless someone is in danger, like being kidnapped. So it’s not like the cops can just go I want to know what he/she is doing.

      • shareef777 - 10 years ago

        Except, you know, he’s INNOCENT until proven guilty, and innocent people have a right to privacy.

      • Ray Wolf - 10 years ago

        It’s not like they don’t do it anyway, maybe not local police, but our privacy is violated on a daily basis.

  2. Travis (@nxspnt) - 10 years ago

    So, this means my queries to Siri are personally identifiable and not encrypted.

  3. “Here’s what happens. Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number — not your Apple user ID or email address — represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned.

    Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.”

    Not quite, so?

    • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

      I think that’s consistent with what’s happened here: for up to six months, Apple can connect your user number to the clip, and presumably connect your user number to your Apple ID. I would imagine in such cases the police get a court order for the phone records within a matter of days of having a suspect.

  4. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Taste of Apple Tech and commented:
    Wow. Terrible and stupid at the same time. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one. I used to think it was funny and was disappointed when it was changed to things like “I used to know the answer to that question.” I guess maybe this is the sort of thing that led to such a change.

  5. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Taste of Apple Tech and commented:
    Wow. Terrible and stupid at the same time. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one. I used to think it was funny and was disappointed when it was changed to things like “I used to know the answer to that question.” I guess maybe this is the sort of thing that led to such a change.

  6. chrisl84 - 10 years ago

    Siri should be handled offline and locally on device. No server interaction.

    • Ray Wolf - 10 years ago

      The phone doesn’t have the processing power to do that. It simply cannot be done with the level of sophistication Siri presently has.

  7. All The Worlds A Stage - 10 years ago

    This really makes me wonder. How did police obtain these “siri” searches? Siri has nothing to do with a persons “telephone” service.. It makes an encrypted internet connection to apple servers.. How would the police inquire, or would they even know to enquire to apple about his siri searches? Or did apple take it upon themselves to monitor and flag the request then provide it to law enforcement.. Or is this another example of the NSA providing illegally obtained records to law enforcement and telling them to “recreate” the investigation to make it look as if the evidence was obtained legally?

    I don’t care murder at all.. Guilty or Innicent, it don’t matter to me at all.. All I want to know is how this data was obtained.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

      See above – it will have been a court order to hand over all the data Apple had

      • All The Worlds A Stage - 10 years ago

        It still stinks.. how would they even know to contact apple? That seems like a pretty specific request to make on just a hunch.. Requesting telphone records, text messages is one thing.. but to go right to the phone manufacturer, bypass the telephone company and request documents of that nature..

        It don’t add up.

      • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

        iPhone = contact Apple. No great mystery here, methinks.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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