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Victim’s Apple Watch data leads to arrest in Australian murder case

While we’ve heard some neat stories about how Apple Watch has saved lives, the wearable is also making a difference in solving crimes. Apple Watch data has become key evidence in an Australian murder investigation and has resulted in an arrest.

Reported by Daily Mail via Venture Beat, Myrna Nilsson was murdered in her home back in September of 2016. Originally, Mynra’s daughter-in-law, Caroline Nilsson told police that Myrna “was attacked by a group of men who had forced their way into the property after a road rage incident.”

However, Myrna was wearing an Apple Watch at the time of the incident and the data has become key evidence in the case. Carmen Matteo, the prosecutor in the case, told the court that the daughter-in-law’s story was “demonstrably false and the home invasion crime scene had been fabricated.”

Ms Matteo said a forensic expert had analysed the dead woman’s Apple smartwatch and had narrowed the time from when she was attacked to when she died to a seven-minute window.

Another piece of Caroline’s story that the data conflicted with was an alleged argument Myrna had with the attackers.

The prosecutor said if those timings were accepted then it contradicted statements from the accused that her mother-in-law had been involved in an argument with her attackers for about 20 minutes.

The Apple Watch data was able to confirm an ‘ambush-type’ attack and Caroline Nilsson has now been charged with killing her mother-in-law. While Caroline had previously been named as a suspect, the Apple Watch data is what moved the court to charge her with murder.

For the defense attorney’s part, he said that Caroline would be denying the charge. She will return to court in June.


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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.


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