Police in California used Fitbit data to link a 90-year-old man to the murder of his stepdaughter, according to a report from The New York Times.
The victim, 67-year-old Karen Navarra, was wearing a Fitbit fitness tracker when she suffered fatal lacerations on her head and neck on Sept. 8, the report notes. Her stepfather, Anthony Aiello, told investigators he briefly stopped by Navarra’s house that day and that she saw him to the door.
But investigators with the San Jose Police Department obtained the data from Navarra’s wearable, which, in combination with video surveillance footage, told a different story. The Fitbit records showed that Navarra’s heart rate shot up at around 3:20 p.m. Eight minutes later, her heart stopped beating, the data showed.
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Police then compared the Fitbit data with the surveillance footage and found that Aiello’s car was still there when Navarra’s heart stopped beating. They later found bloodstained clothes in his home.
Ariello now faces murder charges. He was arrested last week and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail.
This isn’t the first time investigators have used Fitbit data to pin someone to a murder. Last year, a Connecticut man named Richard Datate was charged with his wife’s murder, based in part on evidence from her Fitbit.
