Searching for a Heartbeat From the Sky - The Nancy Guthrie Case

[Luis Gonzalez]

Searching for a Heartbeat From the Sky - The Nancy Guthrie Case


Can a “Signal Sniffer” Really Locate Nancy Guthrie?

Helicopters overhead. Antennas scanning the ground. Reporters talking about searching for a “heartbeat from the sky.”

It sounds futuristic. A pacemaker acting like a beacon. A signal strong enough to guide rescuers from the air.

But here’s the hard question: are these devices really trackable from hundreds of feet above the ground?

Modern pacemakers transmit tiny bursts of data. They are built for medical monitoring, not long-range tracking. So what exactly is a “signal sniffer,” and how much of this is practical science versus public optics?

In high-profile searches, technology can look more powerful than it actually is.

Read the full breakdown at Boiling Frogs

[Smokin Joe]

If she is dead and buried, how many feet of earth could the signal escape, and what range would it have?

If she is being held in a bunker, same question.

Can the receiver/detectors be made light enough to put on drones which can fly closer to the ground? (and potentially cover much more area at less expense?)

[Luis Gonzalez]

If she is dead and buried, how many feet of earth could the signal escape, and what range would it have?

If she is being held in a bunker, same question.

Can the receiver/detectors be made light enough to put on drones which can fly closer to the ground? (and potentially cover much more area at less expense?)

It’s searching for a needle in a haystack.

[andy58-in-nh]

I believe that if this poor woman is ever to be found, it will be through the laborious process of police detective work, as opposed to mere technology. 

Not that technology would be entirely useless, as it may be employed to gather sales records and receipts from vendors who sold the (still unknown) suspect's backpack, jacket and gloves. But those records will need to be manually cross-checked and the names compared to databases and then researched and interviewed if it is deemed necessary to evaluate them as a suspect - which is a necessarily human process.

A flyover might detect a "ping" from her pacemaker, but with no identifiable search borders, the chances are diminishingly small.

The area surrounding the home will need to be picked over, quadrant-by-quadrant, foot by foot, with shoe leather on the ground. Leads will need to be followed up, which takes a great deal of time and effort by investigators who will be calling, texting, visiting and evaluating those they meet. Any and all information they obtain will then need to be assembled, categorized, and communicated to other investigative agencies.

All of this takes time, and shortcuts occasioned by lucky coincidences only happen on TV crime dramas.  Meanwhile: her friends and family wait and pray.

[rustynail]

Why did they tell that this was happening?

[Lando Lincoln]

Excellent piece as always, @Luis Gonzalez.

If she was dumped in the wild, desert coyotes are superb scavengers. Not good.

[BobfromWB]

Searching for a Heartbeat From the Sky - The Nancy Guthrie Case


Can a “Signal Sniffer” Really Locate Nancy Guthrie?

Helicopters overhead. Antennas scanning the ground. Reporters talking about searching for a “heartbeat from the sky.”

It sounds futuristic. A pacemaker acting like a beacon. A signal strong enough to guide rescuers from the air.

But here’s the hard question: are these devices really trackable from hundreds of feet above the ground?

Modern pacemakers transmit tiny bursts of data. They are built for medical monitoring, not long-range tracking. So what exactly is a “signal sniffer,” and how much of this is practical science versus public optics?

@Luis Gonzalez
A “signal sniffer” is a device invented and built by a guy that works for NSA.  He has looked for these types of signals before.

The tech involves high gain antennas and high powered amplifiers, such that a BT signal can be detected from 800 feet away.

He mentioned that pacemakers operate for 3 years. So there is time to find her body whereever it is in northern Mexico.

[Luis Gonzalez]

@Luis Gonzalez
A “signal sniffer” is a device invented and built by a guy that works for NSA.  He has looked for these types of signals before.

The tech involves high gain antennas and high powered amplifiers, such that a BT signal can be detected from 800 feet away.

He mentioned that pacemakers operate for 3 years. So there is time to find her body whereever it is in northern Mexico.

All that was addressed in the piece. It still the case that the pacemaker emits an incredibly weak signal and the snifter has to be very, very close to it to have a chance of detecting it.

The problem becomes nearly insurmountable when you throw in the fact that they have no clue (insofar as we know) about a specific area to search.

[BobfromWB]

All that was addressed in the piece. 

No it was only generally addressed - the sniffer used is a new invention. The guy that invented it is an expert in radio signal finding and as I mentioned he worked for NSA in that capacity. NSA is tasked with signal interception worldwide. His detector works up to 800 feet from the source; it is not bound by the "conventional" thinking here that BT signals can only be "heard" at 35 feet. If you know anything at all about how radio waves propagate, then you would know that interacting with a signal and detecting it are two different things.

[DB]

All that was addressed in the piece. It still the case that the pacemaker emits an incredibly weak signal and the snifter has to be very, very close to it to have a chance of detecting it.

The problem becomes nearly insurmountable when you throw in the fact that they have no clue (insofar as we know) about a specific area to search.

A high gain antenna is highly directional (the higher the gain, the more directional) and can receive/transmit digital radio signals from much greater distances. For example, a typical home WiFi system can be accessed from miles away with the right antenna as long as it has line of sight to that location.