Investigating Hidden Files In Digital Forensics Process

The night Cindy M.* disappeared, she ate dinner with her parents and older brother in the family’s two-story suburban Pittsburgh home, then went to her room and promised to come back for apple-walnut pie. The pretty 13-year-old with dark blond hair and blue-green eyes never returned. When her parents checked her room, they found neither a note nor a sign of forced entry. It was New Year’s Day, 2002, and their daughter was simply gone. Pittsburgh police spent almost two days interviewing Cindy’s friends and family, while neighbors scoured nearby fields and gullies, but everyone came up empty.

When FBI special agent Denise Holtz took over the case, late on Jan. 2, the investigation had barely moved beyond square one. This is what Holtz knew: Cindy was a shy child who wrote poetry and frequently made the honor roll. She was rarely in trouble. She could have run away, but she left her coat hanging in the closet on one of the coldest nights of the year. Only one tidbit seemed promising: Friends said Cindy frequented Internet chat rooms.

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