Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
So I think I figured out what’s going on with the text messages.
We know that the shooter is not cooperating with authorities, has a lawyer, and allegedly destroyed his phone, clothing, and other evidence. So the police are getting information only from the boyfriend.
My theory is that the boyfriend received messages from the shooter and, in a moment of panic, either erases the messages or wiped his own phone. If the messages were end-to-end encrypted, they should be impossible to recover. If the messages were sent over an app rather than SMS texting, then the mobile service provider would not have anything to provide to authorities.
So the boyfriend relays the content of the text conversation with the shooter to the police. And now Utah police have put together a stylized transcript based on the testimony of the boyfriend. And this is what gets released to the public as part of the charging documents, because they are in a rush to release information. Recovering encrypted data from a mobile phone could take days or even weeks.
The police compile the stylized transcript, they let the boyfriend review it, and he says “Sure, that’s close enough” since he can’t remember every verbatim word or detail.
This would dovetail with Patel’s weird remark that they know of the shooter writing some sort of manifesto, but do not have access to it. If it’s encrypted and was deleted, it’s done-zo.
So yes, the text message chain was crafted by law enforcement but on the basis of testimony by the boyfriend about a real conversation that happened.