Four men were ultimately convicted of murdering Ashley Dale, 28, in Liverpool, England. Senior crown prosecutor Olivia Cristinacce-Travis said the recovery of the victim’s phone meant her case was a “very modern prosecution”.
Dale was not the target of the killers, but she was home alone when they broke in.
The shocking murder came seven years after her half-brother was also shot dead in a case of mistaken identity.
The phone belonging to Dale was found near her body when police officers discovered her, fatally injured, in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool. She was killed on August 21, 2022. Gunman James Witham forced his way in and shot the council worker with a Skorpion machine gun.
Police were able to use the phone to find out why this happened to Dale. And to convict her killers who along with her boyfriend were part of the organized crime group, known as the Hillsiders.
“We all do text messages and WhatsApp, but it was the amount of voice notes that she used, which I suppose shows the realities of being in 2023 and the victim being a young woman.” The prosecutor added.
