The arrest and subsequent judicial conviction of Keralite woman Sofia and her paramour Arun in Australia is the result of a painstaking yet meticulous police investigation, reports say.
The victim, Sam Abraham, a 34-year-old UAE Exchange Employee, was found dead in his Epping home in suburban Melbourne in October 2015. The victim was in deep slumber when the cyanide-laced juice that his wife prepared acted in him.
The police was on an innocuous stakeout and watched the movements and meetings of Sofia and Arun. Reports in the Australian media said the police 'watched them meet for lunch and run errands.' The Age, an Australian newspaper, said the police secured a diary which Sofia shared with her lover. The jurors heard prosaic and sometimes versified expressions of love in the notes.
Tele-cyber patterns
The police examined thousands of call data records (CDRs) to identify 'patterns,' a technique used by tele-cyber investigators.
The crucial leads include the first call of the day, call duration, and critical multiple short-duration calls.
The cops superimpose probability matrices on these 'basic data sheets' to arrive at probable conclusions. Such conclusions are then verified physically or gauged forensically.
How it works
The 'basic data sheet' and correlation matrix could be like this: It is a suspect's birthday and he receives a call. So, the 'first caller' on the 'birthday' is a correlation that investigators use to infer that the caller is an 'important person' in the suspect's scheme of things.
Elaborate planning
Arun had been feigning a mental illness for the past three years to counter any possible allegation and escape culpability. This is testimony to the amount of premeditation and planning involved in the murder.
Intense entries
Australian media published diary entries of Sofia. Some of the entries read so:
The website www.news.com.au said undercover police noticed that the lovers moved together but were 'making efforts not to be seen so.' Later the police found that Sofia had transferred the ownership of Sam's car to Arun. The police moved slowly and did not divulge the details to Sofia.
The jury heard the audio recording of a distress call to triple-0 in which Sofia 'thought' Sam suffered a heart attack. The jury heard her wails in the background.
The prosecution, The Age said, hinged on the highly improbable aspect of Sofia not being unaware that her husband sleeping beside her had been poisoned.