GPS Tracking Provides Centerpiece Evidence in Babysitter Murder Conviction
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Woodstock, IL – February 23, 2009 – Information retrieved from the LandAirSea GPS Tracking Key provided the Chenango County Prosecutor evidence necessary to secure a second-degree murder conviction of George Ford Jr. Ford initially contended he accidently ran over his 12 year-old babysitter Shyanne Somers in the early hours of July 8, 2007, when Shyanne asked to see Ford’s horses on Will Warner Road in the town of Otselic. However, the defendant’s wife had placed a GPS tracking device within the vehicle after suspecting infidelity. The information from the Tracking Key conflicted with the events provided by Ford.
Prosecutors, using the GPS data, showed that Ford never went to the pasture, but instead spent more than three hours behind an abandoned farmhouse a half-mile from where the girl was killed. Investigators testified that Somers got away from Ford, who chased her and deliberately ran her down shortly after 3 a.m.
