Nautical Forensics

A couple went on a fishing trip off the California coast and didn’t come back. Their boat washed ashore in Mexico, and the lifejackets, lifeboat, wallets, purse and other personal belonging were all on the boat. I was listening to Fox News when they mentioned that Coast Guard computer forensics team were reviewing the onboard GPS unit to see just where the boat was positioned when it began to go off course in hopes to figure out what happened to the couple.

From FoxNews here:

Hope is fading for a California couple who vanished at sea this week off the coast of Mexico.

The U.S. Coastguard halted its search late Saturday for Josh Hartman, 28, and his fiancee, 30-year-old Ana Martin of Oceanside, Calif. after their boat washed up on a beach near Rosarito, Mexico, on Friday.

The 32-foot fishing boat, named “The Pelican,” landed ashore just north of Rosarito, a beach community 20 miles south of the border. Investigators have found no trace of either Hartman, who is an experienced boater, or Martin.

If the couple were attacked by pirates, they would have taken the money. I’m guessing it was a murder/suicide or a really bad day fishing. But I also think its a neat application of computer forensics to recover the boat’s navigation charts from its GPS unit.