Alexa, Play The Evidence: Judge Orders Amazon To Hand Over Echo Recordings Of Double Stabbing Murders

(Photo by Joby Sessions/T3 Magazine via Getty Images)

Amazon To Hand Over Echo Recordings In Double Murder Case

If you thought that Amazon’s Echo only recorded when you said “Alexa”,  you were wrong. Investigators believe that smart home device “Alexa” recorded the stabbing attack on two women in New Hampshire, and now Amazon has to hand over the audio to the police.

According to NBC, a judge has ruled that New Hampshire authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of two women can examine recordings made by an Amazon Echo speaker with the Alexa voice assistant. Timothy Verrill, of Dover, is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of his girlfriend 48-year-old Christine Sullivan and 32-year-old Jenna Pellegrini at a Farmington home in 2017. Verrill pleaded not guilty and faces trial.

The bodies were left in the backyard, under a tarp, and a knife was buried nearby, police said. Pellegrini, 32, had been stabbed 43 times and Sullivan, 48, was stabbed eight times and had her skull fractured, according to authorities.

Prosecutors believe there are Echo recordings capturing the attack on Sullivan and removal of her body that could be found on the server maintained by Amazon.

An Amazon spokesperson said Friday it won’t release customer information “without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.” Welp, now they will have to release it, per a judge’s order.