Homicide investigations rarely begin with a full picture. They begin with a victim, a scene, and a set of questions that need answers fast.
For Detective Shon McGuire of the Volusia Sheriff's Office Major Case Unit, those questions are a constant. His unit handles the county's most serious cases: homicides, suspicious deaths, mass casualty incidents, and officer-involved shootings. In a county that sees between 12 and 20 homicides per year, there is little margin for slow.
In a 2020 case that would test the limits of traditional investigative methods, the answer came not from a witness or a tip. It came from cell phone evidence.
The Case: A Burned Vehicle and a Murder
Investigators with the Volusia Major Case Unit were working the murder of a victim who had been shot inside a vehicle that was later set on fire. They identified an initial suspect early through GPS data, but the evidence pointed to additional individuals being involved.
That's where the investigation stalled. Without a fast way to map and analyze large volumes of call detail records, confirming or eliminating additional suspects meant hours, sometimes days, of manual review. Thousands of records. Dozens of connections. All sorted by hand.
"There's so much effort and time to go through thousands of different records," McGuire explains.
Investigators needed a faster path from raw carrier data to actionable intelligence.
Cell Phone Evidence Reveals a Hidden Connection
McGuire turned to CellHawk, a cell phone mapping and timeline analysis tool, to work through the call detail records connected to the case.
After obtaining a search warrant for the primary suspect's historical cell records, McGuire mapped the data. The results confirmed what GPS had already suggested: the suspect was placed at the scene. But the mapping analysis didn't stop there.
Anomalies in the call activity pointed to a second individual. Someone who had already told investigators he had nothing to do with the case.
McGuire obtained a search warrant for that person's records and mapped them as well.
"When we got a search warrant for his records and mapped it, it actually put him with our suspect."
The cell phone evidence didn't just contradict the denial. It documented it, with precision.
From Denial to Cooperation
What happened next is the kind of moment that defines an investigation.
When that individual was confronted with the mapping results and shown exactly where his device had been and when, his story collapsed.
"When this person was confronted with 'Hey, you lied to us. We can put you here,' they actually became a witness in the case," McGuire recalls.
The cooperation that followed was decisive. The witness provided the details investigators needed to identify three suspects. All three were arrested. All three later pled to first or second-degree murder.
Cell phone evidence didn't just build the case. It broke it open.
Beyond One Case: A Tool McGuire Relies on Every Day
For McGuire, that homicide investigation is one example of what CellHawk makes possible across the full range of major crimes work.
"CellHawk, I use probably on every single case that I get," he says.
The platform converts raw carrier data into maps, timelines, and link analysis, giving investigators a clear view of who was where, when, and who they were in contact with. In missing persons investigations, McGuire has used CellHawk's timeline analysis and heat mapping to narrow the window of when a victim was last alive and to surface inconsistencies in a person of interest's account that manual review would have missed.
The speed matters as much as the insight. "CellHawk helps map a lot quicker than how I could do it by hand," McGuire says.
That efficiency has made him a resource for investigators across his agency and beyond. Colleagues bring him their toughest cases. He has testified in support of other agencies after mapping their records. His recommendation is consistent:
"I personally would recommend CellHawk to every agency."
The Standard for Modern Homicide Investigations
Cell phone evidence has become a foundational element of major crimes work. Juries expect it. Prosecutors rely on it. For investigators, the ability to analyze it quickly and present it clearly can be the difference between a case that moves forward and one that stalls.
What the Volusia Major Case Unit demonstrates is that the value of cell phone evidence isn't just in what the data shows. It's in how fast investigators can understand it and act on it.
When a suspect claims they were never there, cell phone evidence has a way of answering back.
Read the Full Story
The complete Volusia Sheriff's Office case study goes deeper into how Detective McGuire and the Major Case Unit use CellHawk across their investigations. If you're evaluating cell phone analysis tools for your agency or want something to share with your command staff, it's worth a read.
Download the Case Study:
See what CellHawk can do for your investigations.
[Request a Demo] | [Learn More About CellHawk]
LeadsOnline is a nationwide investigative intelligence platform helping law enforcement agencies find people, find property, and find patterns. Learn more at LeadsOnline.com.