WA - Mackenzie Cowell, 17, Wenatchee, 9 Feb 2010 - #19

[B Buzz]

VERY DISTURBING VIDEO and song choice. great sleuthing!

 

[theissueathand]

Pertaining to the video with the description of her death on it...

The join date of said user was Feb 12th... only one day before Mac was found.

The upload date on the video while not specific says that it was uploaded five months ago... which if I am counting backwards correctly puts this video upload sometime around the beginning of March which is when the COD was released.

I'm not saying that there is NO way this person knows something about MC's death, but it's unlikely someone close in to the murderer would be posting how Mac was killed before the county did.

It seems that the killer knows exactly what they are doing and how to avoid becoming the focus of this investigation. If it were something that obvious I think LE would have made an arrest already.

 

[theissueathand]

VERY DISTURBING VIDEO and song choice. great sleuthing!

we have to keep in mind that teenage girls (which is what it looks like this is a case of) don't usually read into song lyrics so much... or perhaps that was a song that meant something to MC, we don't know...

I listen to Bullet, and enjoy that type of music... it's really not all raunchy and dark... it just sounds that way because of all the screaming... there are songs of this genre though that are so beautiful they will bring tears to your eyes... I think this video was meant as a tribute and nothing more. IMOO of course.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Pertaining to the video with the description of her death on it...

The join date of said user was Feb 12th... only one day before Mac was found.

The upload date on the video while not specific says that it was uploaded five months ago... which if I am counting backwards correctly puts this video upload sometime around the beginning of March which is when the COD was released.

I'm not saying that there is NO way this person knows something about MC's death, but it's unlikely someone close in to the murderer would be posting how Mac was killed before the county did.

It seems that the killer knows exactly what they are doing and how to avoid becoming the focus of this investigation. If it were something that obvious I think LE would have made an arrest already.

HI, theissueathand,

The upload date is quite specific: February 19, 2010

 

[theissueathand]

The ms Picture was tiny

If this person was friends with MC on Myspace, she could easily get the size picture that was used in the video.

 

[theissueathand]

HI, theissueathand,

The upload date is quite specific: February 19, 2010

Okay, I didn't see that, good catch, it's still early...

but descriptions for videos can be changed at anytime as well, no?

I saw this video at the very beginning of this investigation and don't recall the COD in the description, but I could be wrong.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

If this person was friends with MC on Myspace, she could easily get the size picture that was used in the video.

Based on the 'quality' (i.e.: a few tell-tale clues) of the picture as it appears in the YouTube video, I do believe it was captured from MC's MySpace page.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Okay, I didn't see that, good catch, it's still early...

but descriptions for videos can be changed at anytime as well, no?

I saw this video at the very beginning of this investigation and don't recall the COD in the description, but I could be wrong.

The YouTube channel page tracks activity.

There is only one 'recent activity' marker on the account owner's page, and it includes the original description:

 

[theissueathand]

The YouTube channel page tracks activity.

There is only one 'recent activity' marker on the account owner's page, and it includes the original description:

As a test I went and edited a description on one of my uploads... it didn't show up in my recent activity.

The latest recent activity I had was favoriting a video a few days ago...

you can check for yourself.

The video I edited was the only one I have uploaded and says I edited it in the description.

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

 

[ChuckMaureen]

As a test I went and edited a description on one of my uploads... it didn't show up in my recent activity.

The latest recent activity I had was favoriting a video a few days ago...

you can check for yourself.

The video I edited was the only one I have uploaded and says I edited it in the description.

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

A more complete test is to upload a video and include a description.

Then, after 'Recent Activity' lists your recent upload, edit the description for that video.

Then check the description as listed in the 'Recent Activity' for that video. If it contains your edit then yes, it is possible the COD could have been added after the fact.

 

[theissueathand]

A more complete test is to upload a video and include a description.

Then, after 'Recent Activity' lists your recent upload, edit the description for that video.

Then check the description as listed in the 'Recent Activity' for that video. If it contains your edit then yes, it is possible the COD could have been added after the fact.

I did the same thing this other person did... uploaded a video a while back and then went back and changed the description with new information. And it did not show up above my recent favorites.

I shall post my results in the next few hours after performing this test.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Below is another commenter's interpretation of the song, "Tears Don't Fall":

ok i think everyone here has missed something. i could be wildly wrong but here's what i get out of it...

"with bloodshot eyes i watch you sleeping" - he's not talking about sleep here... she's dead (silverstien use sleep as a metaphor for death in "smile in your sleep"). "the warmth i feel beside me slowly fading" kind of reinforces that, as her body warmth fades away. "the moment's died, i hear no screaming" also makes me think that he's the one that killed her, and now the screaming's stopped. he feels guilt for it ("her concious calls the guilty to come home"), and he know's that he's walking the path of life in the wrong direction ("the path i walk is in the wrong direction")

"would she hold me if she knew my shame?" - i think he might have killed her to be with someone else, and now he's wondering if she'd still hold him/lovehim if she knew his shame (i.e. what he'd done)

that interpretation could be way off, but the band name makes me think they'd sing about that sort of thing let me know what you think

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858558582/#comment

It's interesting how meanings are extracted. I wonder why the owner of the YouTube account chose this song to include with their slideshow video ... I'm only curious as to why that song, I'm not implying anything ... I'm simply curious as to what was that person's mindset at the time.

 

[theissueathand]

Alrighty, I posted my video of Flobots in concert...

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

I'm going to go favorite a few other videos and then change the description...

see if it shows up above them or if it stays in the same place.

Hell, it hasn't even shown up in my recent activity yet... I'll try another one... see if I can get it to work.

Youtube is glitchy and unreliable a lot of times.

As soon as one of the two videos shows up on my recent activity I will complete the test...

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Alrighty, I posted my video of Flobots in concert...

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

I'm going to go favorite a few other videos and then change the description...

see if it shows up above them or if it stays in the same place.

Hell, it hasn't even shown up in my recent activity yet... I'll try another one... see if I can get it to work.

Youtube is glitchy and unreliable a lot of times.

As soon as one of the two videos shows up on my recent activity I will complete the test...

As in many client/server applications (whether thin- or thick- client), database processing typically is set on a schedule ... the updates we seek will be displayed after YouTube's back end processing eventually processes the changes in your account. Patience is a virtue in such tests .. make one change, and wait for the result, then make your next change, etc.

A general caveat to which we adhere in application development and testing is such:

Making more than one change before seeing the 'result' of any might affect your test result.

It might or might not apply in this case.

 

[theissueathand]

As in many client/server applications (whether thin- or thick- client), database processing typically is set on a schedule ... the updates we seek will be displayed after YouTube's back end processing eventually processes the changes in your account. Patience is a virtue in such tests .. make one change, and wait for the result, then make your next change, etc.

A general caveat to which we adhere in application development and testing is such:

Making more than one change before seeing the 'result' of any might affect your test result.

It might or might not apply in this case.

Well I uploaded two videos and I'm not going to do anything else on Youtube until they show up in my recent activity...

and if the video of my cat in heat pops up as recent activity before those two uploads we'll know that editing the information brings it up in recent activity. If not, I'll have proven my point.

I've spent a lot of time on Youtube with Mac's case, and I'm 99% sure that video you are referencing was made when she very first went missing, and had a caption something about calling the sheriffs office if you saw her. I had never seen that caption on that particular video until you brought it up, and I think I would have noticed something like that.

Time will tell I suppose, but it seems that no amount of testing anyone else does is going to keep people from sleuthing what is most likely a minor who is not even involved in the case... just playing devil's advocate here.

Perhaps someone else should get a Youtube account and try it out as well and then we could have two tests to go on. :twocents:

 

[theissueathand]

My first Flobots video just popped up in recent activity... the video of my cat that I edited the description on prior to that, did not.

Once the second video pops up, I will edit the description on the first to complete the test... just for reference, the first video description is: "Flobots live in concert: Part one of testing"

 

[theissueathand]

K, I completed the test.

Both videos popped up on recent activity.

I edited the first one.

The caption changed to: "Flobots live in concert: Part one of testing
Edited for testing at 11:28 am August 5th"

but the video stayed in the same place on the list.

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

 

[WenRes]

New Article todayhttp://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2010/aug/05/cowell-likely-knew-killer-sheriff-says/

 

[ChuckMaureen]

New Article todayhttp://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2010/aug/05/cowell-likely-knew-killer-sheriff-says/

He said investigators did not release the knife information until mid-July because they did not want the owner of the knife to get rid of the rest of the set.

Reason why LE did not release the knife information early on:

• LE did not want the murderer to know they had retrieved the knife. LE believed if the murderer was not aware LE had recovered the knife that s/he would feel more comfortable with retaining the set, even though it would then at least be missing the 'murder weapon' knife.

I'm must say, that is Ridiculous, with a capital R.

Did LE believe the murderer, no longer in possession of the murder weapon, would believe LE had not retrieved the knife from the recovery site?

Perhaps LE thought the murderer would not want to dispose of even a then-incomplete set so as not to draw suspicion or because s/he had an emotional attachment to the set?

I am not sure I could be convinced the murderer would have retained a set container that would be missing an item that was used in a murder, reegardless of whether or not s/he believed LE had retrieved the item.

Forget the 'souvenir' angle ... the murderer more likely would have retained the knife, not the set from whence it came.

It is possible the murderer stole a knife or used a knife that no one except perhaps accomplices would know s/he owned.

It also is possible LE did not retrieve the knife from the recovery site as claimed but from another location that perhaps only the murderer would know ... and LE believed the murderer believed s/he had so successfully disposed of the item that there was no way they would assume LE would locate it.

Nah ... a simpler scenario is mot likely the true scenario.

In short, the knife information should have been released concurrent with the news of recovery of MC's body.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

K, I completed the test.

Both videos popped up on recent activity.

I edited the first one.

The caption changed to: "Flobots live in concert: Part one of testing
Edited for testing at 11:28 am August 5th"

but the video stayed in the same place on the list.

http://www.youtube.com/user/snerkerfroodle

I also performed a test. Video description text changes appeared immediately in the Recent Activity bookmark of my test video.

Conclusions:

• It is possible to edit video description text.
• Video description text displayed in Recent Activity video bookmarks most likely sources directly from the same database entry as does the YouTube page dedicated to a specific video.
• Recent Activity date flag does not change when a bookmarked video's description text is edited on a later date.
• Recent Activity does not track nor timestamp changes made to bookmarked entries content.
• Beyond having screen-captured the YouTube account page at the time the video was posted and comparing to current status there is no way to determine if or when description text was added / edited.