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Suspicious package video to bomb threat, Saskatoon tech expert reviews the email trail

Click to play video: 'Police still searching for woman in video connected with Saskatoon suspicious packages'
Police still searching for woman in video connected with Saskatoon suspicious packages
WATCH ABOVE: Police say their investigation into the suspicious packages in Saskatoon continues even though the woman charged in connection to the scares is in custody. – Apr 21, 2017

Saskatoon police say their investigation into the recent suspicious packages in the city continues.

This, even though Amanda Totchek, also known as Alexa Emerson, was charged in connection to the scares on April 10 and was remanded until her bail hearing next month.

READ MORE: Over 50 charges for Alexa Emerson in suspicious package cases

Totchek, who surrendered to police, faces 54 new charges in relation to a rash white powder packages.

These are in addition to 15 charges stemming from November, when five suspicious packages were delivered to downtown businesses.

READ MORE: Trial date set for woman implicated in Saskatoon suspicious package case

Adding to the complexity of this case is a video that was sent to several media outlets the day before Totchek turned herself in.

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In it is a woman claiming she was the one sending the packages and to this day her identity remains a mystery to police.

READ MORE: Woman in video may have information on Saskatoon suspicious packages

Authorities said they didn’t believe the woman in the video had participated in anything criminal in nature but that she may have useful information related to the suspicious packages case.

“It’s all part of the overall, larger investigation into the suspicious packages,” said Alyson Edwards with the Saskatoon Police Service.

Two days after the video was sent, a bomb threat via email was delivered to Global News.

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According to tech expert Chad Jones with Push Interactions, both emails came from the same address and internet provider.

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Whether a bomb threat sent to Sask Polytechnic this week is linked, is still unclear.

“Basically this is going to give us the route of how the email got here,” Jones said as he walked Global News through the internet header information attached to the emails.

READ MORE: Bomb threat emailed to Saskatchewan Polytechnic

Jones, who has assisted police in past, said there’s a lot you learn from an email. Unique identifiers leave a trail, including what computer it was sent from since a MAC address never changes unlike an IP address that can change over time.

“Cooperating with the provider that provides the Internet service, they’ll be able to tell you from what route it came and even what address it may have come from.”

It is possible for a person to make an email look like it came from somewhere else.

A Toronto widow was defrauded of her home and life savings in a long and complex online fraud scheme.
A Toronto widow was defrauded of her home and life savings in a long and complex online fraud scheme. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

According to Jones, a screen recording of the video was made four days before it was emailed with a Dropbox link.

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“DropBox may be able to tell you a lot about the computer that connected to them and uploaded that video” Jones added

“The video itself may also have information about the camera that was used to make that video, what type of camera is it, what resolution was it, maybe even the model number.”

The video could also have automatically added a GPS location but after analyzing it further, Jones said the video was played from an iPhone and captured on another to avoid that information from being traced.

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