VIXN Team - Fermata Discovery https://www.fermatadiscovery.com Thu, 13 Feb 2025 03:46:13 +0000 en hourly 1 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-fermata-32x32.png VIXN Team - Fermata Discovery https://www.fermatadiscovery.com 32 32 Serial Killer Revealed https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/inside-the-investigation-serial-killer-revealed/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-the-investigation-serial-killer-revealed Sun, 12 May 2024 13:26:06 +0000 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/?p=9865 Told by Inv. Sergeant Michaels, Tri-State Fusion Center Task Force: Obviously I need to be vague about the details of this investigation as the case is now with the Prosecutor’s Office. Our DA took office about 4 years ago and had a mission of clearing out a backlog of cold cases. One in particular, a presumed serial killer who was thought to be linked to 5 different murders based on M.O. “Our Task Force is now working with the DA’s Office in prosecuting Smith…VIXN remains a great resource for our team.” Sergeant Michaels To bring these cases to justice the...

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Told by Inv. Sergeant Michaels, Tri-State Fusion Center Task Force:

Obviously I need to be vague about the details of this investigation as the case is now with the Prosecutor’s Office. Our DA took office about 4 years ago and had a mission of clearing out a backlog of cold cases. One in particular, a presumed serial killer who was thought to be linked to 5 different murders based on M.O.

"Our Task Force is now working with the DA’s Office in prosecuting Smith...VIXN remains a great resource for our team."

Sergeant Michaels


To bring these cases to justice the DA formed a Task Force that grew into a Tri-State Intel Fusion Center. I had been working as a Sergeant in the Sheriff’s Office’s Human Trafficking Unit and much of my work was interviewing girls in our facilities booked on prostitution charges. Unfortunately, this demographic is often a victim profile in cold case homicides, so with my background knowledge I was added to the Task Force. 

Clearing the serial killer case was our top priority, and by 2022 we had a few persons of interest identified. However, circumstantial evidence and witness accounts were all we had connecting these persons to the crime scenes. We needed something more conclusive — finding that hard evidence was our mission.

In April of 2023, I met the VIXN Team. They were on-site running a training of VIXN for one of the Units I work with. I was impressed not only with how the system ran fast visual analysis of data, but the broad, deep data search it seemed capable of.

During a break, they ask the room if anyone had information they wanted to run through the system as a demo. I had the list of a dozen burner phone numbers collected from my interviews, suspected to have been used by the killer to contact victims. We ran these numbers through VIXN, and within 2 minutes all the results returned.

And there on the results screen I saw his name… our key person of interest, let’s call him ‘Tom Smith,’ connected to 2 of the phone numbers. Also in the results were several massage parlors located in the vicinity of a few of the crime scenes. We now had real new leads from these burner numbers. 

I left the training room and went back to my desk to pull the logs for these numbers from the phone provider. The investigation took off from there. Hundreds of warrants later and a DNA sample retrieved from our prime suspect, we had Tom Smith in custody. 

The VIXN Team also assisted me in retrieving all of the source data from the findings that validated Smith as our suspect, connecting him directly to those phone numbers. Our Task Force is now working with the DA’s Office in prosecuting Smith, as well as digging into other cold cases. VIXN remains a great resource for our team.

More VIXN case studies: 

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]]> Auto Fraud Finished https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/inside-the-investigation-auto-fraud-finished/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-the-investigation-auto-fraud-finished Sun, 12 May 2024 13:11:38 +0000 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/?p=9845 Told by Investigative Analyst Busch, California Law Enforcement Special Task Force: We’d been facing a significant rise in reported auto damage and thefts, which seemed to correlate to an increase in automotive insurance fraud. These schemes often involve fraudsters bombarding insurers with numerous claims, that quickly result in fast payouts and add up to substantial losses for the insurance companies. “Thanks to these findings in VIXN, the fraud ring is now facing prosecution, and our investigations have expanded to include several other potential rings.” Analyst Busch Determined to shift from defense to offense in combating this fraud, our task force...

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Told by Investigative Analyst Busch, California Law Enforcement Special Task Force:

We’d been facing a significant rise in reported auto damage and thefts, which seemed to correlate to an increase in automotive insurance fraud. These schemes often involve fraudsters bombarding insurers with numerous claims, that quickly result in fast payouts and add up to substantial losses for the insurance companies.

"Thanks to these findings in VIXN, the fraud ring is now facing prosecution, and our investigations have expanded to include several other potential rings."

Analyst Busch

Determined to shift from defense to offense in combating this fraud, our task force of local law enforcement was formed to identify and bring charges against the perpetrators. 

After a few weeks of attempting to compare claims against auto damage and theft reports, we were introduced to VIXN. Pablo helped us import all of this data into VIXN within a couple days, and then our analysis work really took off.

In VIXN we could search for activity among and between insurance claims and police reports for specific locations and time periods to find connections and patterns. As persons of interest surfaced, VIXN search tools allowed us to retrieve additional information on these people — their addresses, vehicles, relatives, etc.

With this expanded information available, the VIXN Graph began to reveal hidden links among the suspicious claimants.

In one of our initial investigations using VIXN, we zoomed in on two claimants within a specific radius. Viewed separately, these profiles appeared unconnected; however, the VIXN Graph quickly highlighted that both claimants had a mutual contact who shared an address with each. This discovery was our first significant lead.

Digging deeper, our unit traced other shared phone numbers and addresses in VIXN, eventually unveiling a network of 20 individuals—friends and relatives of the original claimants. Together, this group had filed dozens of fraudulent claims, racking up total payouts of around $1M.

Thanks to these findings in VIXN, the fraud ring is now facing prosecution, and our investigations have expanded to include several other potential rings.

More VIXN case studies: 

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]]> No Fooling with Fentanyl https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/inside-the-investigation-no-fooling-with-fentanyl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-the-investigation-no-fooling-with-fentanyl Thu, 09 May 2024 14:04:49 +0000 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/?p=9801 Told by CO Investigator Rivera, Texas Sheriff’s Office: It began with a routine inspection when our corrections officers detained a visitor, Brielle Jenkins, after finding fentanyl hidden among her personal items. Jenkins insisted she was coerced into smuggling the contraband into our facility, claiming a threat was made against her and her mother’s safety after she posted her resume online. She alleged that she didn’t know anyone in the jail and was merely a pawn in someone else’s scheme. “The results were instant and obvious.” Investigator Rivera We were skeptical of her story, to say the least. Determined to uncover...

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Told by CO Investigator Rivera, Texas Sheriff’s Office:

It began with a routine inspection when our corrections officers detained a visitor, Brielle Jenkins, after finding fentanyl hidden among her personal items. Jenkins insisted she was coerced into smuggling the contraband into our facility, claiming a threat was made against her and her mother’s safety after she posted her resume online. She alleged that she didn’t know anyone in the jail and was merely a pawn in someone else’s scheme.

"The results were instant and obvious."

Investigator Rivera

We were skeptical of her story, to say the least. Determined to uncover the truth, we turned to VIXN to probe deeper. Initiating a comprehensive search for Jenkin’s contact details, VIXN quickly returned 11 phone numbers associated with her—a starting point that seemed promising.

Knowing we had all of our Corrections Data integrated in VIXN,w e pushed those numbers through the Datasets module to find any potential links to inmates in our facilities. 

The results were instant and obvious. 

The Connections Graph immediately returned a hidden network: one of Jenkin’s numbers was frequently called by five different inmates over the past three months.

With this irrefutable evidence in hand, we confronted Jenkins. Faced with the facts, she broke down and confessed. This breakthrough not only confirmed her involvement but also unraveled a broader fentanyl ring operating both inside and outside our walls.

VIXN had this case open and closed within 30 minutes. It might have been impossible to piece the connections together without it. We’re now using VIXN to run intelligence in a large sting operation stemming from Jenkins’ confession. 

More VIXN case studies: 

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]]> Vice Ring Busts https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/inside-the-investigation-vice-ring-busts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-the-investigation-vice-ring-busts Thu, 09 May 2024 11:25:08 +0000 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/?p=9778 Told by Detective Garcia, Florida Police Department:  Sex trafficking operating out of local massage parlors has been a long standing problem here in Florida. Over the last 18 months, we’ve seen an unprecedented number of reports and busts. Our County formed a specialized Vice unit with a clear mission: identify and dismantle these illicit operations.  “Within 15 minutes of using VIXN, we had dozens of new leads.” Detective Garcia The VIXN team had been in touch with our Captain and demonstrated how the tool assists with lead generation. Most players in these trafficking investigations are ghosts, so whatever leads we...

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Told by Detective Garcia, Florida Police Department: 

Sex trafficking operating out of local massage parlors has been a long standing problem here in Florida. Over the last 18 months, we’ve seen an unprecedented number of reports and busts. Our County formed a specialized Vice unit with a clear mission: identify and dismantle these illicit operations. 

"Within 15 minutes of using VIXN, we had dozens of new leads."

Detective Garcia

The VIXN team had been in touch with our Captain and demonstrated how the tool assists with lead generation. Most players in these trafficking investigations are ghosts, so whatever leads we could generate would be a huge help. 

We focused VIXN on a massage spa that we had just received reports on. We ran its search tools on 2 targets: one on the business itself and the other on the presumed owner, a person who had recently entered the country with barely a traceable footprint. Results returned fast and were impressive. From our initial limited search inputs, VIXN located hundreds of data points.

VIXN linked our targets to 8 addresses, 3 emails, 4 social media profiles, and 12 key network connections. One of these connections led us right to another suspicious massage parlor that had been on our radar. 

VIXN also found a Yelp page associated with the suspected sex-trafficking parlor. Instead of having to read through hundreds of reviews, VIXN extracted these posts automatically and highlighted those that referenced prostitution activities going back to 2018. We then ran a VIXN search on each author of these reviews to identify them for follow-up interviews.

Within 15 minutes of using VIXN, we had dozens of new leads in just this one investigation and a new way of finding sex-trafficking claims through Yelp reviews.

This experience has been a game-changer. VIXN is now a part of our investigation processes. The speed and depth of the intelligence gathered has given us a significant advantage in our ongoing efforts to protect our community.

More VIXN case studies: 

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]]> Sex Trafficking Shutdown https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/inside-the-investigation-sex-trafficking-shutdown/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-the-investigation-sex-trafficking-shutdown Wed, 08 May 2024 15:46:02 +0000 https://www.fermatadiscovery.com/?p=9629 Told by Lieutenant O’Donnell, New York Sheriff’s Office: Our Sheriff’s Office Corrections Intelligence Unit was faced with a significant challenge, a huge surge in contraband entering our facilities. But this recent contraband bust didn’t only find drugs and cell phones.  “This case has instantly made VIXN a go-to tool in our arsenal.” Lieutentant O’Donnell We also recovered a stockpile of illicit photos of young women, suggesting a darker criminal operation behind the scenes. We decided to put VIXN to the task. Our analyst imported all our Corrections data into VIXN, phone logs, financial deposits, and visitor records collected over the last...

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Told by Lieutenant O’Donnell, New York Sheriff’s Office:

Our Sheriff’s Office Corrections Intelligence Unit was faced with a significant challenge, a huge surge in contraband entering our facilities. But this recent contraband bust didn’t only find drugs and cell phones. 

"This case has instantly made VIXN a go-to tool in our arsenal."

Lieutentant O'Donnell

We also recovered a stockpile of illicit photos of young women, suggesting a darker criminal operation behind the scenes.

We decided to put VIXN to the task. Our analyst imported all our Corrections data into VIXN, phone logs, financial deposits, and visitor records collected over the last year. He then ran the VIXN Connections Graph to surface all of the activities and interactions among inmates associated with the contraband. 

Within minutes connections between these inmates appeared and a central figure emerged: Alissa Brooks, known for her frequent visits to a key suspect and her involvement in suspicious financial transactions.

Digging deeper using VIXN, we uncovered an alias for Brooks. We had encountered her earlier in the year when she was booked on prostitution-related had prior charges. 

Using their search tools, our analyst retrieved the network connections for Brooks and her alias, leading to a significant breakthrough. Her network led us to her mother, and through her, we connected to a name that set off alarms: Matthew Palmer.

Palmer was already known to us, not as a minor player but as an incarcerated kingpin in a major sex trafficking ring, operated out of his own home. The discovery that he was Brooks’ stepfather was a pivotal moment in our investigation. This connection not only implicated Brooks in the contraband operations but also raised the very real possibility that she could be a victim of trafficking herself.

This case has instantly made VIXN a go-to tool in our arsenal. It’s now part of our daily intelligence processes and has allowed us to peel back the layers on some complex cases. We can now quickly reveal intricate webs of networks that were operating right under our noses and put a stop to these criminal activities.

More VIXN case studies: 

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