The case involving the wrongful death of a woman, where Gmail server evidence was critical in solving a three-year missing person investigation, led to a $23.2 million jury verdict against the victim’s husband. The investigation began in 2022 when wattersa, a lawyer from Redwood City, California, and a long-time Slashdot reader, brought to light a compelling story about the use of digital forensics to solve a missing person case. The core of the case involved a murder suspect who was initially thought to be exonerated by an email sent by the victim, but further analysis of the email’s IP addresses revealed it was sent from a hotel where the suspect was staying. This revelation was made possible through a subpoena to Google, which retains IP address data for an unknown period, even though it does not include the originating IP address in email headers. The case eventually reached the courtroom in July 2025, where wattersa and an expert witness on computer networking testified about the investigation. The jury deliberated for only three hours before delivering a verdict of wrongful death against the husband of the victim, with a special finding that he had caused the wife’s death. Despite the evidence, the defendant, a Canadian mechanical engineer working for an energy company, remains a free man because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan. The lawyer expressed his hope that this case would serve as a model for future missing person investigations, highlighting the importance of digital forensics in solving complex legal cases.