In another case, a woman went on a vacation with friends and left her smartphone on the kitchen counter. Her husband suspected she was having an affair and asked Mr. Lewis to analyze the phone, which was on a family account in the husband’s name. (In New York and most other states, a phone on a family plan and located within the house where both spouses reside is fair game, says Mr. Lewis.)
An examination of the text messages on the phone showed that the wife was hiding assets—using text messages to set up drug sales.
But that was just the start of the surprises. Information on the phone showed she was living a double life, with multiple boyfriends and sex clubs. The harshest finding was that she had hired a hit man to kill her husband while she was away on vacation.
“We prevented a homicide,” Mr. Lewis says.
