The cyber stalking case from hell started coming to light earlier this year when a co-worker of Tammy Burch saw her allegedly compiling reams of paper work containing personal details of her ex-husband’s life.
Burch, a 46-year-old accountant who got divorced in 2006 and had spent her entire professional life at a prestigious Cumming firm, was so preoccupied with her mission that the worried co-worker reported it to the target of her surveillance, prosecutors said.
By late summer, an investigation by Forsyth Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Karic determined she had invaded almost every aspect of the lives of Randy Duncan, a Delta pilot, and his new wife, prosecutors said.
Burch retrieved more than 120 pages of their cell phone logs and researched who they called and when, according to prosecutors. She allegedly obtained their online passwords, found what they searched on the Internet, had access to their email accounts, had the ability to install aps on their iPhones. Burch kept tract of Duncan and his new wife’s location by monitoring IP logs and the new wife by monitoring her Ga. 400 Peach Pass, cross referencing that with phone records to see when and where she was. Also, she allegedly got IRS statements, banking records, credit card info, investment records, their Facebook postings and even what e-coupons they used.
Burch even monitored her ex-husband’s electronic communications with his lawyer during a bitter child custody dispute, Forsyth County Assistant District Attorney Michael Mahoney told a judge, adding “and it was thought she was using that to her advantage during custody hearings.”
The alleged cyber invasion, breathtaking in scope, puts an ominous face on the crime of stalking, and shows how easily a determined perpetrator can mine electronic sources for private, personal information, experts say.
Arrests and prosecutions for cyber theft and fraud have become more common, but cases for cyber stalking and non-financial computer invasions are still relatively rare, attorneys say.
Burch was arrested in early August and one-month later, prosecutors were dead-set against her being released from jail, noting the escalation of her alleged actions and that the FBI had been called in to sift through three computers seized in the case.
“She has such extensive access to these people’s lives that she’s a risk to intimidate the witnesses,” Mahoney told a judge. “She has everything about them. She knows everything about them.”
The judge agreed and she was held for two and a half months more before being released.
Burch had no comment when reached by telephone. Her attorneys, Jennifer Patterson, who represented her during her divorce and E. Logan Butler, her lawyer during the bond hearing, did not return calls for comment. Attorney Tony Cochran, who is representing Duncan declined comment.
Randy Kessler, a divorce lawyer, said people often dig into their soon-to-be-ex-spouse’s data, often illegally. He said if an email account is shared, both people have legal access but if not, or they split up, things can get legally dicey.
“Human curiosity will often make people risk breaking the law, even decent people,” he said. “It feels like a justifiable crime or they feel it’s a justifiable risk. It’s evolving law and there have been so few prosecutions.
“When a human being is motivated by anger or revenge, there’s no limit to what they can do,” he said. “It’s unbelievable how much more (surveillance) you can do at home these days. Before, you had to hire private eyes or get a friend to go by her house.”
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who has 21 years in office but is not involved in this case, said divorces generate a good number of requests for perjury investigations but not a lot of computer stalking or computer theft cases.
“A lot of us are more exposed than we think. A determined individual with some computer skills can make tremendous inroads into your life,” Porter said. The more digitally active people are, the more vulnerable they are. Cracking the password of an email can then help gain entry to bank records or even health care information, he said.
Dave Maass, spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said personal cyber stalking came to light this year in investigations into the NSA. National Security Agency employees sometimes used the organization’s vast resources to spy on love interests, leading to the the term LOVEINT, a play on terms like SIGINT, which means “signal intelligence.”
“We have a surveillance society and a lot of collection of data, so it doesn’t just leave the door open for government, it opens doors for people you know,” Maass said. He said many people have for years been lax about passwords and making sure they set up higher privacy settings. Recent stories about government spying and identity theft cases have made people smarter, he said.
How Tammy Burch allegedly hacked into her ex-husband’s life will be determined through more investigation.
The couple had been divorced for many years and she allegedly accessed some information Duncan and his new wife said they did not put on the Internet. Dr. Adriana Flores, the new wife, is a forensic psychologist and Burch allegedly accessed her confidential client reports, as well as as client phone numbers and billing records, according to court records.
Flores, testified for the defense in the blockbuster 2012 trial of Hemy Neuman, who was convicted of killing Rusty Sneiderman. She interviewed Neuman and testified that the victim’s wife, Andrea Sneiderman, had manipulated Neuman. “She was planting these suggestions and manipulating him into believing what she believed and thinking what she thought,” Flores testified.
It is unknown if Burch accessed those reports.
She also got into “a Homeland Security-sensitive website that included flight information of Mr. Duncan” a Delta pilot, Mahoney, the prosecutor, said.
Not only was information accessed, it was “actively printed, catalogued, stored and analyzed by the defendant,” the prosecutor said.
Kessler, the divorce lawyer, said he is happy to hear more of these cases come to light.
“People don’t think they’ll be prosecuted,” he said. “It’s good to know they can be.”
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