Every prosecution is only as strong as the evidence behind it. Too often, prosecutors work one step removed from that evidence – relying on static reports and follow-up requests instead of exploring the full digital record themselves.

As modern investigations span multiple mobile devices, cloud accounts and messaging platforms, reviewing digital evidence through disconnected reports makes it harder to understand the complete story. It’s crucial to understand how it all connects.

Digital investigation analytics platforms solve this by bringing evidence together into connected, searchable views. Rather than reviewing each device separately, prosecutors can explore communications, timelines, locations and relationships across an entire case.

Cellebrite Pathfinder is one such platform. It helps prosecutors move beyond static reports and work directly with connected digital evidence, making it easier to understand what happened, prepare stronger cases and present evidence clearly in court.

Key Takeaways:

• It brings scattered device data into one timeline. Instead of matching timestamps across seven separate phones by hand, Pathfinder correlates everything into a single connected view: communications, locations and media.
  
• Turn isolated evidence into a connected story. Go beyond single-device evidence review with AI-powered investigative analytics that uncover connections across multiple devices, suspects and cases.
  
• The payoff shows up in court, not just in prep. Clear, exhibit-ready visualizations help translate digital evidence into convictions.

What Is Cellebrite Pathfinder?

Cellebrite Pathfinder is a digital investigation analytics platform that helps prosecutors review complete case evidence, and not just the reports they receive from investigators.

After digital evidence has been extracted, Pathfinder brings everything together and automatically organizes, links and categorizes all data. Instead of opening one extraction after another or requesting additional reports from investigators, prosecutors can explore communications, locations, media and connections across every device involved.

The result is a clearer understanding of what happened, faster evidence review and stronger preparation for charging decisions, discovery and trial.

Here are five impactful things prosecutors find helpful in Cellebrite Pathfinder:

1. Uncover the Big Picture with Communication Mapping

Pathfinder’s enables prosecutors to map communication patterns across individuals, devices and platforms in a single node-link graph. You can see who contacted whom, when and how frequently — whether through calls, emails, texts or encrypted messaging apps — without manually cross-referencing call logs and message threads phone by phone.

Why it matters: This helps build or challenge timelines, establish conspiracies or show intent. It’s particularly useful in complex cases like gang-related crimes, trafficking rings or financial crime, where communication flow is critical evidence.

2. Establish Timelines from Multiple Data Sources 

By aggregating data from phones, cloud services, apps and even IoT devices, Pathfinder creates a unified chronological timeline of events across all data sources — correlating timestamps that would otherwise sit in separate extraction reports for each device.

Why it matters: Timelines help juries and judges clearly understand sequences of events — such as a suspect’s location before and after a crime, or conversations leading up to an incident. This is essential in proving or refuting alibis. In the Oakland County, Michigan prosecution of the Oxford High School shooter’s parents, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney David Williams explained why this mattered with seven phones in play: “Instead of me having to open up seven phones and try to match them up and say, when the shooter sent that photo, when was it received? By whom? It would’ve taken forever.”

3. Isolate Key Evidence with Advanced Filtering 

With terabytes of data to sift through, and court deadlines that are essential to meet (such as discovery), prosecutors need to quickly narrow down what is relevant. Pathfinder’s advanced filters allow for searches based on keywords, date ranges, contact names, media types and app usage – whether in text, image or video – and its AI-powered “find similar” feature can surface an entire category of visually related images across every device in a case.

Why it matters: This accelerates evidence review, supports quick discovery requests and enables laser-focused trial preparation — particularly useful under tight legal timelines.

4. Reveal Hidden Connections and Common Entities 

Pathfinder uses AI-powered entity recognition and person resolution to detect commonalities across devices — shared contacts, Wi-Fi networks, geolocations and even photos — that would be nearly impossible to catch by manually paging through each device’s extraction.

Why it matters: This is critical for linking co-defendants or proving that multiple suspects were in the same place at the same time, even when they attempt to obscure their ties — and it’s how gaps get filled that investigators didn’t know to look for. As Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald put it after her team cross-referenced evidence across multiple phones: “I didn’t have the hours or the people to do what Pathfinder did. We wouldn’t have known things.”

5. Present Evidence Clearly in Court 

Prosecutors must not only gather evidence but present it in a way that resonates with juries. Pathfinder enables courtroom-ready, exhibit-ready visualizations — link diagrams, timelines and annotated media — that make complex, multi-device data understandable at a glance.

Why it matters: If a juror isn’t tech-savvy, everyone can grasp visual storytelling. Pathfinder’s export tools help convey digital evidence persuasively and clearly, supporting convictions with clarity and professionalism. In the Oxford High School case, that clarity translated directly into outcomes: two separate juries, in back-to-back trials, found the shooter’s parents guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and both were sentenced to 10 years — exceeding sentencing guidelines.

Final Thoughts 

Digital investigation analytics have advanced rapidly, both to keep pace with the growing volume of digital evidence and to let stakeholders outside the lab review it directly. Prosecutors shouldn’t have to keep manually piecing digital evidence together from disconnected reports and endless back-and-forth with law enforcement.

Cellebrite Pathfinder gives prosecutors direct access to the complete digital picture: helping them understand relationships, reconstruct timelines, uncover critical evidence and present complex findings with confidence in court. When the full story is already in front of them, they can spend less time chasing information and more time building the strongest case possible.

Whether preparing discovery, evaluating charges or standing before a jury, direct access to connected digital evidence helps prosecutors build stronger, more confident cases.

See how Pathfinder fits into your office’s workflow on the Cellebrite Pathfinder product page, or explore more resources built for your role on the Prosecutor solutions page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cellebrite Pathfinder?

Cellebrite Pathfinder is an AI-powered digital investigation analytics platform that ingests data already extracted from phones, cloud accounts, apps and other devices and connects it into a single searchable case file — mapping communications, building timelines and surfacing entities across every device in a case.

How difficult is it to use Pathfinder?

Pathfinder is designed to be intuitive for non-forensic staff, including attorneys, so prosecutors can review connected evidence directly rather than routing every question back through the investigative team. Cellebrite also offers both free and paid training resources for teams who want a deeper walkthrough.

Can Pathfinder analyze evidence from multiple devices and suspects at once?

Yes. Pathfinder is built for multi-device, multi-suspect case analysis — correlating data from phones, cloud services, apps and IoT devices into a single timeline and connection map across everyone and everything involved in a case.

What kinds of cases has Pathfinder been used in?

Prosecutor’s offices have used Pathfinder in cases ranging from mass-casualty crimes to financial and narcotics investigations, including the Oakland County, Michigan prosecution of the Oxford High School shooter’s parents.