Having served the community for more than 10 years, Detective Jerod Abshire and Lt. Travis Lavergne of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office (CPSO) in Lake Charles, Louisiana, have seen it all.

From patrol to handling violent crimes, they now work with cutting-edge digital forensics in an era where technology is key to securing justice. “Beginning with violent crimes, I used cell phones as a primary source of information. Through extractions, I could piece together details that were critical to solving cases,” Detective Abshire said. “We’re in a whole new world right now.” 

CPSO supports 34 other agencies, including federal entities, with digital expertise to successfully shorten digital forensics timelines—sometimes from six months to three weeks. In 2024 alone, CPSO is on track to complete about 1,000 mobile extractions. Digital evidence has opened a realm of possibilities, gaining momentum among government officials, prosecutors and agency managers. Digital investigative solutions like Cellebrite Guardian and Cellebrite Inseyets streamline evidence management and enhance data extraction and analysis. Lt. Lavergne added, “When we saw the speed and efficiency with which we could make arrests, our approach gained strong backing. We’re measuring success through solvability and case quality, and the impact on the community is undeniable.” 

Out of the Past: Digital Forensics Reaches Back in Time 
 
In 2018, digital evidence played a decisive role in convicting Jermaine Washington Jr., to life in prison for killing Dorian Colston in a murder for hire. Det. Abshire performed a full extraction from one implicated device—uncovering crucial data from before, during and after the crime. 

“By analyzing content from the phone and reviewing cell records, we identified an unusual spike in communication with a specific number on the day of the crime. That number led us directly to Jermaine Washington.” Then came the breakthrough. Remarkably, five years after Washington Jr. executed the hit and discarded his gun into a storm drain, digital forensics led investigators back to the murder weapon. 

“The cell phone shows they did go right by that area. So, we go check the drain and the gun was still in the drain after two major hurricanes, flooding and a freeze. It was hung up in the drain, still stuck. So, we recover the gun. And so now we have the smoking gun a week before trial.” Ballistics confirmed the gun as the murder weapon and, along with digitally verified testimonies, the evidence was irrefutable. 

“With digital forensics, we were able to show that these conversations did happen—as witnesses testify—and the places and the times they’re meeting. We can show that through the cell phone records. We got the conviction. It was great.” 
 
Extracting Digital Directions to the Crime Scene 
 
Cellebrite Inseyets equips examiners with powerful extraction capabilities that encompass geodata, social data and beyond. With data permeating every modern human activity, there are a few amusing ways in which to build a case. 
In one robbery that took place in Vinton, the suspect wore his smart watch and used the navigation app to arrive at the scene of the crime. “So, Jerod pulled all the audio clips that gave instructions like take a right to the casino. So, his phone that he left on is now narrating his drive to the crime scene and then leaving it. He (the suspect) is trying to argue it but he just doesn’t know how heavy-handed the digital evidence is,” Lt. Lavergne said. 

Cellebrite Guardian Accelerates Evidence Management with the Cloud 
 
Maintaining the chain of custody is critical, especially when managing digital evidence with the District Attorney’s Office and across agencies. Cloud-based management solutions such as Cellebrite Guardian log access activity and promote a cohesive cross-jurisdictional workflow. “Now our workflow is seamless. It really is with Cellebrite Guardian. We’re able to go ‘Hey, this report is uploaded. Everything is done.’ Guardian allows us to generate lab reports, instead of having several Word reports. Everything is all in one clear package.” 

By teaching fellow professionals to use this technology, Det. Abshire and Lt. Lavergne have spread Cellebrite Guardian’s impact beyond their lab. The two often conduct training sessions with the District Attorney’s Office on analyzing Call Detail Records and UFED dumps so law enforcement can get the information they need quickly.  
 

Ones and Zeroes Do Not Lie: Minimizing Victim Retraumatization 
 

“We tell people that all the time. It doesn’t discriminate. It’s going to show you the facts.” Today, law enforcement has a ‘Digital Witness’—which grants them advantages never before seen in history. This form of evidence, composed of bits and bytes, corroborates testimonies from both victims and criminals. The credibility that it gives victims is unmatched and is enough to make a solid case in court—minimizing the need for victims to take the stand and risk retraumatization. 

“A phone is a witness,” said Lt. Abshire. “You preserve it just like you would preserve anything on a crime scene. Just like you preserve the murder weapon, the bloody knife, the blood spatter—everything. And we treat it just the same, which means we’re always going to have the best opportunity to get as much evidence out of it as we can.”  And there is often a broad range to analyze. Cellebrite Inseyets, for example, intelligently parses through data types ranging from static images to videos and encrypted data, granting investigators wide coverage, without the tedium of manually sorting through information. 

Beyond DNA: Tracking the Pattern of Life 
 

Digital evidence offers insights beyond what physical evidence such as DNA can, allowing investigators to map a suspect’s pattern of life. “There’s always little caveats to DNA, but I think the digital evidence can be more powerful. The DNA or fingerprint is just identifying that person. With devices, however, I know that we can get in there and pull one’s pattern of life. And I can tell if you’re typically a bad person or if this behavior is out of the norm for you—whether you normally go to this area or if you’re not normally awake at this time.” 
This sort of information equips investigators with a range of means to push their case forward—often uncovering hints of probable cause and criminal intent. 

Lt. Abshire drove home the point, “It knocks out alibis and defenses that people try to put up there. Fingerprints are not going to tell me what you were thinking about or how you tried to beat the system. Digital evidence can. It is amazing what people Google, right?” 
 

Fighting the Good Fight 
 

Reflecting on one horrific case of domestic rape, Det. Abshire shared why digital forensics holds such a personal importance to him. “The victim couldn’t bring herself to testify. We knew that. And this allowed her to speak. It brought closure for the family and the girl, who didn’t have to take the stand to bring the case to an end. If I didn’t have the skills to present this evidence, the victim would not have gotten the justice she sought.” 
 


The role digital evidence plays in modern investigations to help accelerate justice cannot be overstated. “There is great satisfaction in giving back to the community. And we love being ahead of the guys who think they can victimize others,” said Lt. Lavergne. “But you slipped up one time and now you’re on our radar. Criminals don’t know their digital footprint exists, and we find it. That’s our aha moment.” 
 


Together with the rest of the team at the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, Detective Jerod Abshire and Lt. Travis Lavergne continue to lead investigations, utilizing digital investigative solutions to pick up the smallest details and land the biggest case breakthroughs. Most importantly, they remind us of the bigger why: to protect the people and bring criminals to justice.