Back in October 2022, recordings captured by an Alexa device were used to convict a domestic abuser of murdering his wife.
Wales-born Daniel White had a long history of violence against his partner Angie before brutally taking her life in a way that left investigating officers horrified.
The couple had met after Angie and her daughter Molly moved to Swansea in 2010 and soon struck up a romantic relationship.
Advert
While things appeared positive at first, Daniel quickly began exerting controlling behaviour over his partner, with her daughter Molly and other family members subsequently telling officers that he'd forced her to cut them out of her life so that she'd only depend on him.
Daniel's mental abuse became increasingly more physical, and in 2014, he was sentenced for assaulting Angie. While in prison, he was charged with violent historical offences against other women and handed a further 10 years behind bars.
During his time in prison, Angie continued to visit him, and after his release, they slowly attempted to rebuild their relationship.
It soon became clear, however, that Daniel had learnt nothing from his time behind bars, and he continued to abuse Angie.
Advert
Molly - who later spoke out about her mother's turmoil - moved out of the couple's shared Swansea property, and in fear that her husband's violence could reach a life-threatening height, 45-year-old Angie installed a mortice lock on her bedroom door.
Tragically, however, this wasn't enough to keep Angie's abuser away.
After the two became embroiled in a heated row via WhatsApp on Saturday 22 October 2022, he kicked down the bedroom door in a fit of rage.
Advert
Neighbours who later testified in court claimed to have heard banging, shouting and screaming around 3.00am, before all went quiet and 36-year-old Daniel was heard driving away from the property.
What had gone down inside the property continues to haunt investigating officers to this today, with the story of Angie's heartbreaking death now being told in discovery+'s new documentary Alexa Catches A Killer, as part of the hit true crime series Deadliest Families.
After kicking down the door to his wife's locked bedroom, Daniel strangled her to death, before going on to cut her throat, to 'make sure' she'd died during the struggle.
After leaving the property, around 6.00am, he called local police to admit to the crime.
Advert
"I've strangled her and cut her throat," he told the call handler. "She's dead. We argued and she locked the door and said she wanted me out.
"All I wanted to do was take my stuff and leave. I just shut her up. I strangled her, I ran downstairs, and I cut her throat to make sure she was dead."
As well as Daniel's confession being prime evidence that the vicious abuser had committed the stomach-churning crime, a number of recordings made by Angie's Amazon Alexa on the night he killed her would also assist in the investigation.
The subsequent trial heard Daniel hand out a number of commands to the voice-prompted device, both recorded before and after murdering Angie.
Advert
At around 3.03am, he'd told the device, 'Alexa, stop'.
Prosecutor William Hughes went on to explain: "Police have been able to discover that at 3.03am Angie in her bedroom said, 'Alexa, volume three'. At 3.16am Daniel White's voice can be heard saying, 'Alexa stop'.
"He then goes back downstairs into the living room and says, 'Turn on - Alexa' but what can also be heard is that he is out of breath and these appear to be the moments when, the Crown say, he has gone to get the knife."
The court heard that Daniel had returned to the bedroom around 3.18am, telling the device, 'Alexa, turn on the electrical light', and a minute later, 'Alexa, turn off the TV'.
Authorities gathered that 'after 3.03am and before 3.16am', he'd 'burst through the door and initially strangled Angie'.
Daniel then 'went downstairs to get the knife, and thereafter cut her throat'.
Following a harrowing hearing, he was handed a life sentence of at least 20 years and 10 months at Swansea Crown Court for murdering Angie.
Deadliest Families, Saturdays from 16th March on Quest Red and stream on discovery+.
Featured Image Credit: Discovery+/Kerry Gerdes/Getty ImagesTopics: Crime, True Crime, UK News, Amazon, TV And Film