BAKERSFIELD,CA - A Bakersfield mother said she captured cell phone video of deputies striking 33-year-old David Silva with batons before he died outside Kern Medical Center. But, detectives who confiscated her phone say they couldn't find the video.
"Whether she didn't take a video and just was saying that or something was removed, I really think we have to find out," said Sheriff Donny Youngblood.
If you take a video on your cell phone and then delete it, can you get it back?
"If the data hasn't been overwritten, then there is a possibility that section, even though it was deleted, still might be able to be recovered," said Shane Swanson, COO, ARRC Technology.
Shane Swanson of ARRC Technology said if you continue to take pictures, videos or even download apps and e-mails on your phone, it becomes much more difficult to recover a deleted video.
"Eventually, the video is going to be re-written over and the chance of it being recovered is very unlikely," he continued.
There are software applications to recover a deleted video. "Places like the FBI and those kinds of things, they have all that capability," explained Swanson.
It's not cheap to hire someone to recover data from your phone. Swanson said your best bet is a backup system. The iPhone has a system called iCloud.
"You don't want to rely on recovery tools. Plus, to do data recovery on any device is extremely expensive to do," noted Swanson.
Swanson said recovering a 30-second or one-minute video on your cell phone would cost about $200.
He said recovering bigger files can set you back as much as $10,000.