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Trayvon Martin 911 Call: How Experts ID Voices Voice recognition software can show the actual speech structure of the vocal cords to make a match.

 by  Sheila Eldred

Have you ever realized how different your voice sounds on an answering machine? This week, Kasey-Dee Gardner finds out which one is your "true" voice and why.





In classic whodunnit mysteries, detectives and FBI agents dust for fingerprints to solve mysteries and collect court-admissible evidence.

In real life, it's more often the voice that offers the tell-tale evidence, since technology to recognize voices in recordings has become so much more sophisticated.

The Feb. 26 recording of a 911 call by a woman who reported someone crying out for help in her gated community in Sanford, Fla., could be a key piece of evidence in the Trayvon Martin murder case, especially since she called early enough so that screams for help and the gunshot were recorded.

George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, shot Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old. Why he did so remains a hotly argued topic, with Zimmerman claiming Martin attacked and beat him.

Tom Owen, a forensic consultant for Owen Forensic Services LLC and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, recently analyzed the tape. After running the woman's 911 call through a software program called Easy Voice Biometrics and comparing it to another 911 call with Zimmerman's voice, Owen's team concluded that the screams for help were not Zimmerman's.

And, Owen said, if he had samples of Martin's voice, he may be able to definitively identify the screams as his.

"We've talked to the family; the attorney has been notified," he told Discovery News.
How can he be so sure?

...  "The human voice is like a symphony, each voice is unique based on the type of instruments played and skill of the musicians playing the instruments. Similarly, the human voice is created using many physical components, the lungs, larynx and wind pipe. These exit the body through the mouth involving our tongue, teeth and lips," Primeau said.

"As forensic experts, we do not have the proper tools to arrive at a positive ID to conclude the voice is Trayvon yelling for help," Primeau said. "By process of elimination, both Tom and I agree the voice yelling is not Zimmerman. That is our opinion."

Trayvon Martin's brother has said that the screams on the tape sound like his brother.
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