What Missing Evidence Can Tell You

Who Should Read This Publication?

This publication is particularly valuable for:

Military defense counsel — Missing evidence may affect the defense’s ability to independently examine an allegation, challenge conclusions, or develop alternative explanations. Counsel should understand not only why evidence disappeared, but also what factual questions can no longer be answered because it is unavailable.

Civilian attorneys representing service members — When evidence has been lost, destroyed, overwritten, or otherwise made unavailable, attorneys should determine what originally existed, who controlled it, when it disappeared, and whether alternative sources can reconstruct some or all of the missing information.

Defense investigators — Investigators should treat missing evidence as an investigative issue of its own. Reconstructing the evidence’s history may require examining reports, property records, photographs, laboratory documentation, digital records, witness statements, retention policies, or other sources capable of establishing what happened to it.

Legal teams handling cases involving lost or destroyed digital evidence — Surveillance recordings, text messages, emails, device data, location information, access records, and other digital evidence can disappear through deletion, overwriting, system retention policies, device replacement, or loss. Investigators should determine what information existed before it became unavailable.

Attorneys and investigators confronting incomplete records or selected evidence — Missing evidence does not always mean that an entire item has disappeared. A partial conversation, selected screenshots, an incomplete video, or a written summary replacing an original recording may eliminate context necessary to accurately evaluate what remains.

Attorneys and investigators evaluating forensic or physical evidence — Biological samples, physical objects, laboratory materials, and other evidence may become unavailable for independent examination or retesting. Determining what was lost can be critical to evaluating the conclusions drawn from that evidence.

Legal teams determining whether substitute evidence is adequate — When original evidence is unavailable, investigators should identify photographs, copies, reports, witness accounts, metadata, laboratory records, or other sources that might partially reconstruct it. The important question is whether those substitutes preserve enough information for meaningful independent evaluation.

Service members and families seeking to understand the consequences of lost evidence — This publication explains why the disappearance of evidence involves more than asking where it went. The defense must also determine what was lost and how that loss affects the ability to establish what actually happened.