Deepfakes of Murder Victims are Here to Bring Justice for their Killings

Dutch police are describing their use of "deepfake" technology in the cold case of Sedar Soares' 2003 murder, a "world first."

To maintain the law and order in a country, government and officials try their best to come up with impactful strategies and give justice to the victims. In this modern world where technology is blooming in every sector, cops are trying something that appears to never have been done before: deepfaking a murder victim in a last-ditch attempt to bring his killer to justice. As Euronews reports, Dutch police are describing their use of "deepfake" technology in the cold case of Sedar Soares' 2003 murder as a "world first."

The 13-year-old Soares has shot dead in a parking garage in Rotterdam nearly twenty years ago, in what appears to be a classic case of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the report notes. His killers were never caught.

Now, Rotterdam police have published a video of the boy walking on a soccer pitch, surrounded by his friends and family, and imploring the public to come forward with any information they may have about the unsolved homicide.

Deeply Creepy

As with most deepfaked videos, the movements of the reanimated boy are uncanny.

"Somebody must know who murdered my darling brother," a voiceover, presumably of or imitating one of Soares' siblings, says in translated Dutch. "That's why he has been brought back to life for this film."

Lillian van Duijvenbode, a Rotterdam police spokesperson, told the Agence France-Press that the cops "have already received dozens of tips" after releasing the video, though she admits that as of yet, they "haven't yet checked if these leads are usable."

According to police, the teenager was killed "out of nowhere" and was "in the wrong place at the wrong time". Investigators now believe an organised criminal fraud gang had been operating near the metro station and that Sedar was "a victim of underworld violence, out of sheer bad luck".

It is hoped that using a "deepfake" video to recreate the boy's image will finally help solve the "cold case".

Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to edit the picture and audio of clips to make it appear as though someone has said or done something they have not.