A few weeks ago, we brought you the story of skier, mother of four, Anne Cassidy, seriously injured by a hit-and-run snowboarder, who hired a private investigator to track down the culprit.
But given the accident scene, Aspen Mountain, gets more than 4,000 skiers and snowboard riders on a busy day, we wanted to know how exactly the PI managed to find this hotdogging needle in a haystack.
Cassidy is suing and according to a lawsuit filed in Pitkin County District Court the snowboarder who struck her on February 24 this year was a complete stranger, who immediately rode away to avoid any repercussions for causing the accident.
But a trail of digital breadcrumbs soon led the investigator straight to him.
Fortunately for Cassidy, a bystander who witnessed the crash, skied after the snowboarder and told him he needed to stop.
“After catching up to the (the snowboarder), (the bystander) told (the snowboarder) that he needed to wait for ski patrol and said something to the effect of, “You hurt someone; don’t you want to make sure she’s ok?” the lawsuit says.
The snowboarder told the bystander to mind his own business and threatened him, but the bystander managed to get a photo of the snowboarder.
Cassidy’s friend, Katy Frisch, also chased the snowboarder, confronted him and learned he spoke with a foreign accident.
The snowboarder was wearing black ski pants and jacket, black helmet and distinctive white Von Zipper goggles with red lenses. He was riding a black Burton snowboard.
Armed with the description, Cassidy’s investigator was able to spot the snowboarder in surveillance video – subpoenaed by Cassidy’s lawyer — taken at the top and bottom of the Silver Queen gondola, that was shot by security cameras about five minutes before the incident.
The suit says digital records from the gondola turnstiles were also used to match up resort guests passing through with the time stamp on the video.
Because every pass-holding guest at the mountain is issued with a radio frequency card, connected to a “skier ID”, Cassidy’s investigator was able to identify the snowboarder.
He was one Riku Banushi, also known as Eric Banushi.
The private investigator then used open-source intelligence software to locate the man’s Astoria, Queens address and phone number.
To corroborate the information from Aspen Mountain, the PI also searched for the man on social media, finding his Instagram account.
Posts made by the man at around the time of the accident showed him on a ski vacation in Aspen, during which he was wearing the same ski outfit, helmet and goggles.
There was only one thing left to do: call Banushi.
The suit notes that the man who answered the PI’s call had a “foreign accent.”
“Upon hearing that this was an investigator hired by Ms. Cassidy concerning a ski accident in Aspen, the person stated they were not (the snowboarder), but friends with (the rider),” the lawsuit states.
“When asked for this person’s name, he responded, ‘It doesn’t matter who I am.’”
An “avid athlete” who runs half-marathons, Cassidy claims she is now unable to participate in any sports, regularly experiences pain in her knees and “has not been able to take care of her family as she typically is able to.”
Cassidy’s lawsuit accuses the snowboarder of negligence, saying he didn’t live up to his responsibility to keep watch for downhill skiers and to share his information with Cassidy or Aspen Ski Patrol after the accident.
In July, a process server in Pennsylvania, found and served Banushi’s father at his residence in Philadelphia.
In August, the father of a friend of the snowboarder was also served at his home in Monmouth County, N.J., according to court records.
Banushi is yet to face court.
