Amazon Echo could hold key to double homicide

An Amazon smart home device could help solve the deaths of two women after a US judge asked for its recordings to be surrendered to the court.

Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pellegrini were stabbed to death in a New Hampshire home last year.

A medical examiner concluded that Sullivan was stabbed eight times and Pellegrini 43.

Timothy Verrill, a friend of Sullivan and her boyfriend, Dean Smoronk, has been charged with second-degree murder over the deaths and has pleaded not guilty.

Now, the judge in the case has ordered tech giant Amazon to hand over recordings from the device, and any device paired with it at the time of the women's deaths.

Amazon has told the Associated Press it would not deliver any data without a "valid and binding" legal demand.

A legal expert told CNN that while under the law a deceased person was not considered to have a right to privacy, authorities still needed a warrant to order the release of smart-home recordings.

The Echo is activated by a key word, such as the popularly-used "Alexa", but it still records snippets of audio while dormant.

Last year, Amazon did surrender some Echo data to US law enforcement in relation to a murder trial, after the defendant's consent.