One of the fastest growing market segments for investigators is finding missing persons. Were right in the middle of the time when we get the most calls for these types of cases. The holidays have a way of bringing out thoughts of missing relatives, loved ones, military buddies and friends.

A lot of our cases are last stop, clients who have tried the internet gurus, phone book searches, and military locaters. You see all of those ads on the internet on how to locate anyone anywhere for $5.95 to $49.95. What they don't tell you is that you get a whole bunch of irreverent information that basically distracts you from your goal and the good information you do get is two years behind. That process can work for you if your subject stays in one place for two years. But just judging by the nature of the "missing person" that does not happen that often.

Private Investigators have access to information that the general public does not. Providers of this information put investigators through a schedule of background checks, criminal checks, and you have to qualify as professionally in need of the data. In addition, investigators are federally regulated in how they can disseminate that information to their clients. You cannot just call up and say get me all you got on Jimmy Smith. You have to have a valid reason to obtain the information. Part of our job is to thoroughly screen and identify our client and the reason/intention for obtaining the information. An investigators greatest nightmare is giving out the information to the wrong party (a stalker for instance) and the situation turns into a crime.

Our office does between five and fifteen missing person cases per month. The great majority of them take us a day or two to figure out, the more difficult ones take weeks and the extremely tough ones will take months. Our office has a 98% success rate in locating missing person. The 2% no success rate is due more to our clients lack of resources than our not being able to do the job. There really isn't anyone you cannot find if you have unlimited resources. One case in particular was by far our most difficult yet and it's a story worth telling.

The Missing Mechanic

Imagine this, you are eighty years old, you have not seen nor spoken to your forty five year old son (John Doe) in twenty years. You have no idea where he might be. Over the years friends and family have spent many hours searching the internet and thousands of dollars on investigators trying to find your son. That was the situation when we got the call.

Our first step was to interview this mans parents and to obtain as much information as possible on Mr. Doe. What we were given was his full name, date of birth and a Social Security Number that later proved to be wrong. We went back to our offices and started an extensive records search. Through a series of searches and phone calls we came up with a real SSN and an expired driver's license from Hawaii. There was an ominous lack of financial activity from Mr. Doe that led us to believe that he either may be dead or was living a transient/homeless lifestyle.

We were able to track him through employers to Waco, TX. There in Waco we hit a brick wall. As the trail grew cold we were reduced to calling employers in the area that corresponded with his skills. The search came up empty. A timely call to a local shelter yielded someone who knew John Doe and also his last employer. Through his last employer we reached his friend who still worked there and who had held on to some tools and personal effects for him. John Doe had not came back for his personal effects on over a year and our new friend helped us by sending Mr. Doe's brief case back to us.

Mr. Doe's briefcase contained a window into his life over that past 20 years. Through pay stubs and other records we were able to trace his route though Hawaii, Oregon, and then to Texas. Those records also gave us a name of a Physician in Texas who had at one time treated Mr. Doe. Doe had been treated for mental illness resulting from severe alcohol and drug abuse. We then put the physician in touch with local law enforcement in Texas who declared Mr. Doe a missing person. A short time later we received a phone call from an officer in Beaumont, Texas who put Mr. Doe on the phone. Within 5 minutes Mr. Doe was talking to his father and mother for the first time in 20 years. The case took place over a period of 4 months.

This is an example of what it takes sometimes to track down a missing relative. The payoff is being able to make the phone call to this mans parents and telling them their son is a phone call away.