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how do I find a lost or missing person
every day we get calls of people
requesting us to find a lost or missing
person first thing is to differentiate
between these two a more simpler
investigation is a locate this is when
maybe you want to contact an old friend
that you lost touch with someone moved
away and you don't have their updated
information a lost love from the past an
old college friend things like that this
is what we would consider a locate
basically we need to just kind of find
out where they are now currently get
their new contact information and
provide that to a client we wouldn't
categorize this as a missing persons
investigation you as an individual may
be able to investigate or locate
somebody yourself nowadays with the
internet and all this social media a lot
of times it's easy to reconnect with old
people there's a lot of public
information a lot of things online when
it comes to a missing persons
investigation this is a lot much more
complex and more detailed investigation
I strongly recommend if there is a
missing persons investigation or you
believe someone's missing is not to take
matters into your own hands
conducting a missing-persons
investigation doesn't necessarily mean
that it's criminal what it really means
to our clients is that person is missing
to you so whatever the circumstances are
we need to investigate why did this
person do this basically we need to
determine what is this under suspicious
circumstances or not do we believe our
pot the size that they left on their own
free will or is there a cause or a
stressor that caused them to disappear
or leave you need a seasoned
investigator that knows how to conduct
and utilize the proper steps many of the
clients who hire us have family members
that have either left on their own
volition or disappeared and are
suffering from either mental
difficulties or illnesses some kind of
drug or substance abuse having a
detailed consultation with a client to
ask questions and determine what may
have transpired up until the person had
went missing will be key in trying to
locate or find the missing person every
missing persons investigation is
different we have to establish all the
information regarding that individual
why they may have went missing and the
circumstances leading up
one of the first steps in a
missing-persons investigation is to make
sure the person is not hurt injured
possibly in jail so we want to establish
that they're not in any Hospital any
medical facility the morgue or have been
arrested or in jail the second step is
conducting very thorough interviews now
the interviews can be done with family
friends co-workers roommates places
where the missing person frequents such
as gyms clubs that they belong to or
hobbies they're involved with so there
might be information that a family has
friends might have other information
co-workers might have other information
and you want to get all the most
up-to-date information from everyone
because there may be information out
there that one person doesn't connect to
the other person or it's not shared
information so it's an extremely
important step when starting a missing
persons investigation checking social
media accounts can be helpful in an
investigation however in missing persons
investigations a lot of these accounts
are no longer used thus making
information getting from them less
useful if an individual is an avid
social media user and then all that
usage stops that is a factor in a
missing persons investigation you might
be able to go back in the history of
their accounts to see if you can gain
useful leads or information that might
be helpful and pointing in the direction
or where to look for them there are
cases where someone goes missing but
they don't want to be found and if
you're an adult and if you're of sound
mind you have the right to disappear it
still doesn't make it easier for a
family they still want to have the
questions answered are they safe are
they okay and we want to answer those
questions canvassing is a technique used
in missing persons investigation and
what canvassing is is visiting the
locations that are involved in
individuals of life canvassing is very
important because many times we uncover
witnesses that have useful information
or leads that we can act upon and
locating a missing person we also want
to determine how did this person get
around are they in a car are they using
mass transit I will say that they say
big brother is watching and that is true
but now I say to everybody brother's
watching sister mother father what that
means is everybody now has cameras we
have cameras on our cell phones there
security of
people's houses and buildings in all
public places so being able to canvass
and look for camera footage or
indicators where the person might have
been last and build the timeline is very
important in a missing-persons
investigation
utilizing police contacts and informants
are also a part of a missing persons
case the police may be investigating
your missing persons case or they may
not be it could be a cold case a case
that they looked into or a case that
they haven't worked out much and my
experience one of the issues with
working with law enforcement is
unfortunately they are overworked
undermanned have huge caseloads and they
can only dedicate a small amount of time
to every investigation when hiring a
private investigator we're dedicating
the time to find the missing person so
we're out there actively investigating
and putting time and effort to try to
find them using the public and a missing
persons investigation yes the public can
be beneficial in certain and missing
person cases but we do have to be
careful because a lot of times when
clients are coming to us with a lost
family member or a missing person
sometimes these people don't want to be
found sometimes they are suffering from
some kind of mental disorders or
difficulties or illnesses we have to be
very careful when we're going to use
overt or covert tactics with any
investigation the more information we
have the better the outcome may be
however does that mean we can't
investigate situations with limited
information there are cases where we
have little information and they're able
to be solved and there's cases that we
have a wealth of information and
sometimes it may not be solved I mean
just recently I had a situation where a
client had hired us they actually were
people that lived in Ireland their son
who was suffering unfortunately for some
mental difficulties was living in
England he went missing from England
went to Canada entered the US illegally
and was homeless in New York so there
was very little information to go on
with this case yeah we had photos and we
had some pedigree information but this
person was not even missing here or from
here he was here he's wasn't a citizen
he was gonna have very limited
information this case with limit
information was able to be solved ended
up locating him and reuniting him with
his family and getting the help that he
needed at the end of the day reuniting
missing people with their families
getting people that help they may need
is very extremely important here that's
one of our primary goals and what we
look to do in a missing-persons
investigation investigating on your own
a missing persons case is not
recommended if you have a family member
a friend that's missing
I suggest you hire a professional
private investigator to help investigate
the matter
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