Hiring a Private Investigator for a Missing Persons Case
Every year in Canada, police record over 100,000 missing persons reports. Whether the police are under restricting time constraints or if the case becomes “cold”, hiring a private investigator to locate a missing person may be the best alternative to involving law enforcement. Police are faced with hundreds of cases a day and may not be able to take on your case, particularly if there is no evidence to prove that it is life threatening. Private investigators, alternatively, are well versed in missing persons cases and can be your closest ally to track down someone you cannot find, whether they be down the street or in the grave.
You may be searching for someone because you are worried about his or her wellbeing, you could be searching for next-of-kin, or you could even be looking for someone who is avoiding child or alimony payments. While most missing persons are “missing” voluntarily, fewer are missing involuntarily due to reasons such as illness, injury or death.
Almost anyone is traceable if you have the tools, techniques, knowledge and time that a private investigator has. It is strongly recommended that if you choose to involve a PI in a missing persons case, you should call them within 24 hours of suspecting that someone has gone missing. The more information you can provide them with, the better. Such information can include full name, birth date, previous addresses, previous places of education and employment, names of family members and friends, etc. Also important is to provide them with facts about the case, including events leading up to the disappearance, suspicions as to why they may be missing or who else it could have involved, any behaviour that was out of the ordinary or any important conversations that could have contained important information.
The amount and type of information provided to the PI can help you roughly estimate how long it may take them to locate the missing person. Usually, individuals are located in a short period of time. Using the information provided, a PI can conduct online searches, search in public databases (and databases available only to PI’s), knock on doors, interview neighbours and coworkers and can speak to law enforcement. They can also use surveillance, network with other private investigators, search hospitals and morgues and can follow or track persons of interests. No matter where you missing person has ended up, rest assured a PI can find them.
