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MISSING PERSONS |
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CRITICAL TIME PERIOD MISSING
PERSON CHECKLIST CASES INVOLVING MISSING PERSONS
The subject of missing persons is controversial
and difficult. People “go missing” for
a variety of reasons and under a variety of circumstances. Often
a person who is missing does not want to found; they have voluntarily
departed their usual locations and routines and intentionally have
cut off contact with others.
This field of investigation comprises specific
categories of people whose whereabouts are unknown. These
can include immediate family members, distant relatives, and adoptive
relationships, business partners, employees, neighbors, friends, and
even witnesses, victims and claimants.
There are truly “missing children”, and then
there are runaways and “throwaways”. Missing children can be missing
due to parental abduction (usually divorce or custody related), or
true stranger kidnappings. There are missing parents who have simply
left the family and want no part of it anymore, many of whom, although
largely unreported, are women. Of course, there are those that “go
missing” to avoid child support or other family obligations.
Business partners and employees can be gone
voluntarily (absconding with embezzled funds) or not (absconding with
embezzled funds about to be caught).
Witnesses and victims in both criminal and
civil cases disappear all the time. Some important witnesses go “on vacation” until
the trial is over (paid for by the opposition), and some never return. Some
victims and complainants disappear, by apparent coincidence, just before
the trial.
It is an extremely important issue, then, to
try to determine the motivation of a missing person to “go missing”,
or the lack thereof, as an investigative direction. It is equally important to determine the circumstances
surrounding the missing person at the time of disappearance. Looking for a missing person who wants to
be missing, and one who doesn’t, are two very different types of investigations.
It is a sad fact that not every missing person will be found alive, nor will every missing person be found. The best chances of success involve the factors of time, information, and expertise.
For almost every missing person case, the critical time period for the
start of investigation is “immediately”. Especially when the subject is a missing child,
the first 24 hours after disappearance, (not from discovery), can make
the difference in finding a living subject or a dead subject. And while there is a lot of information that
can be gained from a dead subject’s body in terms of prosecution of a
perpetrator, there is a whole lot more satisfaction in finding the subject
alive. This is more a function of time than almost
anything else.
Having said that, Acme Group’s teams of trained, experienced and dedicated tracking personnel have located and recovered many missing persons, alive, even after a lengthy time period has elapsed from disappearance, depending of course, on the nature of the case.
While law enforcement authorities are generally
very willing to assist in the search for a missing person, especially
a child, there are numerous bureaucratic and so-called “political” obstacles
that, believe it or not, inhibit these agencies from adequately responding
to this type of incident.
First and foremost, many small police agencies
do not have the manpower and/or the funding (and thus the manpower
and equipment and resources) to focus on such cases in a significant
way. Many agencies will not
even consider starting an investigation until the person, if an adult,
has been gone more than 72 hours. Until
recently, the FBI would not get involved unless the missing person
was believed to have crossed state lines or if a federal crime was
involved.
With the advent of the Amber Alert Program,
a very recent innovation, a notification system that Acme Group executive
personnel have been advocating for 25 years, finally, at least as regards
missing children, there is hope that an immediate alarm will be sounded
and the public notified. This
lends to the search thousands of additional eyes and ears looking for
a car, a pattern of clothing, and/or a face. Also, many departments have started Cold Case Squads, re-investigating
old unsolved cases, although these are mostly homicide cases.
Other obstacles to law enforcement response
include longevity of the case, and as with many of these issues, this
factor is not necessarily the fault of the police alone. The
longer a case goes on, the less intense is the police department’s
activities, due largely to the fact that there are always other new
and old cases, and each must be equally dealt with so no favoritism,
or discrimination, is alleged.
When the police get a new missing person case,
it is simply another one to add to the list of all the other ongoing
cases, all of which must be investigated, with only the same number
of investigators, no matter how many cases. Many states regulate the hours an officer is allowed to work at
one time, which can negatively affect an investigation matter. When a lead is fresh, that is the time to
follow it. Police investigators
know this, but are sometimes frustrated by their departments’ unwillingness
to let them work the case when they feel they must.
At the Acme Group, each case is equally important. But different from the standard police response, each case gets the personnel best suited for the case, the number of investigators the case requires, and the support personnel needed to satisfy the case requirements.
As investigators, we use every available resource,
and many not available to the general public and even law enforcement
resources, to gather information.
As private investigators, we can focus all of
our considerable resources in an immediate and focused effort
to locate the missing person. If
a case takes time to build, or if we are retained on a case that has
been ongoing for some time before we are brought in, we can remain
focused on that matter for however long it takes to achieve a result.
As private investigators, while everything
we do we do in an ethical and lawful manner, we are not constrained
by the constitutional requirements regarding search and seizure, interrogation
and other information gathering techniques that law enforcement agents
are forced to contend with. So
long as we are not acting as agents of, or at the request of a police
agency, and so long as we have not requested the aid of a police agency,
Acme Group investigators have more opportunity to respond and act under rapidly
evolving events and circumstances. To
be certain, however, we prize our licensure, and so we respect the
rights of individuals, and act only within the boundaries of the law.
Our equipment is state-of-the-art, maintained
by our own technicians, and used by professionals who know how to get
the very best results from their equipment.
While we are very professional, expert and
experienced investigators, we are also in business, and as such, we
have to compete with other investigative agencies. Now, to be sure, we are not worried about
the competition when it comes to professionalism, expertise and experience...
but we must keep on the cutting edge of technology or our competition
will pass us by.
In a missing person case, it is important to
have reliable and continuous radio and cellular communication, at all
times completely mobile, because when a lead develops, you have to
move NOW. The cameras, both still and video, must be
ready and working, and these days, must be able to generate electronic
(digital) images for immediate transmission to far-off places, for
immediate identification of people and places. There
can be no excuse that “the other agent is using that piece of equipment,
so today I don’t have that to use”.
Cases conducted by the Acme Group never, ever
suffer for lack or shortage of equipment, supplies or other such resources
that are so important to a successful resolution of a case.
CONCLUSION – What To
do In Case...
When a person is determined to be missing, immediately notify
the local police. Dial 911.
Before
calling the police, take five minutes to write down the following, relating to the missing person:
See [MISSING PERSON CHECKLIST]. This
will help you organize your thoughts and reduce the panic, and
better help the police officer get quick, organized information.
After making the call to police, call any neighbors,
teachers, co-workers, friends and anyone else you can think of to get
as much information as you can, especially about when and where the
person was last seen, as quickly as you can, in as calm a manner as
you can manage. The
more calm you remain, the better you can help find the missing person. You’ll have time to beat yourself up emotionally
later.
Once you have gathered what information you
can, cooperate with the police in any way they ask. They
will likely ask to search your home and garage and surrounding property. Cooperate. Your
car. Cooperate. Your
office or other location relevant to the case. Cooperate. Some
of it may make sense, and much of what they do may not. Cooperate anyway.
Keep all persons who do not live at home or
at the person’s home OUT of those properties until the police decide
to search or not. Do the same
for any other place the missing person might have disappeared from,
if possible. Get the boss or
the teacher, or whomever, to cooperate in this regard. Valuable
evidence might reside there that might be contaminated by not preserving
these locations for police inspection. Finally, write down the name of anyone who was present at the place from which the person
disappeared, at or near the time they disappeared.
Remember that in the case of a missing child
or adult, the first suspects are immediate and other family members,
co-workers, friends and acquaintances, so... cooperate. True
stranger kidnappings are relatively rare, but they do happen. Most
people who are actually abducted are taken by someone they know to
some degree, whether they (the victim) know that or not. There could have been a prior one-time meeting
or a longer relationship. In
many cases, the victim may have served the perpetrator in a restaurant
several times, worked in the same building, or ridden on the same bus,
all without knowing they are being watched and possibly stalked; in
other words, the perpetrator knows about the “relationship”, but the
victim does not. But in terms of investigation issues, however,
the victim and the perpetrator were not, in fact, strangers.
If the right investigator is working this case,
they know what questions to ask, and then who to visit for an answer. They
know how to get the answer, and what to do with the information. They know how to collect the evidence that
leads to finding the person who is missing... and they know what evidence
needs to be collected for a successful prosecution later on.
It is a sad fact that not every missing person
will be found alive, nor will every missing person be found. The best chances of success involve the factors of time, information,
and expertise.
Finally, after you make police notifications,
if you should ever be in this unfortunate circumstance, and you need
someone to talk to about it, just call the Acme Group at 1-866-507-1717. Leave
a message that someone is missing and your name and number. We’ve been getting these messages for 25 years. You’ll
get a call-back within a few minutes. Really.
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