I received a call from a father that had not seen his child in over a year. The father was distraught and emotional about not being able to see or get anything to his child in the last year. he has made many attempts to locate the parent that has custody of his child but to no avail and poor work performed by other investigators he came to me. As a father myself I took his case to heart as my son is the most important thing in my life. I felt sorrow and anxiety for him and took this case on as if it were my own son missing.
As most investigator look inside the box and use the most basic took available to them to find nothing but old addresses of the person and chasing their tails , wasting gas and hours in the field, eventually billing outrageous amounts of money for a job half done. In the years I have searched for missing loved one’s children and lost loves of the past, I have found thinking outside the box about the person who hold the child about their career, choice of path and habits of social behavior. These small nuances provide amazing leads into the world of true investigative work.
I took time to look at the parents past, her work history, true gumshoe interviewing techniques and following the breadcrumbs left behind in her work life. After multiple interviews, telephone calls and some deep intelligence work which included historical address profiling, employment history profiling, past and present telephone numbers used and collaboration with local law enforcement and good old fashioned investigative work.
Several hours later, I called the father and asked him to sit down as I had been able to visually confirm his child was alive and in good spirits and his exact location. The father was emotional and with good reason his son had been found. He asked how I did this in such a short period of time and I said to him ” If this were my son, I would worked with the same urgency and concern. The bottom line is I was given the opportunity to help a dad find his son and that is the gift I received.
What is so important to remember is it does not matter if you haven seen someone in a year or twenty years, there is always a chance that they are out there and would love to see you. These types of cases I take very seriously as though they are my own family member. I am always happy to talk to someone about their problem in the or other areas, the key to remember is “never give up hope that anything is possible”.