Most of us have heard about families in which one relative, for whatever reason, becomes estranged from everyone else. Maybe it’s been 20 years or more since anyone knew the whereabouts of Uncle Joe, who left home after a bitter argument with his dad. Maybe a pregnant, unmarried cousin was pressured to give up her unborn child for adoption so she leaves the family and never reappears.
Whatever the reason might be for the empty chairs at annual family reunions and holiday dinners, finding those people suddenly becomes important when lost relatives are named to inherit from a deceased family member’s estate. It’s not unusual at all for everyone to blink and shrug and admit they have absolutely no idea how to locate people who have been gone for so long.
Sometimes, the general public doesn’t understand that private investigators, like , also have the skills and resources as well as knowledge in how to find missing persons. We have been successful in locating missing family members for private citizens as well as for attorneys with an estate to close.
Before you set an appointment to initiate a missing person investigation, sit down with whomever and gather as much information as you can about the person you hope to find. Create a listing including:
- The person’s full birth name
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- The names of their parents
- Their social security number, if known
- Known family sir names
- Cities and states they may have been associated to
Often, we find that clients don’t have a plan for what will happen when we find a person. is known for finding people, but we understand that sometimes the person is away from those looking for them for a reason. We contact them and give them the option to agree to meet – or decline. In either event, with a successful missing person search, we can relay a message to the person and bring back a response if we are given one.
This can be the case when health issues are the reason we are asked to find missing persons. Even if there is no reunion, information can be shared through us.
People search for other people for a lot of different, often very personal, reasons. Often the reasons a person is missing are very personal as well. As an objective outsider, we can provide unemotional facts and information for both the seeker and the person to be found.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
