Helping locate a missing person is a big part of what private investigators do. Rick Roy runs the Arizona full-service Rix Investigations private investigations agency, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Here, he explains what you need to know if you ever contact a private investigator to help you find a missing person.
Most of the time people who come to us for help locating a missing person do so because they are frustrated with law enforcement. Law enforcement officials have searched for their missing loved one to no avail, and they want to hire someone who can actually get the job done.
Here is where we get into another touchy area. Usually I do not want to be involved in a case where law enforcement is involved. However, if someone comes to me complaining he is not getting what he needs from law enforcement, then I will take the case on.
Six to Eight Cases a Year
On average, I would say that I take on six to eight missing person cases per year. There are times when they are purposefully missing, but I would say half of the time it is people who are missing based on their own decision to disappear. The other half is when I get hired and have to start finding out what happened to them.
More often than not, I am hired to look for a person who disappeared as a result of foul play, a deadbeat dad, a long-lost relative, a long-lost friend, someone who deliberately ran off, or a birth parent. With our training, resources and equipment, we have the expertise needed to get the job done – if the person actually can be found.
Hiding From the Family
I almost finished a missing person’s case recently. A lady called me in a panic saying that she could not find her brother, who was a grown man. Her dad was threatening suicide and the entire family was incredibly distraught.
I gave them suggestions — to find a friend who was a police officer. He used a tactic of his own and got their son back. So the lady never actually hired me, but she actually found her brother because of me. He was hiding from his family because he had stolen from them for drugs. He had called them a few days earlier saying he was in jail when in reality he was never in jail. While they never did hire me, they used my information to find him. And quite frankly, I am happy they found him.
Looking For the Body
Another case I recently worked on involved a missing person who was believed dead. The family was frustrated with the police work involved, and the parents of the missing man hired me to help them locate their son’s body.
They are a Native American family and the reason they came to me is because a medicine man had come to their home and said their son had been murdered. He told them roughly where to find the body, but the police did not find anything. We also are still searching for it.
Supply Information
If you need to hire a private investigator to locate a missing person, the most important thing to do is to supply as much information as possible. That would include name, birth date, Social Security number, and photos if possible. The less information you can provide, the longer it can take to find the individual.
