Thread: Private Investigators-cum-writers - How do you locate a “missing� person?

At the beginning of one strand of my story, one of my MCs inherits a property. Apart from being named as the beneficiary in the will, no one associated with the deceased person knows anything about her, including where she lives. So the executor of the estate hires someone to track her down.

My question is, what steps/procedures might a PI undertake to locate a person whose whereabouts are unknown?

Thank you.

Off the top of my head, I’d go through phone books as a starting point. Boring monotonous job, but effective none the less.

You look on google, run somebody's name wtth "address" "phone" and you'll see a bunch of sites come up that let you get directory information on people. They also let you get school, arrest records, all sorts of things for a fee.

These are flakey public versions of serious professional sites that bounty hunters, PI's, skip tracers, collection agencies, etc. can subscribe to by the month or year or whatever. That would be the first stop. Modern gumshoes don't use shoe leather, they use keyboard oil or whatever. The names of the public sites might help you name a pro site if you want to go that way.

Newspaper morgues. Civic records, mostly public domain. Network of civic licensing could reveal a business license, professional license like barber, etc. Search for auto license is trickier. Best is he knows somebody who works for a rent a cop outfit or tow truck service, does a little bribe.

Bribe a public offiicial?

Oh, well, it's my story. I guess I could stretch the truth.

bleep

...

A tow truck company is hardly a public official. Neither is a phone company worker (who get bribed by PI's all the time in books)

I used to call up my brother, dispatcher for an alarm company, to run licence plate numbers for me.

You want to know how this gets done, I've laid it out. I'd hire a skip tracer, by the way, not a PI. You're not trying to build a file, just find somebody. And it allows you to break from the cliche's a little. You should have no trouble finding people like that who'll tell you about their jobs. PI's are harder to interview.

This is all USA stuff. God knows it works in Oz. Probably hire Crocodile Dundee to woomera them up.

Does Oz have anything like a Land Registry?

Yes, but it doesn't list munchkins and flying monkeys, so it's not useful.Also good to check with the lollipop guild

All you need to do these days is search Facebook. Why waste money on a PI?

Originally Posted by Baron

All you need to do these days is search Facebook. Why waste money on a PI?

I take it you were being facetious. Like, social networking sites list addresses? Come on.

But they list Friends. And surely friends know where you live.

Looks like I should get out more.

Originally Posted by Non Serviam

Does Oz have anything like a Land Registry?

Yes.

And...?