Missing Person Miami Beach South Beach

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as his or her location and fate are not known. Laws related to missing persons are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives, and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.

A person may go missing due to accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons, including voluntary disappearance. In some countries, missing persons' photographs are posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, to publicize their description.

All investigations, regardless of type or purpose, depend on the gathering of factual information. Gathering factual information is the main purpose of any investigation, without which no case would be solved, no stolen property recovered, and no missing person located. Factual information in a concise written report is the product that we sell to our client.

Today’s investigator must learn to think of himself as a highly sophisticated camera with the lens always open, recording and observe everything.

Regardless of the case, the investigator wants answers to the questions who, what, when, where, how, and why. The private investigator is often the last hope for many people.

Three methods that investigators use to obtain information are:

1. Researching public records
2. Interviewing individuals with relevant information
3. Surveillance of individuals to learn about their behavior.

ATTRIBUTES OF A SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATOR

The following attributes are the special qualities that will help you achieve success:

Suspicion

Be cautious of obvious things and wary of persons who are quick to provide alibis and identification. Demand verification whenever possible.

Curiosity

Develop your own curiosity and follow up on it. Have the desire to learn the truth. An inquisitive mind is essential to the investigator.

Observation

Your five senses are important tools of the trade. It may be important for you to remember unusual things about an individual (i.e., his manner and posture or the way he dresses). Learn to observe details.

Memory

The ability to recall accurately the facts and events or the physical characteristics of a suspect is a valuable skill.

An Unbiased and Unprejudiced Mind

Bias and prejudice will result in a poor investigation, unfairness to suspects, and clouding of facts that need to be uncovered objectively. Do not let personal likes or dislikes interfere with investigations.

Ability to Play a Role

This skill is especially important for private investigators who work alone most of the time. Using his own identity could expose the investigator to recognition and danger. The ability to assume convincing identities is particularly valuable in surveillance, undercover activities, and a variety of confidential inquiries.

Persistence and Capacity for Hard Work

Many times, you will find yourself working late into the night to follow-up a promising lead or question a particularly valuable witness.

Resourcefulness

An investigator must be able to adapt to all types of stressful situations that may demand technical skills.

Ability to Obtain the Cooperation of Others

In the course of your work, you will make many contacts. Some will be clients, some will be witnesses, some will be suspects, and some will just be well-meaning citizens who can provide information. It is essential that you obtain cooperation from as many people as possible in order to secure the vital facts and information that you will need to conclude an Investigation. You will need patience, courtesy, tact, and understanding.

A suspect or witness who has been intimidated, frightened, or angered by an impatient investigator is of no value.

Interest in Your Work and Pride of Accomplishment

True success in any profession is based on sincere interest and pride in a job well done. The knowledge that your efforts can bring a criminal to justice, locate a missing loved one, or save a business large sums of money can bring you immense satisfaction.

Street Sense

You should have an intuitive understanding of the way the world works and how people move through it. This can be developed and refined. The more time you spend on the street and the more attention you pay to detail, the sharper your street sense will become. This can be learned and sharpened as you work in the investigative field.

Good Listening Skills

You need to be a good listener in order to effectively communicate. In order to be a good interviewer, you must be able to understand the person who you are questioning. If you do not have good listening skills, you will never be an effective interviewer. Therefore, you will not be a successful legal or corporate investigator.

Ability to Put People at Ease

In order to convince people to submit to interviews, you need to be able to “schmooze,” which means to make people feel comfortable talking to you. This is a very necessary skill to have in order to conduct successful interviews.

Ability to Speak at the Level of the Audience

There is nothing that turns a person off quicker than someone speaking down or using language that is difficult to understand. You must be able to speak to anyone from a high school dropout to a professional doctor in language that is appropriate and understandable.

Understanding of Body Language

To know if a person is truthful in an interview situation, you must be able to read body language. As a legal investigator, you may interview a potential witness for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, you must gauge that person’s honesty and credibility as a potential witness.

Good Manners

There is no excuse for rude behavior, at any time.

Flexibility

You must have the ability to adapt to whatever situation presents itself. Intuitive

Understanding of Human Nature

People are people regardless of the circumstances you may be investigating. As investigators, we see people, our clients, subjects, and suspects, often at times of extreme emotional distress.

Self-Confidence

You need to have belief in your ability to handle any situation. If you possess the above skills, you will be successful as an investigator and, more importantly, as a human being.

Private investigation combines the skills of both science and art. Given the proper knowledge, tools, and money to operate, few cases exist that cannot be solved if the investigator devotes the time and energy necessary to complete the assignment.

TYPES OF INVESTIGATION

There are several types of investigation that will become part of your routine as an investigator.

Criminal Investigations

Private investigators work either for the victim or for the defendant or his attorney in criminal proceedings.

Serious crimes, which may lead to arrest and conviction of a subject, are the source of cases for the legal/criminal investigator. Burglary, theft, homicide, fraud, auto accidents, arson, kidnapping, and so on, are all examples of activities where violations of laws have taken place and you may be called to investigate.

Civil Investigations

This pertains to anything involving lawsuits in which questions of money or property must be settled. Violations of the law are usually not involved. Divorce, bankruptcy, personal injury and negligence cases, and lawsuits of various types are examples of civil matters that may require investigation.

Corporate Investigation

An investigator may monitor what is going on in a business, investigate fraud within or outside the company, and provide diligence investigations or pre-employment screening.

General Investigations

This category includes a wide variety of investigative activities. Included here are the location of witnesses and missing persons, serving of legal process, skip-tracing, checks on employee dishonesty and fraud, security surveys, bodyguard work, surveillances, etc.

ASSIGNMENTS PERFORMED BY A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

Insurance Claims/Insurance Fraud

This is the largest and most complex category and includes inflated claims on vehicular accidents, phony claims by individuals and organized fraud rings, hit and run (multi-car) with phantom vehicle liability, staged accidents, phony and exaggerated personal injury claims, fraudulent income (disability claims), and paid or untruthful witnesses.

Witness Location

This involves researching public records (often the beginning of any investigation).

Interviews and Statements

Witness, plaintiff, and defendant interviews are conducted, and statements and declarations are taken.

Service of Legal Process

Service of summons and complaint, service of a civil subpoena for a deposition, service for civil subpoena duces tecum, and service for a civil subpoena for trial testimony.

Bank Fraud

Investigation of all aspects of bank fraud cases.

Private Family Investigations

Investigations involving theft and embezzlement of family funds, theft and embezzlement of trust and estates, and the location of missing persons and runaways.

Homicide, Suicide, and Missing Persons Investigations

Death investigation including apparent death that may be staged for the collection of life insurance benefits.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Your effectiveness as an investigator will depend largely on your ability to obtain information from the following sources.

Physical Evidence

This includes identifiable objects and traces found at the crime and/or accident scene including fingerprints, clothing and personal effects, photographs, tire marks, notebooks, identification cards, credit cards, weapons, tools, etc. The types, nature, and the importance of physical evidence vary with each case.

Scientific Examinations

This type of evidence may be provided by modern, well-equipped laboratories maintained by law enforcement agencies, private investigative agencies, universities, corporations, and medical centers. Any type of physical evidence from blood samples to metal scrapings can be analyzed. As an investigator, you may find yourself using such sources.

Records and Documents

A great deal of information concerning a suspect, missing person, or wanted man can be found in some of the records and documents of government and private agencies. In order to use these sources effectively, the investigator must know the type of information that a particular agency provides, and how to obtain that information. In some states, information is available under the public records law (FS 119 in the State of Florida). Only

active criminal record information is exempt. Law enforcement records would, in most instances, be unavailable, except following a request for discovery information once the defendant has been arrested and charged with a crime.

MISSING PERSONS

Over one million people are reported missing each year. Many of these people are considered “skips”, a person who for whatever reason of his own chooses to leave a given area. You will find that no one disappears without a trace. If you, as the investigator, devote enough time and effort, and you follow the proper techniques and procedures, nearly everyone can be located. There are three major exceptions to this rule: the very

rich, the very criminal, and the very dead. Usually, the longer a person is gone, the easier it is to find the person. Most skips or missing persons eventually leave either paper trails, verbal trails, or both.

Phase One. The Initial Interview

Every missing person case begins with an interview. The purpose of the interview is to develop a body of reliable information that is useful in an actual investigation. The client who is seeking the help of the investigator is likely to be emotionally upset and unable to provide accurate information without careful guidance from the investigator. The client may be thinking of the possibility of murder, kidnapping, serious personal harm to a loved one, and other unspoken fears. It is essential that your manner and approach be reassuring and professional. By remaining calm and comforting, you will be able to gather the vital information you will need to begin your investigation.

Maintain an approach that helps the client remain calm. Project a personal image of professional competence. Allow the client time to relax before beginning a series of probing questions. Let him know that you will follow an orderly logical procedure.

Keep in mind that most missing persons leave situations that they consider unbearable. Your client may not recognize or want to reveal the nature of the circumstances that led to the disappearance. In practical terms, this means you should not accept at face value the initial statements made by the client such as, “everything was all right at home” prior to

the disappearance. Get as complete a story as possible. Some clients may hesitate to divulge family problems because they are reluctant to “air dirty laundry” or because they fear that police action and/or publicity could result. You must assure them that all information will be treated in the strictest confidence. As a private investigator, you function much as an attorney does, for the benefit of your client.

Give your client a quick preview of the kind of information that you will be seeking and then proceed in an orderly fashion to interview him.

You will be seeking information in three areas:

• Has this person run away or disappeared before?
• What was the motivating factor that caused the person to leave?
• What does the missing person look like?
• Previous Disappearances

A surprising number of runaways are repeaters. Clients may not readily volunteer information about previous disappearances for fear of embarrassment.

Be sure to ask if the missing person has run away before. If so, then the client can provide valuable information about probable destinations. Gather all the information you can about the previous incident.

Take the opportunity to check police reports about the disposition of any previous disappearances.

Motive

Determining the motive is perhaps the most important step in a successful investigation. The majority of people who run away do so for predictable motives: family arguments, inability to meet financial obligations, mental or emotional disturbances, inability to cope with severe stress, and so on. However, your client will not volunteer this information without your guidance.

Other motives for disappearances can be far more serious because they involve criminal activity. Some people run away with stolen money. Others leave because they have been threatened with physical violence.

Some intend to collect insurance through fraud. When the interview reveals such serious motives, police involvement may be necessary, and further detailed investigation will have to take place.

Description

During the initial interview get a full, detailed description of the missing person. If possible, obtain a recent photograph. Keep in mind that the client may not be able to give you a satisfactory description because he is upset. Plan to get a supplemental description from friends, associates, and schoolmates. A complete description includes the following elements:

• Physical appearance, height, weight, race, birthmarks, scars, characteristics, posture, manner of walking, and manner of speech.
• Clothing was worn and personal articles carried at the time of the disappearance.
• The vehicle used, make, model, year, body style, license number, color, and condition of the vehicle used by the missing person.

Phase Two. The Investigation

After you have completed the initial interview, you are ready to begin the actual investigation. As you uncover additional information and clues, you will need to speak with your client many times. These follow-up interviews will enable you to eliminate inaccurate information initially provided and concentrate on following clues provided by new information.

The three steps you will follow during the actual investigation include the following.

Check the Bad News Sources

Before going ahead with an extensive and costly investigation, you must determine if the missing person has already been found. This means checking area hospitals and jails. If you suspect suicide or other foul play, check the medical examiner’s office. If these sources reveal the missing person, then the investigation is complete. If they do not, then you have the basis for further investigation.

Check Personal Belongings

The personal belongings of the missing person can provide important clues to the disappearance. This is especially true with juveniles. The personal effects should be examined including mail, clippings, items found in a purse or briefcase, items found in dresser drawers, and contents of an automobile glove compartment. With juveniles, notes scribbled in books and notebooks, sometimes passed to friends, can provide important clues.

Where foul play is suspected, the examination of personal effects is especially vital and should be pursued persistently. Remember, in cases involving possible criminal activity, your investigation will supplement or complement police efforts, and you will be expected to cooperate with the authorities.

Follow-up Investigation

Although you may develop sufficient information from the initial interview and check of personal belongings to successfully proceed, there may be times when you need to do additional investigation. Such follow-up investigation may involve people associated with the missing person and aspects of the individual’s life.

It may be necessary for you to dig deeply into the missing person’s social activities, medical history, family history, and employment record. The investigation into these areas may reveal patterns of unbearable stress that motivated the individual to run away. Membership in clubs, special interest groups, unions, and professional associations may provide clues about the individual’s interests and associations. Financial records and credit ratings may reveal money problems, a frequent cause for desertion.

Records of local government offices, such as state employment offices, relief agencies, and Department of Motor Vehicles may provide clues to temporary residences. Comments made by a missing person’s friends can be significant. You learn that the person missed his last class and friends add that he was acting strangely on the night he last attended.

This can be an important clue in establishing the time of disappearance. Lifestyles are also significant. If the missing person is a gambler, pool player, gun collector, golfer, and so on, then his activities and associations provide additional clues as to his whereabouts.

The investigation into family history during the follow-up investigation may reveal serious marital difficulties. In the past, males made up the majority of those who deserted their families. Today, women are more frequently disappearing and leaving families and husbands. They are searching for a different kind of life. Frequently, deserters cannot be induced to return to their families if found. As an investigator, your role in such instances will be to determine their whereabouts and assure the client that the missing person is safe. Do not act as a marriage counselor. Reconciliation is a separate matter to be worked out between the involved parties.

Runaway Juveniles Investigations

As with other missing person cases, investigating juvenile runaways involves initial interviews, examination of personal belongings, and follow-up investigation. The investigator who is successful in locating runaway juveniles builds a body of information through interviews with parents, friends, and relatives that focus on the runaway’s home situation and on his involvement with friends and activities.

The Located Runaway

Assuming you have located a missing juvenile, the steps you should take are to notify parents or guardians of the child’s location, because they may have special instructions and will be anxious to know about the child’s status.

In the Wasser Agency, professional private investigators are put at your service to conduct missing person investigations or any other kind of investigations. We are located in Miami Beach, South Beach Florida.k Personal Belongings

The personal belongings of the missing person can provide important clues to the disappearance. This is especially true with juveniles. The personal effects should be examined including mail, clippings, items found in a purse or briefcase, items found in dresser drawers, and contents of an automobile glove compartment. With juveniles, notes scribbled in books and notebooks, sometimes passed to friends, can provide important clues.

Where foul play is suspected, the examination of personal effects is especially vital and should be pursued persistently. Remember, in cases involving possible criminal activity, your investigation will supplement or complement police efforts, and you will be expected to cooperate with the authorities.

Follow-up Investigation

Although you may develop sufficient information from the initial interview and check of personal belongings to successfully proceed, there may be times when you need to do additional investigation. Such follow-up investigation may involve people associated with the missing person and aspects of the individual’s life.

It may be necessary for you to dig deeply into the missing person’s social activities, medical history, family history, and employment record. The investigation into these areas may reveal patterns of unbearable stress that motivated the individual to run away. Membership in clubs, special interest groups, unions, and professional associations may provide clues about the individual’s interests and associations. Financial records and credit ratings may reveal money problems, a frequent cause for desertion.

Records of local government offices, such as state employment offices, relief agencies, and Department of Motor Vehicles may provide clues to temporary residences. Comments made by a missing person’s friends can be significant. You learn that the person missed his last class and friends add that he was acting strangely on the night he last attended.

This can be an important clue in establishing the time of disappearance. Lifestyles are also significant. If the missing person is a gambler, pool player, gun collector, golfer, and so on, then his activities and associations provide additional clues as to his whereabouts.

The investigation into family history during the follow-up investigation may reveal serious marital difficulties. In the past, males made up the majority of those who deserted their families. Today, women are more frequently disappearing and leaving families and husbands. They are searching for a different kind of life. Frequently, deserters cannot be induced to return to their families if found. As an investigator, your role in such instances will be to determine their whereabouts and assure the client that the missing person is safe. Do not act as a marriage counselor. Reconciliation is a separate matter to be worked out between the involved parties.

Runaway Juveniles Investigations

As with other missing person cases, investigating juvenile runaways involves initial interviews, examination of personal belongings, and follow-up investigation. The investigator who is successful in locating runaway juveniles builds a body of information through interviews with parents, friends, and relatives that focus on the runaway’s home situation and on his involvement with friends and activities.

The Located Runaway

Assuming you have located a missing juvenile, the steps you should take are to notify parents or guardians of the child’s location, because they may have special instructions and will be anxious to know about the child’s status.

In the Wasser Agency, professional private investigators are put at your service to conduct missing person investigations or any other kind of investigations. We are located in Miami Beach, South Beach Florida.