Missing persons investigations can be stressful, time consuming and even dangerous. Investigating missing persons cases can involve visiting mass graves, seeing remains of people who have died of torture and working with family members who are under stress or pressure from criminal gangs.
흥신소North American Investigations has worked on these types of cases, finding lost loved ones or relatives who were missing for years.
Information Gathering
During the investigation it will 흥신소 be necessary to gather and collate information and develop different hypothesise. Keeping good records of the different lines of enquiry will save time in future investigations. Taking a fresh look at old lines of inquiry will also be beneficial. A review can provide the IIO with new and useful intelligence and may reveal previously missed opportunities.
Sightings should be a key part of the enquiries and a way of prioritising these sightings should be in place. Rewarding information can help bring media attention back to a case and can encourage people to come forward. However this should be balanced against the cost of the reward and it is important that any actions taken to receive information are formally recorded.
Depending on the level of risk a missing person may be considered, access to live-time traffic and mobile phone data should be available (see Passive data generators). This will give clues as to where the missing person has travelled during previous periods of absence. This is particularly relevant in high-risk cases.
Flow Charts
The flow chart is used to depict the process of responding to a missing persons incident. It begins with the person being reported missing and then lists the steps that must be taken to solve the problem. Each step in the process is then assigned to a responsible party. The steps are then arranged sequentially and connected by lines to show how they connect. Using a flow chart can help to improve the efficiency of the response to missing persons incidents. 흥신소
Flow diagrams can be difficult to construct accurately. In one study of 172 RCT reports, the median number of items that were either missing or unclear in a given flow diagram was seven. This figure dropped to four when information was retrieved from the full text and relevant tables or figures.
Creating flow charts is a great activity for students to develop pattern recognition and analytic reasoning skills. It also helps them practice computational thinking and how to express algorithms in a logical manner. However, this activity is best suited for older students, Grades 6 and up, as they are at the developmental stage where they can think abstractly and explore multiple solutions to a problem.
Human Sources
A missing persons investigation involves the gathering of information about a person who has disappeared. This can be done by a variety of methods, including interviewing family members, searching public records and examining evidence, such as clothing, toothbrushes, razors and unlaundered undergarments. The information gathered can be used to generate investigative leads in the search for the missing person and identify him or her.
While the traditional view is that an effective search for missing persons requires a body to be found, this is not always the case in cases of disappearances linked to crime (e.g. murder, rape or sexual assault), terrorism and forced disappearances resulting from a situation of violence such as war, post conflict and migration. This approach, which is known as the broader forensic response to missing persons (Search) [3] should be adopted.
Despite the fact that it is not possible to confirm the fate and whereabouts of missing persons in every case, the search process should be seen as intrinsically linked to all processes that lead to the clarification of these questions. The responsibilities and actions of those involved in this overarching process should be clearly defined.
Database Searches
In the United States, there are around 100,000 active missing persons entries in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Some of these are cases that have gone cold. Advances in forensic technology and improved information sharing capabilities mean that these old cases should be reviewed to see if further investigation can help resolve them.
A federally funded program called NamUs helps investigators match long-term missing person cases with unidentified decedents. It also offers forensic professionals free forensic services. It fills an overwhelming need for a central database of missing, unidentified, and unclaimed people.
Experienced private investigators who conduct missing person investigations use the latest database searches to ensure that the results are accurate and up to date. They have the ability to search by name, age, birth place, state, investigating agency, county, gender and poster availability. This allows them to identify potential subjects quickly and accurately. They are also able to search by forename, middle names and family names. This can be useful for individuals who have changed their name or have used aliases over the years.
Interviewing
People that know the missing person should be interviewed as soon as possible. This can help police build up a detailed picture of the individual’s family, friends, lifestyle and habits. This information can then be used to contribute to risk assessments and develop hypotheses of what might have happened to the missing person.
All children that go missing should be offered a prevention interview, which is a more detailed and supportive intervention than the standard safe and well checks provided by police. These interviews should also be followed up by a return interview to identify any ongoing risks that may have arisen since the disappearance of the child.
High-profile missing persons investigations can generate a lot of interest, especially when there are new clues discovered. This can create a lot of pressure for law enforcement to search in certain areas, but it is important to be patient and to spread the news about developments over a longer period of time. This can prevent people from taking matters into their own hands and carrying out searches themselves.