Tips for Locating Persons

 

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People become "missing" for a variety of reasons. Most missing

persons can be found through the paper trails they leave behind. If the

person has taken flight from the authorities for criminal acts, it is not

likely this person will leave behind the typical "trails" that

investigators look for.

Someone who is simply avoiding lawsuits, bill collectors or who has

simply moved around or lost touch will not be willing to make an entire

identity change and will frequently leave a trail you can easily follow.

If the person has taken flight, you have to hope that person "slipped

up"

somewhere.

The first step is to try and establish IDENTIFIERS. An identifier is a

piece of personal information about a person that separates that

individual from all other persons with the same name. The best three

identifiers, in addition to the exact full name are:

1.Social Security Number

2.Date of Birth, or age

3.Last known address (less than 7 years old)

Without at least one identifier, you will likely be spending time locating

persons with the same name and then trying to determine whether it's

the same person you're seeking.

Your first step is to check the phone book for similar names in areas

you feel the person may be living. If you don't actually find the person,

you may end up contacting a relative. It's amazing how many

"missing" persons were listed in the phone book, waiting to be found.

There are nationwide phone records available on CD ROM from most

software retailers that can scan for a given name or similar names. If

they don't locate the name outright, they are great for

finding relatives. These directories are also useful for identifying

former neighbors who are usually willing to provide information about

the person that you are seeking.

Assuming the person is still alive, he or she will generally leave some

sort of paper trail which can be used to locate them. Do you know a

GENERAL AREA where you feel the person might be?

Most people have a driver's license somewhere, but the records are

maintained state-by-state. This is public information which can be

obtained by writing to the State motor vehicles department,

and there is always a nominal fee charged.

Most people have a credit profile. Most any investigator, for a small

fee, can obtain the non-confidential portion of this credit report which

can give you an address history to work with.

If you have a general area where the person may be, many research

services can check to see if the person has utility services in that area,

such as electric, gas, cable TV and water. These records are

particularly helpful regardless of whether the person you are seeking

is renting an apartment or owns a home.

If the person owns real estate, those records are public and could

provide many leads. Check with each county clerk for those records,

or contact an information broker with database access to nationwide

real property and mortgage records.

If you feel the person may be deceased, an early check with the Social

Security Administration master death index would save you many

hours of research if your hunch is correct.

What else do you know about the person? If he/she is working as a

licensed or certified professional, you should check the licensing and

certification boards in various states to see if the person is listed there.

Do you know any relatives or friends of the person? Call them up. If

they

won't cooperate, there are services available to trace phone records

from a given person which may lead you to the individual you seek. Is

the person a voter? Try checking local registration records.

Women are usually more difficult to find than men since they change

their names with marriage. A search of marriage records or a phone

disc search (using first name only) would be in order. The County

usually maintains marriage records.

Only once when you have exhausted all the public records in your

search, is it time to turn to a professional.