How To Find Missing Persons
First of all, post a free missing person message on our notice board (here). This has the advantage of getting details about your missing person into search engines like Google, Yahoo! And MSN. If anyone else is looking for this missing person, like family and friends, then they may come across your notice and contact you to help.
You should also type their full name and their hometown and or state into each of those 3 search engines and see what results come up. I.e. “John Callmer, Washington” “John Callmer, Hilltown, Washington”.
Another route you should consider is phoning family and friends of the missing person to see if they know where he is, or if they knew of a more up to date last address. This should help you gather information at the very least, such as their Date of birth, SSN, other family members to call.
If none of that works I’d suggest hiring a professional people finder or private investigator. These services will search nationwide public records and specialist databases only they have access to. Often they will be able to search public records for a fraction of the cost if you do it yourself as they buy searches in bulk off of online vendors. They also know which databases are best to search and when. They will also phone contacts they develop and communicate effectively with government departments and companies if needed to find your missing person.
I reccommend using these Professional UK and USA services:-
UK Private Investigator - Low cost, full UK database search, phones and mails leads if required, member of the WAPI and SIF investigation associations.
USA Private Investigator - Low cost, Nation-wide and State-wide database searches, phones and mails leads if needed, member of the NAIS and LPDAM investigative associations. Licensed as an investigator in the United States. Can take on Canadian finding missing person cases.
Find Missing Person - Tip 1
Try to find out the names of their family and friends from the people you already have in common. This can greatly aid any investigator in finding missing persons.
Find Missing Person - Tip 2
If the missing person is under 18 you're going to have a lot of trouble finding them using databases as they usually won't be on any. Investigators also won't try to find them as it could be illegal. Noteable exceptions are runaway kids. For divorce cases you could always try and find the mother/father that's with them.
Find Missing Person - Tip 3
Before you go off knocking on doors and searching throuygh public records yourself you must consider the legal consequenses. You could break any number of laws you're no aware of to do with divulging people's personal information, data protection, invasion of privacy, cause people distress if you approach them incorrectly, cause their marraige to break up (if you send them a letter asking for information about your birth mum and the partner gets it and is convinced that his is actually your mother although she really isn't). Public records and investigative skills are great - if you know how to use them and can follow the laws involved with tact. If in doubt hire a professional!
Find Missing Person - Tip 4
Be cautious when buying these "DIY find missing persons" software programs on the Internet. Most of them are just a collection of links to public record sites or other websites where you have to pay to do the most basic of searches. You can discover these sites yourelf using Google, MSN or Yahoo! search engines. They're basically made by Internet marketers who use hype and nice sounding words to convince you to buy them, and most are a waste of time and money.
Find Missing Person - Tip 5
If your missing person has moved home, but you suspect they still stay in the same town it may be worth popping into their "regular bars" every now and again. Even though they've moved home they'll still keep their regular habits, so visit bars and clubs they usually go to to find them. If you visit their work it'll seem a bit too aggressive, but "bumping" into them at their local bar or gym seems more natural.
Find Missing Person - Tip 6
If you hire a private investigator to find your missing person, and the search is unsuccessfull, ask them to try and find the missing person's parents or siblings. Hopefully you'll be able to get back in contact with your missing person through the family. If you have any details on the family pass them onto your investigator and they'll probobly try and find the family for no additional charge (Trace People UK, USA, Canada are one investigation agency that do this). Sometimes information about the family will come up as part of the search for the missing person anyway, but any info you can provide is useful.
Find Missing Person - Tip 7
Be patient. Public records and other databases private investigators have access to are not full proof, at any one time at least 15% of the population won't have their current address listed. That said, if you're patient enough and check every 6 months for 2-3 years you're bound to find them eventually!
Find Missing Person - Tip 8
Avoid all the scammers out there who will want to take advantage of your need to find this missing person. The ebooks and "super special 007 spy people finder" software packages you'll see advertised are little more than links to public record sites. Just save your money and hire a professional. If you make a mistake doing a DIY investigation it could mean a hefty fine and prison time for breaking information laws in your country (that you probobly don't even know exist).
Find Missing Person - Tip 9
Be very cautious if you manage to find a friend or family member who knows where the missing person is. If you go and ask them to pass on a message you may only end up causing trouble. This is a very important lesson when tracing birth parents, as the family may not know of your existence.
