Missing Children Investigations: The goal of any missing child investigation is the safe return of the child By Ed Wunsch

          According to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, more than 200,000 children are parentally abducted every year in the United States. That’s more than 3,846 per week, 550 per day, or 23 per hour. Put another way, almost one child is abducted every two minutes by a non-custodial parent or other family member. Fifty-four percent are gone without a trace for more than one week.
  
          Is there a need for private investigators in this dilemma? I think so. In light of continual budget cuts, downsizing and restructuring, police departments are being forced to re-prioritize the services they render. While it is not right, police agencies often do not give high priority to cases of child abductions by non-custodial parents. As one police investigator told me, “I am the only investigator for a city of 15,000. I come to work in the morning and have ten new cases on my desk. There is no way I have time to work parental abduction cases. We are going to see the day very soon, where ‘you guys’ will have to work these cases and call us when you find the kid, and we’ll hopefully be able to come out and assist with the recovery.”
  
          Another police sergeant for a major metropolitan police department told me, “This (a parental abduction) is not a priority case. I have real police work to do.” With that kind of law enforcement approach to parental abduction investigations, what option do “left behind” parents have, but to obtain the services of a private investigator?
     
          Let’s suppose you’re new to the business, and you get a phone call from a distressed parent begging you to help find their missing child. Parental abduction investigations are not cases to take as on-the-job-training. Be honest with the “left behind” parent. If you have never worked this kind of case, tell them. You will be dealing with a parent that is going through one of the most traumatic events that any parent can experience. They are also in a very vulnerable position. To take advantage of a parent in this position is not only immoral and unethical; it puts a black mark on all private investigators.
In a recent conversation, Ben Ermini, Director, Missing Children Division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), told me that NCMEC can not endorse the use of private investigators in cases of missing children, due to horror stories they have heard of private investigators taking advantage of the “left behind” parent, or playing “cowboy” and re-abducting the child
inappropriately. Mr. Ermini cites a case where a parent of a missing child hired a private investigator and paid the investigator some ungodly amount of money as a retainer. When the child was found, the private investigator had the audacity to tell the parent that he had found the child, but if the parent wanted to know where the child was, it was going to cost another $10,000. Can anyone wonder why Mr. Ermini and NCMEC has the attitude they do? Fortunately, the majority of us are not of similar nature.
   
          Let’s say you decide to take the case. How hard can it be, you might ask. We look for people all the time; it’s part of what we do. That’s true, but don’t assume a missing child investigation will be easy. They can be difficult, time consuming and frustrating.
  
          The first thing you should do is practice the “CYA” principle. If I see my name on the front page of the newspaper in regards to one of these stories, I want it to be for assisting in locating the child, not for assisting in his or her abduction. I require several items from my “left behind” parent client. First, I want a court certified copy (raised seal) of the most recent custody order, granting custody to my client. Once I receive that, I verify with the issuing court that it is the most current custody order. Recently, a police department didn’t verify that the order they had was the most current and “assisted” in the abduction of some children. That police department was sued and ordered to pay damages. You don’t want the same thing to happen to your private detective agency.
    
          Secondly, I want the name, phone number, and email address of the primary law enforcement officer investigating the case. While there are some differences in the laws of every state, it is illegal in all fifty states to remove children from the custody of the court ordered custodial parent or guardian. If a law enforcement agency is not involved, I immediately become concerned about the credibility of the case. I want to establish a rapport with the investigating officer.
  

Return to Top

          Thirdly, I want verification that the case is registered with NCMEC. While NCMEC will not cooperate with a private investigator, their accepting the case adds credibility to it. The NCMEC has a great website (www.missingkids.com) where downloadable posters are available on missing children.
Fourthly, I strongly recommend that my missing children investigation clients contact Team HOPE. Team HOPE (www.teamhope.org) is an organization of volunteer parents that do one on one peer counseling of other parents that are going through similar situations. These parents need someone to talk to. Team HOPE does just that, and gives me the time to do what I do best, investigate.
  
          The CYA steps are all covered, and now you have a legitimate case. What next? When I accept a case, I have the client complete an Agreement and Confidential Client Information Sheet. The agreement is standard, except that I do not charge for these cases. I also have them sign, as part of the agreement, a release that allows me to speak to, and obtain copies of any and all documents from the law enforcement agency (ies) involved, their attorney (if they have one), and any other organization that may have crucial information (such as a school). Of course, we all know that a signed release does not guarantee that the agency will release the requested information.

          The most important thing is a lengthy, in-depth interview of the “left behind” parent. In this interview, I question my client about anything and everything; from when and how they met, to the family personalities of the abductor, to friends the abductor has had, to jobs they have had. When I leave the interview, I want to feel that I know the abductor better then the “left behind” parent. In my experience, the vast majority of abductors have someone (family member, close friend, significant other, etc.) who is intimately involved in the abduction. I explain this to the “left behind” parent and ask who this might be. Usually, the “left behind” parent can identify such a person. I also ask what they think the motive was for the abduction, and again, they are often right. The “left behind” parent knows the abductor the best. Never ignore the “left behind” parent, as some law enforcement officers do.
  
          Before the interview concludes, there is one last question that must be answered: Does the abductor have access to weapons and has he or she demonstrated any tendencies towards violence? I learned to ask this question the hard way. On one case, when an abductor was found and the police made the felony traffic stop to apprehend her and recover the child, a loaded handgun was found under the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Luckily no one was hurt, but we did not know she had a handgun. Had we asked the “left behind” parent, we would have been informed of the abductor’s fascination with weapons.
  
          After the interview, I contact the primary law enforcement investigator. I identify myself, and indicate that I have been retained to assist them in locating the abductor, so that he (or she) can be apprehended by the police. I also explain that I will be conducting my own investigation and want to be sure that we will not be “stepping on each other’s toes,” as I would much rather work with them. Usually, cops only listen to other cops. For that reason, I have a list of law enforcement officers that I have worked with in the past, who are willing to talk to another cop and provide a reference on my behalf. I also explain to the officer that there is information that I can obtain without a warrant, which might take them weeks to obtain. I have received responses that range from, “Someone who knows what he is doing. What do we do next?” to “What the hell makes you think we need your help?” When I do speak with law enforcement, I am very careful to be sure that they understand I am attempting to assist them. While it is not foolproof, this approach has been very successful for me. I try to stay in close contact with the primary law enforcement officer, providing any information that I obtain. More often then not (not including the FBI), they do share information with me.
  
          No matter how uncooperative law enforcement might be, never belittle them to your client, or publicly. About two years ago, there was a case where a young man disappeared after a college party. The parents believed the police were doing a poor job of the investigation and hired a private investigator. One of the first things this private investigator did was to call a press conference and belittle the law enforcement agency handling the case. Even if the accusation was true (I’m not sure it was in this case), do you think this private investigator had a chance of working with the police on this case, or any other case in the future?
  
          One quick note on working with the police: While I am not an attorney, I do not believe you would be considered an agent of the police in these kinds of investigations, as you are simply cooperating with and assisting the police investigation. Assuming that an arrest warrant has been issued for the abductor, you would be assisting in the apprehension of a wanted person, not providing investigative services to a police agency.
  

Return to Top

          Once you cover these preliminaries, you are ready to start the investigation. The techniques in conducting a missing child investigation are similar to any missing person case, but there are key issues that must be considered: