After getting over the initial shock of finding that my ex-wife had disappeared with my two boys I knew I had to take action and fast if I was to find them again. But what?  

Just as with medical care, an immediate response is key. Ask any medical professional and they will tell you the first hour after a life threatening injury is vital if the patient is to saved. In finding missing people, your response in the first days after someone goes missing are equally vital in your search to find them.

In investigations to find a missing person, it’s not medical care but rather talking to as many people as possible while memories are still fresh to find out what they they recall, conversations overhead and actions seen. Take massive action, get out and talk to as many people as possible.

Get your boots on and hit the streets

Visit the area where the person lived. Knock on doors, talk to parsers-by, visit the neighbors of the person who’s gone missing. Did they see, hear or witness anything. In particular, do they recall any comments that the person you are searching for made in the run up to disappearing?

Depending on the circumstances of the disappearance, you may need to ask discreetly. Don’t come across as demanding or heavy handed, you’re asking people to help you afterall.  And never lie. Tell the truth as to why you’re looking for them and they’ll be more likely to help you.

And do it again and again, keep going back, visit at different times and talk to different people. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself by pestering the people however.

Friends and family
Although obvious, many people often forget to ask the friends and family of the missing person. It’s also worth using the power of social networks, your missing friend, family or aquaintence probably now has more contacts on Facebook and Linkedin than they do in their their local community. I didn’t think about this for a while and it nearly cost me dear, using the online tools to people search databases and social networks  can speed up communicating with your contacts friends.

Who else do they know
Aside from discretly asking neighbors if they know or might have heard where the missing person has gone, it’s also worth asking if they can think of anyone else or saw anyone regularly visiting that might know something.

Another avenue to explore is the neighbors often know have some details for landlords so they can contact them in event of problems – so ask if they have contact details and then reach out to them.

After neighbors and landlords, think of businesses who might have been involved if the person has moved away. Brainstorm the type of business you’d need if you were moving, storage and van rental businesses should be top of your list. Visit them, be honest, explain what’s happened and ask if they know anything.

Location jigsaw – putting it all together
Asking friends, neighbors, landlords and local businesses will often reveal several different snippets of information. These can at first often seem contradictory but rather than treat the different information as conflicting look for common themes that once pieced together may give you a vital clue. Writing down everything you’ve learnt on pieces of paper and group them together around common themes, associations or locations can can often give reveal a bigger picture you might otherwise miss.

Alternatively, and a technique I’ve used to great effect, is to create a mind map of all everything you know about the missing person. Various software for creating these mind maps is available to let you organise different ideas and evidence strands visually to help you spot links and patterns in your search for missing persons.

Lastly, keep copious notes. If your search doesn’t reveal results and you decide to use the services of a professional private investigator (it’s always worth discussing your problem with reputable investigators as they’ll have access to people search resources you have missed) details of friends and family can be very useful.

You might also be interested in: The top five books of private investigators and online techniques on how to find a missing person.

Picture: anankkml / FreeDigitalPhotos.net