Skip Tracing / Missing Persons Locates
It's always a great day when we manage to locate a long lost family member, lover, or friend - but before contacting a private investigative agency, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Before we begin, let’s define some terms. There’s a difference between “skip tracing” and “missing persons locates”. Though some investigators disagree on the exact terminology, skip tracing is typically agreed to be when an individual purposefully “skips town” or disappears on purpose of their own accord.
Private Investigators will only usually attempt to locate these individuals if they disappear under suspicious circumstances then agree to have their location shared once found, or if the private investigator is aiding law enforcement. A missing person locate is when a person is missing and left no indication if they left purposefully or were taken against their will; again however, if found, their location will only be shared either with their consent or with the proper authorization from law enforcement.
Pictured above: the text “SKIP TRACING _ MISSING PERSONS” overlaid a royalty free image of a cork-board with string and thumbtacks linking different notes.
Click on the above photo to return to the services section and see what else Rainy Day PIS can offer.
Rainy Day Private Investigative Services [PIS] utilizes state of the art O.S.INT. and background checking tools that take special training to operate in order to dig up information of missing individuals that other agencies typically do not have the required skill to operate. Combining software know-how with lived experience, Rainy Day PIS has the experts you require to track down those important to you.
Onto the heart of the matter, though we excel at locating individuals, there are privacy laws in place for those peoples protection. Once we contact the person you’re seeking, its typical that we ask them if they’re okay with being contacted by you - our client. Many people may take issue with this, and we understand why; it would feel very unfair and frustrating to spend money on an investigation, for the investigator to find the person you’re seeking, only for them not to want to speak with you and you're out of your time and money.
There’s a good reason for this though: there have been several cases where, for example, a brother would contact a private investigator to find his long lost sister. The Investigator may find her, and tell his client, only to later find that sister was actually running away from her abusive husband - who you now know was your client, all along. Many variations of this case have occurred over the years, which is the reason we must do our due diligence as private investigators. Secondly, if you do still want to attempt finding someone - a family member, specifically - the first thing a private investigator generally would do is have you construct a family tree. Typically, we would also be eager to run tests through the major genealogy websites such as Ancestry, 23AndMe, or any other you feel comfortable with. We would advise trying these websites first, as the results may take some time to compile, before coming to an investigator.
Our third and final tip for this post, is as always - beware of fraudulent investigators, which can come in many forms. They may have no private investigator’s license, no agency license, or be uninsured; sometimes they may just have no intention of working your case properly - if at all. This can be evident if they guarantee they can find who you’re looking for, and that they'll do it for a ridiculously cheap price, with an equally ludicrous time frame [an example of this would be one saying "I can find your ex spouse with one hundred percent certainty for 100$ by tomorrow"].
We like to end off every post with an anecdotal story here, with any and all identifying information redacted and express client permission. We had a client come to us, very wary and hesitant of pulling the trigger on our services. Through sitting down and talking with them, they eventually decided to go through with hiring us. After a little while, keeping the client updated the whole time, we found the person they were looking for and in a very happy conclusion, the person we found was ecstatic to hear not only that our client was still around, but that they wanted to see them again so bad that they had hired us! Our client called us later and thanked us for the opportunity for them to catch up again, but they also wanted to apologize; we had no idea why, until they elaborated. The client explained that they were initially so reluctant because they had hired several "investigators" before from other websites that would charge 50$-100$ and claimed that they could do it in a few days. Of course, they never came through. Our client went on to say that they were a tad cagey from the outset when our price was as much as they had spent on all of their previous fraudulent investigations in total, and we said we would take longer than any of the scammers did. Alas, to our clients relief, we kept them up to date every day with calls and texts, visited them and showed them as we found more clues what their money was going towards in regards to the results we were getting, and of course finally gave them the location of the person who after many years, was very eager to see them too. Its not everyday our stories get happy endings - but we love it when we do!
We are a Brant County local family company that works with you on payment plans and charging family tier rates. Consultations with our experienced and empathic investigators are always free, confidential, and 100% discrete - because that, is the Rainy Day way.