The best time to find a missing person is within the first 48 hours. In fact, the first 48 hours are the most critical in a missing-person case. Within the first 48 hours, the police have a better chance of tracking down leads and chasing possible suspects. After 48 hours, the trail often becomes colder.
How can you track down your Loved Ones within 24 hours?
If a loved one or someone you know has gone missing, you can report them missing as soon as you exhaust the obvious places to check. There is a general public belief that you have to wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person, but this is a myth. You should report a missing person the moment you become seriously concerned that someone isn’t where they should be, and can’t be located.
Can Police and Legal Teams help you find a Missing Person?
When you contact the police and give them the details, they may advise you to wait before they consider it a true missing person case. But there is no law or policy mandating a waiting period. If someone is missing, the police want to find them. The police department will begin their investigation immediately, following up on all leads and hopefully finding the person quickly. As an individual, you can also start calling around to that person’s friends and family to see where the person was last or who they last talked to.
Any and all information will be extremely valuable to the police investigation so be sure and share anything you find out with the lead investigator. On their end, those officers who specialize in finding missing persons will set up command posts, gather and assign agents to work on the leads, and organize all of the information the current investigation has gathered. This alone often finds the missing person before the initial 48 hours is up.
After the police have begun their investigation, what else can you do? Although law enforcement will work with social media and other agencies to spread the picture and description of the missing person, you can also use social media yourself, as well as local media outlets, to spread the word. Make your posts shareable and call the local TV news stations to help get the word out as quickly as possible.
The Best Organizations to help you find a Missing Person
You can also reach out to organizations such as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. These organizations have many resources and suggestions for helping to find your missing person as well.
If all of the official avenues have been pursued and you still haven’t found your loved one within the first 24 hours, it may be time to elevate the investigation. You can do this by hiring your own private investigator to work on the case. Although law enforcement does its best, sometimes you need someone who can wholly devote their time and resources into finding that person.
How Private Investigators are better when compared to the Police
Private investigators can work with law enforcement because they usually have a good relationship with the local officers, and this makes it easier for them to coordinate their efforts with the police detectives in charge of the case. Here are a few advantages that private investigators have over official law enforcement officers when it comes to missing person cases:
- Private investigators can often blend into the crowd better than official police officers or detectives. Often this alone allows the investigator access to information and leads that some people don’t feel comfortable sharing with the police.
- Witnesses or people who have seen something are more likely to reveal sensitive information to an individual than they would the police because they don’t have to worry about being arrested or drawn into a complex or dangerous investigation.
- If information or a lead happens to come up in a different country or state, a private investigator can be on a plane to follow that lead or interview that witness; local law enforcement has to follow strict rules and protocols about staying within their jurisdiction and cannot cross state lines, even in a missing person case.
- Private investigators can also use any and all tactics in order to follow a lead and find a missing person whereas the police have to follow their department’s rules and protocols.
- Although the police do have access to the Internet and many kinds of databases, a private investigator has access to other databases and contacts that the public or the police do not have. They also have years of experience and training to quickly assimilate that information to search for a missing person in real time.
The Best Private Investigator in the Market for Missing Persons
With more than 600,000 individuals going missing each year, time is true of the essence in a missing person case. New York private investigator Darrin Giglio of North American Investigations says, “The sooner we get the case the faster we can find the person, which is why the first 24 hours are extremely crucial in locating a missing person.” Having a private investigator as well as local law enforcement working on the case may be the key to finding the missing person safely and efficiently.
