a 15 year old girl was last seen walking home from school. Then, without a trace, she was gone. Initially the police reported she did make it back home only to say she hadn’t. Then they said she called home but this was incorrect as well. While she did send and received texts in the half hour before she disappeared, it was as if she never existed.
Eventually, police revealed that after her disappearance she sent a letter home to her parents. Representatives of the FBI, who became involved shortly after she disappeared and the letter was received, believe that she simply ran away. But they also conceded that it was possible she was being coerced into staying away and not contacting her family after the letter was sent. As the family has asked for privacy and the authorities have indicated that the investigation into her disappearance is ongoing, little else is known. She disappeared and nine months and one letter later she returned home.
While we are happy that the family is reunited and the young lady is seemingly safe and in good health, what her family went through during those nine months is unfathomable. Missing person’s case are always difficult to investigate and solve. When the person missing is a young child or someone with psychological or development disabilities, the push to find the person is intense. As they missing person’s age gets closer to or eclipses the age of consent, the missing can remain missing if they wish and there is little the authorities can or will do. If the person is of the age of consent and they are located by the authorities, they can request that the authorities reveal nothing more to their loved ones than they are alive. In those cases, the anguish and confusion that the people left behind feel can be devastating.
While the authorities are not bound to reveal the location of someone of age who has gone missing and is found, the same is not true of private investigators. A private investigator can often track down and locate the individual who has gone missing. Once they do they can then turn the information over to their client for them to decide what to do. Private investigators often have access to the same information that the authorities do but they are not bound by any regulations that govern the actions or a tax-payer funded employee of the city or state. For this reason, many will contact a private investigator along with cooperating with authorities.