Leading the Way - August 2009
Techniques for Locating Missing Witnesses
It has been a while since your first interview with a potential witness. Trial is approaching, and it is now time to schedule depositions and prepare for the trial. Despite your best efforts, you cannot now get in touch with that witness.
To help avoid this situation, it is essential that you obtain as much identifying information as possible during the first interview with the witness. This information should include: full name, address, telephone number, date of birth, social security number, driver’s license number, place of employment, and occupation. You should also try to obtain the name, address, and telephone number of a person who would know how to contact the witness, if the need would arise.
However, just because you do have all of this information, you are not guaranteed to be able to locate the witness. Below are some tools that you can use to locate people for free.
Telephone Directories: If you have tried to contact the witness by telephone, only to find out the number has been disconnected, don’t overlook the obvious. Check all easily accessible resources such as the telephone book, directory assistance operators, and cross-reference directories. When using directory assistance, ask for the telephone numbers for anyone with the same last name on the street of the last known address. There are several web sites you can use to look up phone numbers. You can also do a reverse lookup. Usually, all you have to do is type in someone’s phone number, and you’ll discover who belongs to that phone number and their address (if they’re listed, that is).
Employers: Many times employers will know where the person is currently employed and may be willing to share this information with you. They may also share with you contact information for the references that were listed on the witness’ employment application. Chances are good that these people will know how to contact the witness.
Professional Affiliations: A person usually stays in the same trade or profession. Therefore, unions, trade associations, professional associations, registries, and state licensing authorities are a good source for locating the witness.
Postal Records: You may be able to obtain a forwarding address from the post office.
Driver’s Licenses: A person’s driving record can be obtained through the state licensing authority. Most states generally only require the person’s name, date of birth, and/or social security number.
Free people search engines: Google If you’re looking for information about someone, one of the best places you can start your search on the Web is Google. You can use Google to find background information, phone numbers, addresses, maps, and more. Zabasearch is a free people search engine. You can search by what is available in the public domain for free public access. ZoomInfo is a free people search engine that scours the Web for information about people, and nothing else. Social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MyLife are all good places to search. Trying to find people using a general search engine such as Google brings back a ton of results; however, those results can take a while to filter through and they’re not always good.
Blog Search Engines Blog search engines help you find blogs on the Web on whatever topic you’d like to explore. Your witness may publish a blog on his area of expertise.
Public Records Information Looking for public records? There are many available. City Records: water and power companies, garbage collection, sewer services, cable television, and dog permits. State Records: business licensing, corporate records, vehicle registrations, voting registration, hunting and fishing permits, and boat registration. Courthouse Records: civil and criminal records, marriage records, real property records, and vital statistics records. Some of this information may be found on the internet. Others may require a personal contact to obtain information.
Military Search Tools When attempting to locate a witness who is on active military service, a request can be made to the appropriate military organization to locate the person. The request should include the name, date of birth, social security number, and last known address. You can also find people who have previously served via several websites: Military.com Buddy Finder; USMC Military Reunions; The American War Library; The Unofficial Air Force Email Locator; Navy WorldWide Locator; Shipmate Search; The Citadel People Search; Department of Defense - Locator Services; The Vietnam Era POW/MIA Database - Library of Congress; Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.
Obituary Searches Obituaries, published daily in nearly
every newspaper around the world, aren’t so easy to find online. In
fact, since most newspapers do not publish digital archives of their papers
online, finding obituaries usually ends up being an offline research task.
If you have gone through some of these techniques and searches and still
cannot locate the missing witness, you may wonder if you should hire an investigator. Before
you do hire an investigator, determine the value of the testimony of the
witness, and establish a budget from there.
Peggy Sullivan, PP, PLS