People Search

Back in the 1990's I founded Find-A-Person as a specialist people finder after returning to Australia from the UK; where I once located people for a UK Government organisation.

I find people for all sorts of reasons;

Missing relatives, friends or business associates

Missing debtors & "skips"

Missing witnesses

Missing defendants

Missing heirs

Finding people is often a big challenge and can be very rewarding; especially with the emotional side in cases which involve happy reunions.

I also get a thrill from finding those people who like to avoid their responsibilities to others & society; and skip out. The hunt - thrill of the chase.

Ernest Hemingway wrote:

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted men long enough and liked it, never really care for (hunting) anything else thereafter."

Personally I am not into hunting animals, however I have done it in the past when a young man. There are various reasons why I could never hunt animals again; apart from for food/survival; and one of them is that I have to agree with Hemingway.

Once, long ago and shortly after I returned to Australia, I found someone wanted by NSW Police for very serious offences - I was after him for a debt of around $250,000 for a Queensland Government department and during the investigation discovered he was "wanted". The man was so careful his own mother didn't even know where he was. Whenever he phoned her, he used a call box and was careful what he said (Police were tapping the line and were unable to locate him). At the time I was sub contracting to another investigation company and informed the owner of my additional findings - the owner called the Police immediately and a local Officer came over ASAP. I wasn't allowed to see the officer which I thought was odd. A year or so later, when relating the incident to a friend I was informed that I may have missed out on a reward and that it may have been the reason why I didn't see the Police Officer. My ignorance was due to my limited time spent in Australia.

The most unusual case I have ever worked on was when I "found" a dead person in three places. A female friend of the deceased man wanted to know where he had been laid to rest, however did not want to ask the family because they may have jumped to the wrong conclusions (he was married with children) as they (the family) did not know of the woman. The client struck me as being very genuine and honest, but in any case it was none of my business whether she had been having an affair. My very discreet, and sensitive investigations revealed that the man had been cremated, with his ashes spread in three locations special to him and the family. I cannot go into any more details for client confidentiality reasons.

Two or three times I found missing people actually in an Intensive Care Unit (accident or illness); though of course they were not approached by clients until after recovery. A number have been located after death; some of these were especially sad because the relative concerned had left it too long before initiating a trace. Others were missing debtors.

Another unusual case was an Australian debtor who was located in prison on an island state overseas for gun running - I had to inform the client that he would not be returning to Australia for a very long time.

These days it is much harder to find people due to strengthened Privacy Laws and from the perspective of an experienced Private Investigator, I have noted that one of the key overall effects of these new regulations is that times are much easier for the bad guys now, and harder for the good. Costs for society have risen as a result.