In the wake of personal crimes such as assaults, muggings, sexual assaults, and other violations, victims often grapple with the slow pace of justice. If law enforcement is unable to identify the assailant in the first couple of days after the incident, it can result in serious delays or even unresolved cases. This is where the expertise and dedication of a private investigator (PI) can make a significant difference, offering a more focused approach to solving these crimes.
The Critical Role of Private Investigators
Private investigators step into the breach with a set of skills and resources uniquely tailored to address the intricacies of crimes against persons. Their work encompasses several critical areas:
Targeted Surveillance: PIs conduct surveillance operations to gather direct evidence and observe suspects, providing concrete data that can be crucial in legal proceedings.
In-Depth Interviews and Witness Statements: Through their investigative work, PIs can locate and interview witnesses that law enforcement might not have the capacity to reach, gathering valuable testimonials and statements.
Comprehensive Background Checks: They perform detailed background checks on individuals involved in the case, uncovering patterns of behavior or past crimes that can be pivotal in understanding the current situation.
Bridging the Gap in the Justice System
While police departments are often burdened with an array of cases, private investigators bring a laser-focused approach to each investigation, dedicating the time and energy necessary to delve into the finer details of each case. This level of attention can uncover leads and evidence that might otherwise go unnoticed, significantly increasing the chances of resolution and justice for the victim.
The Tools and Techniques of PIs
Private investigators leverage a wide array of tools and methodologies in their work, including:
Digital Forensics: Utilizing technology to uncover digital evidence, track online activities, and gather data that can support the case.
Legal Knowledge: Understanding the legal framework and requirements for evidence, ensuring that all gathered information can be effectively used in court.
Specialized Databases: Accessing extensive databases for information on individuals, properties, and more, which can provide crucial links and insights in an investigation.
The Emotional Aspect
Beyond the technical and procedural aspects of their work, PIs also offer emotional support to victims. Navigating the aftermath of a personal crime can be a traumatic experience, and PIs understand the importance of empathy and discretion in their dealings with clients, offering not just investigative expertise but also a measure of comfort during a difficult time.
Finding Your Path to Resolution
Hiring a private investigator can be a game-changer for victims of personal crimes. With their dedicated approach, specialized skills, and the ability to devote substantial time and resources to each case, PIs represent a valuable ally in the quest for justice. They not only enhance the prospects of recovering stolen property or resolving crimes but also provide a sense of momentum and hope for victims seeking closure and justice in the often-overwhelming aftermath of a crime. Let us help you restore your faith in justice. Contact Lauth Professional Private Investigators today.
Last February, Ryan Last received a message from a person he believed to be a girl. What might normally be a harbinger of new beginnings was in reality the beginning of a tragic and criminal sequence of events that would lead to the 17-year-old’s untimely death.
In his final days, Ryan Last was looking towards the next horizon of his young life—a time so typically filled with dreams and promise of exciting things to come. Ryan and his mother, Pauline Stuart, had just returned from visiting several colleges that Ryan was considering attending following his impending graduation from high school. Pauline described her son to CNN as a “usually happy” young man, who was a straight-A student and a former Boy Scout.
It all began with a seemingly-innocuous text exchange “Somebody reached out to him pretending to be a girl, and they started a conversation,” Pauline told CNN. Unfortunately, Pauline had no idea Little did Ryan know that the conversation would soon take a dark and sinister turn, and he would soon become the victim of a sextortion scam by a criminal posing as a young girl for financial gain. She was posthumously informed by investigators who had to use text messages and financial transactions to piece together what had happened to Ryan in the last hours of his life.
Like many sextortion scams out there, the scammer sent Ryan an intimate photo—a hyper-common opening-salvo. The scammer then asked Ryan to return the gesture by sending an intimate photo of himself, which he obliged. That’s when things turned sinister. As soon as the scammer received the intimate photo, they began demanding $5,000 from the 17-year-old boy, or else they would publish the intimate photo and send it to Ryan’s family and friends. He told the scammer that he could not afford to pay the entire extortion figure, and managed to convince the scammer to lower the figure to $150, which he was forced to pull from his college savings. Pauline told CNN, however, that the scammers immediately continued to extort money from her son, “They kept demanding more and more and putting lots of continued pressure on him.” Tragically, by 2:00 AM, Ryan had taken his own life, leaving behind a note detailing his immense embarrassment on behalf of himself and his family. “He really, truly thought in that time that there wasn’t a way to get by if those pictures were actually posted online. His note showed he was absolutely terrified. No child should have to be that scared.”
As technology continues to evolve and become somehow more ubiquitous, law enforcement is seeing a drastic uptick in what they are calling “sextortion scams” in which criminals acquire intimate photos or information about their target, then threaten to publish the photos or information unless their demands are met. However, with more and more teens becoming the targets of these sextortion scams, the FBI is mounting a campaign to ensure parents know their teens could be vulnerable all across the United States. According to the FBI, there were over 18,000 sextortion complaints in 2021 alone, with financial losses of over $13 million—not just with intimate photos of adults, but also with the use of child exploitation materials in order to make the target pay up. The FBI has advised that the investigation into Ryan Last’s extorter is still ongoing. “To be a criminal that specifically targets children—it’s one of the more deeper violations of trust I think in society,” says FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dan Costin, who leads a team of investigators who specifically work to solve crimes against children.
The FBI has determined that a significant percentage of sextortion scams that occur in the United States every year are perpetrated from a remote location, such as Africa or Southeast Asia, which requires the FBI to collaborate with many international agencies throughout the globe in order to track down these criminals, especially those who are targeting minors with their schemes. However, investigating sextortion scams presents its own series of challenges, namely the fact that many victims of sextortion scams do not report incidents to law enforcement—a factor that the criminals responsible are counting on, especially when it comes to minors. “The embarrassment piece of this is probably one of the bigger hurdles that the victims have overcome,” says Costin, “It can be a lot, especially in the moment.”
It’s difficult to understand why any individual would take their own lives under the threat of having their personal intimate photos released online, but with teenagers, the circumstances are mitigated. Everyone remembers how difficult it is to be a teenager. With their still-developing brains and lack of life experience, their ability to accurately judge the consequences of any given situation is heavily compromised. Dr. Scott Hadland, the chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General in Boston, says that adolescents, especially adolescent young men, are incapable of seeing the big picture, “So when something catastrophic happens, like a personal picture is released to people online, it’s hard for them to look past that moment and understand that in the big scheme of things, they’ll be able to get through this.
Stories like that of Ryan Last have parents all over the country fretting about how they can protect their children from sextortion scams, but there are steps that parents can take. Dr. Hadland told CNN, “The most important thing that a parent should do with their teen is try to understand what they’re doing online. You want to know when they’re going online, who they’re interacting with, what platforms they’re using. Are they being approached by people that they don’t know, are they experiencing pressure to share information or photos?” If your family has been experiencing problems with a sextortion scam, call Lauth Investigations International at 317-951-1100 for a free quote or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
Picture this—you’ve entered the world of online dating. Maybe you’re using websites or matchmaking apps in order to find love forever or just for a little while. You connect with a new person who wants to move off-app to have a more personal conversation. They send you an intimate photo of themselves to escalate the conversation and ask that you return the gesture in kind. Not wanting to be rude, you oblige, and reply with an intimate photo of yourself. That’s when the trap snaps shut. All at once, the tone of the conversation turns completely over, and the person on the other end of the connection is suddenly demanding money in exchange for not publicizing your intimate photo. You’ve just become the victim of a sextortion scam. It’s a growing phenomenon that many private citizens may not be aware of. From our private investigators, here is the full run-down of sextortion scams and how a private investigator may be able to help.
People who fell in love with their long-term partner prior to the age of the internet will likely have difficulty understanding how ordinary individuals can fall victim to sextortion scams and other scams of a similar ilk. The truth is that anyone can fall victim to a scam like this, and that’s why it’s so important to know the signs of a scam like this and what users can do to protect themselves.
Sextortion scams typically are designed like the hypothetical one mentioned above in which victims are targeted via some sort of online dating site or social media platform, groomed by the perpetrator, then manipulated into trading intimate photos with the perpetrator—only to be extorted for money in exchange for those photos not being sent to their friends, family, or being published on the internet. According to the FBI, there were over 18,000 sextortion complaints in 2021 alone, with financial losses of over $13 million—not just with intimate photos of adults, but also with the use of child exploitation materials in order to make the target pay up.
It’s not just adults in relationships who are vulnerable to sextortion scams, but teenagers as well—particularly adolescent boys. Even though the latest generation has grown up with digital literacy as a part of their education, they can still fall victim to the same sort of scams as adults in their sixties and beyond. Because their brains are still developing at this age, many teenagers are unable to see beyond the horizon of such a horrific event and give themselves the comfort that this too shall pass. With this limited perspective, it’s not uncommon for the circumstances of the case to become tragic. A 17-year-old boy named Ryan Last came into the public eye this past February after he became the target of a sextortion scam in which he believed he was corresponding with a girl his age. Just hours after the first message was exchanged between Ryan and the scammer, Ryan was extorted for $150 that he was forced to draw from his college fund. After the first payment was made, the scammer demanded additional funds. Believing that he had nowhere to turn, Ryan made the tragic decision to take his own life to spare himself and his family the embarrassment of the situation.
All forms of sextortion scams are popular amongst cyber criminals because the internal and external pressure on the victims almost always leads to a payout for the perpetrator(s). In order to minimize the threat of exposure, victims are almost always willing to part with whatever amount they believe will initially satisfy the scammer, whether it be the full amount demanded, or a negotiated amount within the victim’s ability to pay. However, another hallmark of these sextortion scams is that once the first payment has cleared, the scammers will almost always come back asking for more. With the victim’s intimate photo in their possession, they are free to make whatever demands they believe they can extract. They threaten to publish the photos if the victim attempts to block or sever all connection to the scammer, placing the victim in a never-ending hamster wheel of extortion until the scammer stops contact or the photos are made public.
What is disturbing about the 18,000 cases of sextortion reported to the FBI in 2021 is that it may not be an accurate representation of how pervasive the problem is in the United States. The FBI has reported that the majority of sextortion scams originate in Africa or Southeast Asia, but the data is, due to its nature, incomplete. While every investigation presents its own series of unique problems, sextortion scams are particularly tricky because they often go unreported. Its very common for victims of sextortion scams to be far too embarrassed to report the crime to law enforcement, especially since many local law enforcement agencies will be unequipped to handle the circumstances or even search for the perpetrator.
Sextortion scams are typically “all-business,” as to say that they are simply cyber-criminals targeting strangers across the globe for financial gain. However, sextortion scams can also be perpetrated for more personal reasons, sometimes between intimate partners, or sometimes even between casual acquaintances. There may be a financial demand, but more commonly, the demands are of a more interpersonal nature. Intimate pictures may be used as leverage between friends who are feuding over a third-party, in divorce proceedings, or between former intimate partners who feel entitled to some sort of catharsis for their heartache.
When victims of sextortion scams do make the decision to report the scam to their local law enforcement, it’s not uncommon for authorities to abstain from involvement, either because they don’t believe they have the jurisdiction, or because they don’t believe they have legal cause to investigate. This leaves the victims feeling isolated and beyond help, but that is not always the case. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the sextortion scam, a private investigator may be the ideal professional to unravel the scheme one text at a time.
Not all private investigation firms will be equipped to deal with the scale of international sextortion scams. In cases where the perpetrator is on another continent, very serious cyber intelligence technology will be necessary for locating the scammer and creating leverage to stop the extortion. However, when the sextortion occurs between two people in the same jurisdiction, there are private investigators who will have the tools to get to the bottom of the matter for victims.
Private investigators are like law enforcement in the sense that they have similar skillsets, experience, and bodies of knowledge that can lead to solutions. However, there are a few factors that set private investigators apart from law enforcement and make them better suited to investigate sextortion scams.
Private investigators are typically autonomous in their work, meaning that they can follow leads anywhere without running into a wall of bureaucratic red tape in their investigation.
Private investigators generally have a much smaller caseload than that of local and federal law enforcement. While a local police investigator may be carrying a caseload of 20-30 cases, private investigators usually handle between 4-10 cases at a time. This means each case gets the attention it deserves.
Private investigators do not have powers of arrest, therefore witnesses or suspects in any given crime may be more likely to engage with them if they know they cannot be legally detained for any reason.
Should the results of the investigation lead to any legal action, the evidence and testimony of private investigators can stand up to a higher degree of scrutiny in a court of law or civil court, as they are independent third parties with no stake in the outcome of the proceedings.
Even if they do not have the particular tools to investigate sextortion scams, private investigators can also partner with cyber experts who may have the software necessary to track communications between scammers and their victims to develop strategies for pursuing action against the scammer(s).
If you or someone you love has become the target of a sextortion scam, it is in your best interest to report it to your nearest law enforcement agency, who can then advise you on what the next steps are in ending the harassment. While the act of reporting can be inherently embarrassing, it may go a long way to stopping the scammer from targeting another innocent person or family.
If you are in need of the due-diligence and fact-finding that come with the services of a licensed private investigator to unravel a sextortion scam in your own life, please reach out to Lauth Investigations International to find out how we can help you end the cycle of harassment and extortion. We carry a glowing A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, regularly receive 5-star testimonials from our clients, and were recently named one of the top three private investigators in the greater Indianapolis area. Call 317-951-1100 for a free quote, or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com for more information.
It’s mind-boggling to think that some of the most controversial scandals in our country’s history have taken place only in the last decade. Corporate scandal is a hot media item, with the misbehavior of employees at all levels facing public scrutiny. Information on corporations and their corporate culture is more visible than ever as experts continue to place more and more importance on work-life balance, and satisfaction in the workplace remaining the driving force behind employee engagement. As technology and the ubiquity of accessible information continues to advance, private United States citizens are becoming more informed about the largest corporations in the nation, how their behavior effects their corporate footprint, and how their own consumerism can affect these corporations.
BP Oil Spil
There’s no better place to start than at the beginning. In April of 2010, the oil and gas conglomerate BP began the new decade with an oil spill so catastrophic that we’re still talking about the environmental impact ten years later. The corporate scandal also involved devastating loss. The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which broke open the will, dumping between 2.5 and 4.2 million barrels of oil into the gulf before it could be capped once more. For thousands of miles, the oil slicks contributed to the deterioration of marine life and had cost the corporation in excess of $65 billion dollars before 2020. In an article published in June of 2010, Peter Fairly of MIT Technology stated, “A culture of tighter safety and more experienced regulators might have prevented the BP Deepwater Horizon leak.” Under the terms of a settlement, BP agreed to pay the Natural Resource Damage Asessment Trustees up to $8.8 billion for restoration work to rebuild the natural environment that was damaged by the spill.
Foxconn Suicides
Later in 2010, there was an alarming string of suicides at a plant run by Foxconn, a Chinese corporation that produces roughly 40% of the world’s consumer electronic components—technology that builds our smartphones, gaming consoles, and other forms of smart technology. These tragedies were covered heavily in American media as questions arose to the quality of labor conditions in these Chinese plants. In subsequent investigations, it was revealed that workers could be working 12-hour shifts, with less than a dollar (U.S.) in their pocket for food. While the suicides received a great deal of coverage, and had public relations repercussions for corporations that utilize Foxconn exports, there have been at least 8 additional suicides at the same factor have been reported since 2010.
FIFA Corruption
Few things are more universally loved across the globe than soccer, or football, as it’s known in the rest of the world. In May of 2015, millions of soccer fans were shaken by the FIFA corruption corporate scandal. The Department of Justice indicted the Federation Internationale de Football Association leadership on charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money-laundering. The indictment outlined various instances of an excess of $15 million dollars in bribes taken by executives for preserving advertisement marketing rights for decades. The scandal lead to the resignation of President Sepp Blatter in June of 2015 after he managed to escape indictment. Millions of dollars in legal costs and loss of corporate sponsorship severely damaged the reputation of the organization, netting losses of $122.4 million.
Theranos & Elizabeth Holmes
The scandal surrounding the health technology company known as Theranos was a cluster 15 years in the making. Once again a corporate scandal that effected public health, both the executive and the corporation were villified in the media. Stemming from a fear of needles when she was a child, founder Elizabeth Holmes was seeking to develop a technology that would lead to higher accessibility of blood-testing throughout the world. Her device supposedly would be able to perform a smattering of biological tests from a single drop of blood. The Wall Street Journal published an expose in October of 2015, exposing more of the company’s deception and further implicating some of Holmes’ colleagues in the scandal. Holmes was charged with massive fraud in March 2018. Formerly thought of as a young genius, she is scheduled to stand trial in 2020, facing up to 20 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
Big Pharma & the Opioid Crisis
Corporate scandal is at it’s worst when it comes to public health. The ever-growing opioid crisis in the United States is hands down one of the most pervasive scandals of the last decade. In 2017 alone, there were over 70,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States. Of those overdose deaths, 67% came from an overdose of opioids. From the Midwest to the Northeast, opioid deaths spiked between 2016 and 2017. As of November 2019, six pharmaceutical companies were under federal investigation and were facing federal charges for their responsibility for the opioid crisis. Amongst other big pharma companies, Purdue Pharma reached settled for billions of dollars for communities in 23 states that were affected by their shipment of opioids, forcing the company to ultimately filing for bankruptcy. The settlement set major precedent as the first of it’s kind in our American legal system.
Even if you’re not a fan of Fox’s successful prime time drama, Empire, you’re likely aware of the name Jussie Smollett by now. Smollett has come under fire in the media and on the internet for his allegedly false account of a racially-motivated attack against him in January, where he alleged two men attempted to strangle him and pour bleach on him. When the story first broke, it was shaping up to be a watershed moment in conversations about how the current administration is affecting race-relations throughout the country. After law enforcement conducted an investigation into his version of events, they’ve released statements that Smollett may have hired the men responsible to help him stage the attack. The case has created divisive new conversations about the United States’ current political climate, but is also prompting career investigators to highlight the importance of thorough and diligent fact-finding in the early stages of any investigation—especially within corporations.
Conducting an investigation with unimpeachable integrity is very similar to building a structure ready to withstand natural disasters. Laying a firm groundwork from the moment of the intake narrative will set an impregnable foundation allowing investigators and support staff to develop strong leads. Investigators must be prepared to ask every question—albeit inane or delicate—in order to ensure they are getting all of the existing, relevant information on the case. This is a process called fact-finding, in which a victim or witness’s statement is documented and entered into record, thereby allowing investigators to thoroughly vet every aspect of their statement. Were they in fact present when the incident took place? Can they accurately describe the alleged perpetrator? Is their story consistent across multiple iterations?
As is the case with any investigation, operatives are racing against the clock. With time, witnesses’ memories fade and witnesses themselves disappear, having relocated or simply left town. As time goes by, evidence is eroded, eventually disappearing, eliminating the leads they might have developed. This is why thorough fact-finding is so important, because investigators who are operating off false or inaccurate leads can lose days or weeks on a case as they chase a lead that will eventually come to no end. While investigators chase those dead leads, the truth about what actually occurred dissolves into obscurity.
Investigators in the Smollett case were able to vet his account of events and discover there may be more to the story than meets the eye. The case was not an isolated incident of allegedly false accusations having major consequences for the parties involved. Regardless of why an individual would make false accusations—whether it was with malice or simply a mistake—these circumstances could occur in many areas of life that could be devastating to both individuals and corporations.
Allegations of misconduct in the workplace immediately come to mind. Whether it’s allegations of theft or sexual harassment, these are the kinds of cases where it’s crucial to have the intake narrative well-documented, with detailed first accounts from all principles on the who, where, when, how, and why in any series of events. Cases regarding misconduct in the workplace have a higher chance of being litigated following the completion of any investigation, usually through civil and wrongful termination lawsuits.
A thorough and diligent private investigator is an invaluable asset to both sides of any investigation, as they are an independent third party and do not have a stake in the outcome of the investigation. Any fact-finding performed by an objective third party stands up to a much higher degree of scrutiny by the opposition. Investigators who are directly employed by any parties in either side have a lot to lose if their employer faces ruin following a lawsuit.
Which brings us to another issue in handling the fact-finding internally. Internal investigators can have a variety of qualifications depending on the corporation’s procedure. It’s true some businesses have licensed investigators on retainer to assist in regular operations, like a business who hires a private investigator to run a background check on a candidate for an upper management position. However, depending on the size of the company, the investigating party in some corporate crises is just the head of Human Resources—who might then be supervising other subordinates to do the legwork. Human Resource managers are invaluable employees who keep businesses running like clockwork, but this does not necessarily qualify them to conduct an investigation in every possible scenario, such as investigations requiring surveillance, undercover work, or properly documenting any evidence that might be recovered. This kind of oversight can have disastrous consequences in the later stages of an investigation, or even in a court of law. The opposition’s case is strengthened when there is evidence an internal investigator has not done their due-diligence.
Corporations of all sizes, trades, and levels of notoriety experience crises throughout their history. When disaster strikes and the stakes are high, it’s important to retain the services of a qualified, licensed, private investigator to begin an investigation. It’s not uncommon for a private investigator to be hired on after internal investigators have already made an attempt. It’s best to start strong, with due-diligent service from a seasoned external investigator to lay an impenetrable foundation for a thorough investigation.
The growing awareness of sexual abuse in the media has the public on high alert in all walks of life—a steady stream of investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct within religious communities, sport teams and franchises, civil service, and the workplace to name a few. It seems like every week the news cycle is dominated by another story in which a religious leader is denounced following allegations of sexual abuse against minor members of congregation. Investigations into United States Olympic teams have the parents of minor athletes with their ears to the ground, as the horror of Larry Nassar’s crimes continue to shake out in civil court. Leaders within these communities are educating themselves on how the power structure of these institutions leaves minors vulnerable and in many cases are depending on the services of independent private investigators to conduct unbiased, thorough investigations.
In cases where there are allegations of abuse, there is an immediate division between the survivor and the alleged predator. Many of the parties involved will immediately fall on one side or the other. Employers, colleagues, and public relations representatives in the alleged abuser’s life will begin a rash of character defenses, claiming that there’s no way an individual as friendly/respected/admired as them could be capable of such disgusting actions. Parents and loved ones in the survivor’s life will rally in support as they attempt to take on not just their abuser, but potentially an entire institution as well. All of the parties directly involved have a stake in the outcome of the investigation. Institutions that are suspicious of predatory behavior in their ranks often prefer to handle the investigation in-house, using their own investigators in the form of management, attorneys, or employees in another supervisory capacity to do the fact-finding. Not only can the qualifications of these individuals range across a spectrum of investigative prowess, but because they are employed by the employer of the abuser, they likely will have some sort of bias as an investigator. This is why it’s so important to hire an independent, third party private investigator from the onset of any allegations of abuse. Like any unimpeachable structure, the integrity starts at the foundation, with thorough fact-finding by an experienced, qualified investigator. Ethically, a private investigator’s only loyalty is to the truth, and without any stake in the outcome of an investigation, their findings can withstand a higher level of scrutiny than an investigator employed by the abuser’s corporation or institution.
The most qualified private investigators for sexual abuse investigations have a wide array of experiences in multiple areas of criminal justice. Unlike the resumes of corporation and institutional employees, they will have likely majored in an area of criminal justice, have worked law enforcement, have been retained by either the prosecution or defense to assist in a case, and have an intimate knowledge of criminal procedures and investigative methods. Independent private investigators have to be able to work multiple angles in an abuse investigation, vetting every statement by survivors and witnesses, as well as doing thorough fact-finding on the alleged abuser in the form of an extensive background check, with special focus on their work history and criminal record. This kind of comprehensive groundwork lays a strong foundation for any litigation that might take place following the solution of the investigation. And because the private investigator is an objective third-party, the case will have integrity in a court of law.
Another specialty of a seasoned private investigator is surveillance and undercover operations. An investigator who is able to move through a crowd completely unnoticed, melting into the background while they keep an eye on the subject. Sometimes it’s just a matter of looking like you belong, and surveilling the subject from a short distance, or keeping a digital eye on the subject in the form of a camera or tracking device. Regardless, subjects behave most naturally when they do not know they are being watched. Hiding in plain sight, private investigators are able to document an abuser’s movements, correspondence, associates, and schedule to establish means and opportunity with regard to the allegations. Private investigators specializing in undercover operations have an advantage when interviewing witnesses and subjects, building a rapport that allows them to open up to the investigator. This form of subterfuge is often crucial in abuse investigations, particularly if the allegations have not yet become public knowledge. This time is valuable to an undercover operative, because when there are abuse allegations in an institution, there is often a circumventing culture of silence within it. Employees and associates are instructed not to speak to press or law enforcement regarding the allegations, there has not been need for any sort of legal gag order, and these potential witnesses will have their guard down. Private investigators and their field investigators can garner credible leads, leading to a more comprehensive, thorough investigation.
There have been many institutions, particularly in the Catholic faith, that have been accused of what has been characterized as a “cup and ball” routine in which supervisory entities will transfer employees or members of clergy accused of sexual abuse to remote branches of their network, often in different jurisdictions, to prevent law enforcement and investigators from doing their due-diligence. Private investigators are given an autonomy that is free from bureaucratic or jurisdictional chains. They can follow leads to track down multiple witnesses and can track an abuser’s movements—all across state lines.
Regardless of an alleged abuser’s reputation or status, allegations of abuse must always be handled with due-diligence and a sense of urgency. Corporations and institutions have it only in their own interest to eliminate potential predators in their ranks. The cost to retain a private investigator to conduct a thorough, objective investigation is a small fraction of the potential cost to these entities in the form of lawsuits that result from an investigation, usually on the part of survivors who were vindicated in their accounts of trauma and betrayal on behalf of mentors and leaders in their lives. Retaining the services of a qualified private investigator can go a long way to bringing predators to justice and preventing potential ruin of institutions that otherwise provide a great service for individuals in communities across America.
Carie McMichael is the Communication and Media Specialist for Lauth Investigations International. For more information, please visit our website.
