Unsolved Homicide Investigations

Police only consider a case closed when a suspect has been arrested, charged, and in the custody of the court system, or when perpetrators have been identified, but cannot be arrested because they cannot be extradited or because they are deceased. When a case goes cold, victims and their families have little to no recourse when it comes to seeking closure in tragedy. That’s where Lauth’s private investigators come in. We use due-diligent fact finding and comprehensive intelligence-gathering techniques to review existing information in any case or incident, locate new witnesses, and perform crime scene analysis. Lauth’s investigators work to develop rapport with police in the interest of getting justice for the death of the victim and for our clients.

Despite their authority, police departments do have jurisdictional lines that prevent them from personally following a case outside state lines. Due to the poor quality of communication between jurisdictions, it’s no wonder that cases occasionally go cold because a suspect flees the jurisdiction.  Once again, the family of the victim is left without answers. Private investigators are also not bound by a single jurisdiction, so they can follow potential suspects from state to state, or even internationally. Private investigators can also communicate with police on facts found outside of their jurisdiction as needed in order to progress the case.

Lauth Investigations International private investigators are highly adept at garnering verified intelligence and building comprehensive backgrounds in unsolved homicides in order to develop leads. It begins with a comprehensive background on the victim in the unsolved homicide, getting familiar with their habits, establishing their daily routine, and the people they spoke to on a daily basis before their death. Once the victim background is compiled, our investigators develop leads in the case, and begin searching for the other human sources in the case.

The human sources in an unsolved homicide investigation can be some of the most important. As the saying goes, “Someone knows something.” Very rarely do these violent crimes without at least one person bearing witness to some machination of the crime. It could be a witness who saw the killer enter the victim’s home, or saw them lurking outside the house. Private investigators have the diverse experience of working in the field with human sources and are adept at developing rapport with these witnesses. Because private investigators are not police officers and have no powers of arrest or otherwise, witnesses are generally more comfortable with opening up to them.

Just a few years ago, when a five year-old boy, Lucas Hernandez, went missing in Kansas, police were stalled by lack of cooperation from the boy’s stepmother, who was caring for him at the time of his disappearance. The stepmother claimed she laid down for a nap, and when she awoke, the boy was gone. Police searched for weeks with no additional leads, despite an outpouring of support from the community. When a private investigator hired by the family spoke to the stepmother, she eventually told the truth about the little boy’s disappearance—and led the private investigator to the bridge where she had concealed his remains. Despite the tragic end to the case, the family was able to get answers.