Unsolved Homicide Investigations
In pursuit of truth.
Get fresh eyes on your case.
Lauth Investigations International is dedicated to providing families with answers in the unsolved homicide or death of their missing loved one. An unsolved murder is not just the absence of justice for the victim but also the absence of closure for the family of the victim. Such a violent incident leaves families reeling and desperate for answers from police. Even the most competent police departments hit a wall in unsolved homicide case. Witnesses disappear, evidence is mishandled, or the trail just goes cold, and the victim is forgotten. The case sits on a shelf, collecting dust in the police’s cold case unit.
When police hit a wall in a death investigation or unsolved homicide, a new perspective is necessary. Getting an independent set of eyes on your unsolved homicide case can mean generation of new leads in unsolved homicide investigations—just like the objective eye of a private investigator. We work closely with the family of the victim, providing regular updates and insight into their case.
Statistic: According to the FBI, only 45% of violent
crimes lead to arrest and prosecution.
How Lauth can help you with your child custody crisis.
Background Checks
e a comprehensive background report on the relevant Subjects in the case. Lauth’s investigators are trained to view a person’s criminal, financial, address, and litigation history to identify significant risk factors and provide important context to an unsolved homicide through open-source intelligence.
Evidence gathering
Through crime scene analysis, geosocial surveillance, and thorough documentation, investigators will leave no stone unturned during a homicide investigation.
Skip-traces
With the help of verified databases, Lauth’s skip-trace services allow investigators to locate Subjects and relevant parties in any unsolved homicide investigation.
Witness Location
Our investigators are trained in canvassing relevant areas in any investigation. Our investigators interview established witnesses, find new witnesses, and identify the human sources who can be valuable sources of intelligence.
Collaboration with law enforcement
Lauth investigators develop professional rapport with authorities to better investigate your case. From reviewing case reports to interviewing former investigators, Lauth is dedicated to diversifying our investigations for the benefit of our clients.
Missing person investigations
Even if your missing loved one has been presumed deceased by law enforcement, there is still hope for answers. Our CEO, Thomas Lauth, is one of the nation’s foremost experts in missing children and adults, and under his leadership, our investigators are dedicated to bringing some form of closure to the families of missing persons. For more information, please visit our Missing Persons site.
Why clients need our services
The nature of human error means that police can make mistakes or lose perspective when it comes to unsolved homicides. Homicide investigators can get tunnel vision while working on a case and fail to follow up with leads that might be the next stepping stone in a path to the truth. This is how a homicide investigation turns into a cold case. Our private investigators can be that second set of eyes on your unsolved homicide case.
Independent homicide investigators
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.
Comprehensive victimology
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.
Identifying human sources
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.
Verified intelligence
Private investigators, by virtue of their licensure, have access to verified databases similar to that of police, and cross-reference that information with multiple sources. Once we have identified the human sources in the case, we can run background checks on those individuals. We can identify the risks in a subject’s background that might shed crucial context in an unsolved homicide case or related incident. Our private investigators can prepare findings for police to assist in detaining a suspect. We have also collaborated with police in the past in order to apprehend subjects so the victim can finally see justice.
Empathetic investigators
At the conclusion of each unsolved homicide case, we provide comprehensive reports and expert recommendations to the family of the victim regarding the incident. Lauth private investigators are also adept in witness testimony in court proceedings, both civil and criminal, for death investigations and unsolved homicides. Our status as third-party private investigators provide an extra level of objectivity and integrity to our expert testimony.
If your loved one has been the victim of an unsolved homicide, get justice at last with the intelligence services of Lauth Investigations International’s crack team of private investigators. Getting answers in the death of your loved one is our priority. Call today for a free quote on our services at 317-951-1100 or visit us online at www.lauthinvestigations.com.
Relevant Blog Posts
How Death Investigations Provide Evidence To Convict The Guilty And Protect The Innocent
When someone dies under unexplained or unexpected circumstances, families can feel fraught with anger and frustration. How could such a thing have happened? When will those responsible be brought to account? While patience may feel like a resource that is impossible to muster at this difficult time, the work of the death investigator is critical to the conviction of the guilty and the protection...
How Intelligence-Gathering Disciplines For PI’s Can Help With Unsolved Homicides
As if enduring the loss of a loved one wasn't bad enough, families across America are grappling with a worryingly dark trend in unsolved homicides. Recent investigative journalism has revealed that murders are going unsolved at a historic pace—with the clearance rate of solved cases falling to its lowest point in more than half a century. It's no surprise that the bereaved are increasingly...
Additional Resources
Private Investigator Info.com
Cold Case Investigations
Cold case investigations describe assignments that remain unsolved, despite the passage of considerable time and the efforts of other professional detectives and/or law enforcement officers. Many private investigators specialize in taking on cold cases, in order to finally settle the puzzling matter and allow all parties to move forward in life.
Cold cases files can describe many different types of assignments, including criminal cases that were abandoned or eventually ignored by police officers. However, other types of cold cases also exist, including a wide range of civil cases that include subject matter ranging from missing persons to judgment recovery efforts.