Missing Person

Missing Person: a reader asks…

Hi Chris, I’ve been trying to locate a long-lost elder relative with no luck so far. I’ve looked on Facebook, done a bunch of google searches – nothing. I’m not ready to hire a skip-tracing firm. Do you know of any online ways to find someone’s whereabouts?

Without spending money, you are pretty limited. I imagine with the google searches you’ve done variations on the person’s name, as well as linking their name with any locations they might have lived. You might have even looked at some public records using websites such as the NamUS missing persons database. and PeopleFinders.com. I should note that knowing your relative’s age, other places he/she lived, and any other details will be helpful in narrowing down your search. After all, there are over 7 billion people on the planet, and the chances are high that there are many thousands of individuals with the same name as your relative.

Here are some sources for relatively low-cost internet and public record search outfits:

• LocatePlus ($50 membership fee with 7-day free trial)
• PeopleFinders.com ($1.95 and up for a report)
• Instant Checkmate (a membership fee for monthly membership, and $20 for a premium report)
• Intelius ($40-50 for a report)
• Trusify (a consultation with a human investigator, so it can cost hundreds)
• Archives (another membership site that can search various public records, but with a 14-day free trial)

I should warn you to read the fine print before you order reports from any of these. In particular, none of them can guarantee that they’ll find the right person, or that the information they give you is accurate. And some of these are membership sites. Even with a free trial, it’s easy to get sucked into paying a lot of money, some companies make it very hard to cancel a membership.

One thing you might do is some calling around. Get in touch with all your other relatives and pool information about the missing person. You might find some clues that lead to a nursing home, social service, or other place where you can pick up the trail of your missing relative. Unfortunately, consumer technology can still only do so much for us, and most businesses working in this arena are doing so primarily to make as much money as they can – helping you is incidental. That’s an unfortunate downside to our capitalistic society. Not that I’m pontificating!

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