Case Study | Missing Person | Runaway Teen

Case Study | Missing Person | Runaway Teen

Case Study | Missing Person | Runaway Teen

Sometimes law enforcement can have difficulty following a runaway’s trail. That’s where missing person investigators come in.

Lauth missing person investigators were contacted by a mother, the Client, whose daughter, the Subject, had a documented history of running away from home—always returning after a few days. However, the last time the 17-year-old had vanished, she did not reappear as expected. That’s’ when the Client reached out to Lauth Investigations.

The Investigation

It was important for Lauth’s missing person investigators to build a profile of the Client’s daughter. Identifying patterns in her behavior would become crucial to locating her.

After getting a list of her friends, hobbies, and frequented hang-out spots from the Client, Lauth missing person investigators set out to canvass the neighborhood and identify human witnesses. After speaking with a few neighbors, Lauth investigators learned the Subject was known to socialize with local drug dealers and was a close friend of a mid-level dealer’s girlfriend. After speaking with the friend and her neighbors, it became clear that the Subject was in a house that was known as a hub for gang activity. Lauth missing person investigators did surveillance on the house and obtained photographs of the teen going in and out of the house. Once the girl had been found, Lauth investigators contacted the police to alert them of the discovery. Lauth investigators showed the teen’s picture to law enforcement and assisted in the recovery by guarding the back door of the home so the teen could not escape.

The Solution

The teen was successfully recovered and returned to her mother by law enforcement. Lauth Investigations conducted a follow-up call a few weeks later to check on the family, who reported that things had much improved since their daughter had returned home.