Latest news with #privateinvestigator
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Missing teenager cases provide unique challenges for law enforcement
SALT LAKE CITY () — Alisa Petrov, the teenager who was missing since April, was . When teenagers go missing, it presents unique challenges for law enforcement, but there are also unique approaches to finding them as well. Jason Jensen has been a private investigator for 16 years. He says social media is a key way to look for missing teenagers to see if there's more to the story. 'Oftentimes children that go, you know, go run off, run away. they're at danger of being exploited either for sex or for drugs. You know, they can fall victim to criminality, and we don't want that as a society,' Jensen said. Whether it's checking messages, seeing if they're posting with their friends somewhere, or if they're logging on, all these aspects of social media can help police find out what's going on. 'They're not active with their friends, they're off the digital radar,' Jensen said. 'That helps law enforcement realize, ok, there may be something.' Family releases statement after South Jordan girl found alive in Colorado On the other hand, he says it's common for a missing teenager to just be at a friend's house. When it's a female that may be vulnerable to exploitation, or there's, you know, known communications with adults that are luring that type of a child from the home, then there's real danger there because we don't know if they actually met up with one of those individuals.' Private Investigator Jason Jensen The provides resources and actively assists families of missing children by providing case management to work directly with the family and law enforcement. The provides a having to do with missing persons, as well as maintaining a database of missing persons and unidentified persons. Missing teenager cases provide unique challenges for law enforcement Man killed after falling off train traveling through Nevada to Utah Anti-American sentiment from tariffs is NOT having a major impact on Utah tourism: Utah Office of Tourism SILVER ALERT: 69-year-old woman with dementia missing in Riverton Smith's Pineapple Cheesecake Ice Cream Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
S$5,000 reward offered for information on alleged Nee Soon serial cat killer
Some animal lovers in Singapore believe a serial cat killer may be on the loose. A cat has been found dead with its hind legs in an odd position in Nee Soon, suggesting an unnatural death. It was discovered just a block away from where a dead community cat was found with its guts hanging out last month. The community has hired a private investigator and put up a $$5,000 bounty to find the perpetrator. The Cat Welfare Society is planning to do more door-to-door visits in the area in hope that a witness will come forward. Eugene Chow reports.
Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Private investigator reveals how a TOOTHBRUSH can prove if your partner is cheating
Partners who suspect their spouses of cheating are often drawn to shifty warning signs like staying out later, changing phone habits and increased secrecy. But British private investigator Paul Jones of ARF Investigators has warned that there is one tell-tale sign, often overlooked by suspicious spouses, that could be a clear indication of adultery. Even something as unlikely as a toothbrush could hold information that incriminates an adulterous partner, the investigator, who has more than a decade of experience catching love rats, told The Mirror. It's rare to actually catch a cheater red handed, but cautious parties should watch closely for 'small clues' lurking in 'innocent' places. These could be as seemingly insignificant as 'spending more time at work, picking up a new hobby or taking more pride in their appearance', he explained. Proving infidelity is about culminating 'data', and this could even be in something as little as monitoring teeth brushing habits. Paul recalled one case of a mother who had suspected her husband was cheating on her. At the time, she had installed a smart electric toothbrush app in the hopes of encouraging her children to improve their brushing habits. The app, which was used by everyone in the family, tracked every single session of dental care. 'Over time, the client noticed their partner's brushing history was being logged at odd times, times when they were supposedly at work,' Paul explained. 'At first, it didn't seem like much, brushing late in the morning on Fridays didn't raise immediate red flags.' Monitoring the app, the mother could see that her husband had been brushing his teeth at home during periods that he'd been claiming he was at work. It revealed that he had been brushing his teeth later in the mornings on Fridays, a time when he was supposed to be out the house. In reality, her husband hadn't worked a single Friday in three months, and had been having an affair with one of his work colleagues in their family home. Knowing the whole house would be out on Fridays, her husband had secretly been inviting his mistress over, all the while pretending he was at work. Rather than looking in the more obvious places, in texts, emails and note apps, suspicious partners will more often than not find clues in the most mundane of places. Even smart devices like voice assistants and toothbrushes can hold incriminating information about cheating partners. Though partners can lie, data doesn't. As Paul said: 'It's timestamped, often location-based, and emotionless. When a device says someone brushed their teeth at 10:48 am when they were supposed to start work at 9 am that's very hard to explain away. ' He urged suspicious partners to search for 'digital cues', which can be 'as innocent as a toothbrush'. It's not the only place where signs of cheating could lurk. London-based private investigator Aaron Bond of detective agency Bond Rees said there is one app rarely checked by partners, that could prove vital to determining whether someone is having an affair. Instead of heading straight to WhatsApp, the notes app, or camera roll, Bond has urged concerned spouses to check the supermarket loyalty scheme apps, such as Tesco's Clubcard. He told The Mirror: 'While most people think of text messaging and call logs as the obvious signs of cheating, there are often other signs that can uncover and paint a larger picture'. Bond said that while most people would never consider browsing the receipts of their partner's Clubcard use, it can be incredibly revealing. The private detective, who has helped people catch their unfaithful partners for over 15 years, said there are 'digital signals' to weed out white lies from suspecting cheaters. Supermarket loyalty cards, used to help shoppers save cash and earn rewards, are rarely thought of as a place to stash secrets. Indeed, few shoppers are aware that apps are even tracking them. However, according to the private investigator, the often-overlooked loyalty apps contain all manner of data that could help pick out a cheater. 'Clubcard data is limited, but it does tell you a date and location, which is easily accessible if you log into your account,' he said. For example, if an individual is dubious about what their partner has really been up to, they can verify their location and purchases made using the app. 'If your partner claims they were working or out with friends, but the account shows they made a purchase in a completely different area, then it's a clear red flag,' Bond explained. While Clubcards can't offer a definitive answer as to whether someone is being unfaithful, monitoring historic purchases and spending habits to line up with a suspicious partner's alleged activity can help reveal whether they are lying about what they're up to.
CBC
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Sam Wiebe explores a changing Vancouver through his detective's most challenging case
The Vancouver writer shares how he wrote The Last Exile Sam Wiebe wasn't sure he'd return to the world of Dave Wakeland. After finishing Sunset and Jericho, he considered leaving his private investigator behind. But after hearing from readers who connected deeply with the character and were eager for more, Wiebe found himself drawn back. "I love doing this," he said. "And there's an audience for it, so I want to keep going." The result is The Last Exile, the fifth book in the Vancouver-set crime series. Wakeland returns to the streets of Vancouver that feel both familiar and changed — just like him. After a year away, the private investigator is drawn into a volatile case involving a single mother accused of murder, the notorious Exiles biker gang and a mystery witness. As he chases the truth, the pressure mounts — the business is on the verge of collapse and his partner is missing. With the Exiles closing in, Wakeland has no choice but to step up and face what's coming. "He has to grow up, so to speak, and realize that being in a business partnership, being self-employed, requires a certain amount of just going ahead and doing it," Wiebe told CBC Books. Wiebe is the award-winning author of the Wakeland detective series, including Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone and Sunset and Jericho. His debut novel, Last of the Independents, won the Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished first novel and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. His work has been shortlisted for the Edgar Awards, Hammett Prize, Shamus Awards and City of Vancouver Book Awards, and has won the Crime Writers of Canada Award and a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He lives in New Westminster, B.C. In his own words, Wiebe shared how he wrote The Last Exile. Behind the Exiles "Every private eyes series needs bad guys. And it was important to me that even though the Exiles operate outside the law, they have their own corporate hierarchy, and their own structure, and their own motivations. They're not just cardboard bad guys. So that group ranges from the really frightening president, Terry Rhodes, to Felix, who's a prospect. Someone who maybe even doesn't want to be there. "But at this point in his life, he has nothing else. And this group is offering him power, security and acceptance in a way that nothing else is in sight. It's more about extrapolating from the things that happened and thinking about how to make drama out of that, how to make a story out of that. - Sam Wiebe "I hope that it's true to the spirit of Vancouver and what goes on in the Lower Mainland. It's definitely inspired by things that have happened. I never try to base any character on a real person or any crime on a real crime. "It's more about extrapolating from the things that happened and thinking about how to make drama out of that, how to make a story out of that." The contrast of the Vancouver setting "Often when I write these books, I'm aware of certain things that have happened in a neighbourhood, what used to be there, things that happened in my personal life and movies that were shot there. So all of that is sort of going on in my mind. "I was having a conversation with my friend Charlie Demers, who's a great writer and stand-up comedian, and also a regular on The Debaters show. He said to me, 'Vancouver has lost the smell of sawdust.' It was changing, becoming gentrified, and had lost much of the working-class heart it once had. Even though the book goes very dark in some places, it also carries what I would call a working class heart to it. - Sam Wiebe "I thought that was really perceptive. Some of that still remains. In the book, the character of Maggie Zito represents that for Dave and it's something worth preserving. "Even though the book goes very dark in some places, it also carries what I would call a working-class heart to it. "I love the idea that I can show Vancouver the way that I see it, not the way a tourist would write about it — the way somebody who grew up here sees it. So that's definitely important to me. And part of what makes detective stories so great is that you're following a character around different parts of the city, from the very rich to the very poor, cops to criminals and everyone in between." "As somebody who's lived here, I think I've seen some of the best, especially things like the harm reduction and insight, and some of the very compassionate stuff that Vancouver has done. And then also some things that are really disturbing. "It's important to represent the city holistically and to show all of that. I think over the last few years — obviously development has just shot up — and a lot of things have been lost. It's very hard to live here and it always has been. But the fentanyl crisis and with COVID, and some of the anti-Asian racism that came out of that, there's a lot of darkness that I didn't quite anticipate. So I wanted to sort of capture that too." Journey into crime fiction "Crime fiction was always one of the genres that I read. Even as a little kid, my parents had shelves of old paperbacks and all of them had great covers with scenes of violence or sexy ladies and stuff on them. You'd look at that and then look at kids' books, and it's like 'I don't want to read any kids' books.' "So I always gravitated toward Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald, Sue Grafton and that type of private detective story. It just always spoke to me. So on one hand, it's really great escapist fiction and you get to just enjoy this pure story, but it's also based in the real world and you get to comment on that. - Sam Wiebe "I like the fact that you get a sense of the place where people live and that they get to talk about issues like the environment and gentrification, things like that. "So on one hand, it's really great escapist fiction and you get to just enjoy this pure story, but it's also based in the real world and you get to comment on that." The ups and downs of series writing "The biggest benefit is that you don't have to create a new voice. Wakeland's voice is very comfortable to me. I know what those registers are — I know what he finds funny, I know how he describes something. So that's a huge benefit. "The difficulty is making each book unique and able to stand on its own, while also being part of a larger story. The great thing about a detective series is that you can start with the newest book. You don't have to begin at the start, like with a fantasy series where each book continues the same story. Each case stands on its own." Writing process "My wife, Carly, is an electrician, so we get up at 4:30 in the morning. She leaves for work and I sit down with a piece of paper and the cat and I start writing by hand. In the late morning or early afternoon, I type that up and revise it on the computer. "My hope is just to keep getting up in the morning and writing. - Sam Wiebe "I usually get about a 1,000 words a day — sometimes more, sometimes less. I try to do that first thing in the morning so it's done for the day and gets my full attention. "Then I'll type it up on the computer. Once the book's finished, I print it out, read through it and start revising. The revision process can take a long time — getting the voice right is a big part of that. "My hope is just to keep getting up in the morning and writing. That, to me, is such a win. I'm so fortunate to be able to do that. Anything else that happens after that is just a blessing."
CBS News
06-05-2025
- CBS News
Private investigator pledging $100K of his own money to help locate Cherrie Mahan
A private investigator has joined the case of Cherrie Mahan, offering $100,000 of his own money to help find the missing girl from Butler County. Four decades after Cherrie Mahan disappeared in Butler County, there have been a lot of people who have looked into the case, but now, a former television news executive-turned-private investigator says he believes he can solve the case, and he's willing to put up $100,000 to get more information to prove it. "I want to recover and positively identify her remains. If we do that, we will exponentially improve the likelihood of a conviction in this case," said private investigator Steve Ridge. "I think we already know, to some degree, who was involved or has significant knowledge regarding the case." Ridge wouldn't go into details, but said finding the book bag Cherrie was carrying when she was kidnapped, walking home from her school bus stop in 1985, may lead to finding her body. "I am convinced from some recent testimony and input that Cherrie's book bag was likely submerged in a pond in an area where her grandmother's home is," Ridge said. Ridge says anyone with information should talk to the state police, but his approach is to come at the investigation with fresh eyes. "I don't need to see the police files. I probably know what's in the police files and perhaps more." Ridge also believes Cherrie knew her abductor. "This has been the hardest 40 years of my life. All I truly want, and I know, is that Cherrie wants to come home," Cherrie's mother, Janice McKinney, said. A group calling itself Cherrie's Angels is also helping with the effort. Ridge says every tip helps. "I think there's every likelihood we're going to solve it," Ridge said. Cherrie's mother, Janice, says she has one thing she holds on to. "I have a lot of hope that we're going to find Cherrie, and we're going to bring her home."
