Talked with a reporter from LA, Ca today regarding Missing persons (Adults and children).
She asked me, "why we were so successful when local law enforcement wasn't ?".
Simple answer. Attitude, experience, time, and commitment.
I've been involved in finding missing persons for going on 47 years. I learned while in the Sheriff's office to ask the Who, What, When, Why, Where, and How questions on every single case. 13,315 cases to date.
Early on in my career in Law enforcement, I learned to go into each case with an open mind.
I've learned from experience to talk with the district attorney regarding any criminal actions I'm investigating such as theft, kidnapping, rape, homicides, and see what they want or need for 100% conviction action. Not just reading the Criminal code book.
Often to many officers and detectives are overloaded with calls and end up giving the DA a sloppy report, sloppy evidence, often circumstantial, and a case a basic first year law student could defend.
I look at all the possible defenses and try my best to bring forth statements, photos, evidence, that destroys the defense attorney's any possibility to destroy my case.
In 47 years, I’ve lost one case. I was so pissed. But when I sat down with the DA and I asked him, “what did I do wrong?”. He informed me where my case was rock solid and where it wasn't. It was a drunk driver I arrested who ended up blowing a .21 on the intoxilyzer. .>12 was legally drunk back in the 70's.
After that, I made sure I covered all aspects of the elements of the case in my report so there were no Loop holes.
Out of the thousands of cases I've presented to the courts, I've never lost a case since. Lessons learned.
When searching for a missing adult or child I try to answer all the questions by interviewing, friends, family, co-workers, and witnesses.
I look at where my evidence takes me and focus on the strength of this evidence to see if it supports my findings. If it does, great, if it doesn’t then I refocus and look elsewhere for the facts.
As an instructor in Forensic Scent evidence I do the same thing with my SAR Dog(s). When I’m out in the field am I finding evidence to support what was alleged to have happened?
This is why I’m still used today by many state police agencies. Especially on missing children and suspicious missing person cases.
Over the years I’ve been called in when all the other teams have failed to find anything and by using my methodical investigations methods, I find the victim or determine what really happened to them and where.
This is where my credibility in the courtroom was established and has stood the test of time.
And, why I’m successful and bring answers where others have failed.
Respectfully
Mr. Harry Oakes
K9 SAR Coordinator.
Forensic Scent Evidence Instructor.
