Private Eye in Exorcism Case Recorded Over 700 Hours of Surveillance Footage

THE man who tailed Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan for more than four months took the stand yesterday and said that, on most days, she looked normal.

Madam Valli is claiming in a lawsuit that she was traumatised by an alleged exorcism at Novena Church in 2004. Among other things, she says she is fearful of going out and being alone.

But private investigator Gilbert Mathews De Silva and his team, who followed her for more than four months last year, got footage of her doing just that.

His firm, SecureGuard Security Services, was hired by lawyer Tito Isaac, who is representing a priest named in the lawsuit.

In all, the investigators got more than 700 hours of footage. It came from hand-held camcorders and closed-circuit television cameras mounted opposite her Ang Mo Kio flat.

Excerpts of the footage were shown in court to Madam Valli's two psychiatrists as lawyers for the defendants tried to prove that she was exaggerating her condition.

Family Found: Sisters Reunited In South Korea Thanks to Private Investigator

Wanda King's life in the United States has been a good one.

But as a child in North Korea, she lived under communism and saw the effects of war. She remembers seeing red skies after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and her mother warning, "Don't you go outside! You're going to be sick." As American bombs fell on her own country during the Korean War, she and her family fled south with hundreds of other refugees to escape the fighting. They ate insects and slept in rice paddies to survive.

"I don't have a happy life when I was young," she said. "I have a hard life."

Although conditions improved after the war, she was still living in poverty in 1962 when she met Ben King, a young soldier from Davie County. He fell in love with her, and he vowed not to leave South Korea without her.

She was 23 when she married him and left her family behind in Seoul. She built her own family in a new country.

Her children grew up with plenty of food and without fear of bombs falling in the night. King, now 68, watched with pride as they married and started forming their own families.

Despite all that she had, King ­mourned what she had lost.

College Hires Private Investigator to Investigate Mock Newspaper

Cambridge College has hired a former FBI agent to find the authors of an anonymous, widely circulated mock newspaper that condemned the chancellor and suggested the college is on the verge of closing.

The newspaper, called the "Cambridge College Chronicle," featured a sharply worded critique of college leadership and personal attacks against Chancellor Eileen Brown, who has led the college since its former president was fired in January after college officials found evidence of alleged financial misdeeds.

Davis to Hire Investigator After Grand Jury Report

Davis city leaders have hired an independent investigator to examine the Yolo County Grand Jury's allegations of fire department misconduct.

The grand jury released its report June 30, detailing the investigation prompted by citizen complaints. Primary complaints were that the department has inconsistent promotion practices, a hostile work environment caused by a too-close relationship between fire Chief Rose Conroy and the firefighters' union and misuse of sleeping facilities by drunk off-duty firefighters.

Cove Rock Estate "Burglar Ring" Bust

Four men, including a Pakistani shop owner, were yesterday arrested during a raid in Orange Grove and in the East London CBD.

The arrests were the culmination of six months of investigations into a spate of burglaries at homes in Cove Rock Estate.

The suspects, aged 19 to 21, pointed out to police a cellphone shop in North Street where they said they sold cellphones and laptops allegedly stolen from homes.

One of the suspects told a private investigator who had tracked them down how he had got into the investigator’s house and stolen a laptop, cellphones and PlayStation games.

Investigator Specializes in Blood-Spray Analysis

The spray of blood means more to Les Guttmann than it does to most of us.

The lone investigator of the Fruita Police Department’s force of about 15 officers has never really gotten an answer to the question of when the small city of nearly 6,500 last investigated a homicide.

But if a murder did occur on Guttmann’s turf, the former Los Angeles patrol officer might get a try at solving it by calling on his expertise in blood-spatter forensics.

Trash Haulers Keep Eyes Peeled for Bad Guys

The men and women keeping your neighborhood safe may also be the same people who are hauling out your trash.

Waste Management recently launched a program in Northern Colorado, joining Denver and other states, to train their employees to be on the look out for suspicious activity while driving through the neighborhoods.

Child Support Spies to Watch Parents

Private investigators will be used by the Child Support Agency (CSA) to spy on parents who are not meeting their child support payments.

The Federal Government says the new measures would help the CSA collect outstanding debts of $1 billion from the current financial year.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig said a small proportion of parents was not doing the right thing.

Private Investigators Examine House Explosion

A team of private investigators converged Monday at the site of a home destroyed in an apparent natural gas explosion.

Last Thursday’s blast at 410 Wellingford Street, near West Sugar Creek Road and North Tryon, killed 4-month-old Synora Coleman and injured her parents.

Official Tracks Diesel

A vice president of a mobile fueling company — suspecting drivers were stealing fuel from company trucks — used GPS tracking and a private investigator to determine that more than $30,000 of diesel had been stolen.

Two employees of SMF Energy Corp. — James R. Russell, 31, of Zachary, and William Cain III, 42, of Baton Rouge — were arrested Wednesday by Louisiana State Police after the vice president approached the agency last month with evidence from the company’s internal investigation, State Police spokesman Trooper Johnnie Brown said.

Eye on the Prize

Common sense and tenacity are two crucial attributes of private investigators, says Roger Miller, who has been working in the field for more than two decades.

Mr. Miller, who landed his first private investigation job in the early 1980s, is now vice-president of Northeastern Investigations Inc., a full service security and private investigation firm in Dartmouth.

First O.J., Then Gotti, Now Vito; Staten Island Rep. Hires Private Eyes to Probe DWI Arrest

In an effort to try and get him out of serving jail time for his DWI arrest last month, Congressman Vito Fossella has hired the same ex-NYPD investigators that were employed by O.J. Simpson and John Gotti during felony cases, according to a published report.

The Daily News is reporting in Thursday's editions that Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) has hired private investigators James Harkins and John McNally, who are reportedly interviewing employees are the Logan Tavern, the Washington, D.C., watering hole Fossella was last seen at before being busted for DWI.

Investigator Donates Time to Missing Kids

She went jogging like she did most mornings.

But on May 27, Crystal Sexton, a rising junior at Loganville High, kept running. Her mother got in her car and drove around, looking for the 16-year-old.

“I said, ‘Something is wrong,’ ” Donna Sexton told me. ” ‘This is not right. Something is just not right.’ “

She called Loganville Police and the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. She passed out fliers with Crystal’s photo.

Fayetteville Reels in Bogus Movies, CDs

A DeKalb County man, who was found with over 300 counterfeit movies and 800 counterfeit music CD’s in his car, now faces felony charges in Fayetteville

According to Capt. Steve Crawshaw of the Fayetteville Police Department, Kenneth McCrory, 50, was arrested Wednesday and charged with unauthorized distribution and sale of recorded material.

According to Crawshaw, the arrest came after Fayetteville Police were contacted by a private investigator working for the Motion Picture Association of America.

The investigator told police he had purchased movies from a man selling them out of his SUV, Crawshaw said.

Phone Calls Put Two Soldiers to Rest

May 17, 1983, a young soldier from Portland, James R. Williams, was killed in Korea.

Jim's platoon leader, Tom O'Sullivan, heard the explosions and saw the flames shooting from the tank. Tom crawled into the tank, across molten metal. He cradled Jim in his arms and lifted him out of the tank. Jim died soon after.

For 25 years, Tom wanted to speak to Jim's family in Portland about Jim's death.

In 1983 the Army said no, Tom could not contact the fami ly. After he left the military, Tom searched for years for Jim's relatives.

One, a retired police detective who now works as a private investigator, was able to find Jim Williams' father within "10 to 15 minutes," she says.

Cheating on Your Spouse? Beware Someone is Watching

Two weeks ago the CEO of a blue-chip Nairobi-based company told his wife that he was flying to Mombasa on company business.

Instead of heading for the airport, the man drove to Kitengela where he rendezvoused with his girlfriend. They spent the rest of the day and the night drinking and canoodling.

His suspicious wife contacted a private eye firm to track down and expose the man. It did not take them long to compile a dossier on the philanderer.

Investigators Hunting for UFOs? Not Quite

All T.K Davis and Frank Dixon want is to be taken seriously. But respect can be hard to come by when people think you're looking for flying saucers and little green men.

"Both our wives just roll their eyes at us," Dixon says.

It's not just family who mocks them, though.

"We get ridiculed (by our friends)," Davis says. "They ask, 'Are you on drugs?' or 'When's the last time you took those mushrooms?' and 'If you want to see an alien just look in the mirror.' "

Mounties Warn Private Eye to Back off Highway of Tears

Private investigator Ray Michalko has been on the case of the Highway of Tears murders for two years, but he's ready to throw in the towel.

Michalko has received a letter from a high-ranking RCMP officer warning him he could be charged with obstructing justice if he doesn't tread carefully.

Private Eyes May Dig for Dirt on Clemens

Lawyers for Brian McNamee are poised to send private investigators to Houston to search for evidence that could link Roger Clemens to performance-enhancing drug use, according to a published report.

The New York Times reported on its website Thursday night that two retired New York City police officers who have been working on McNamee's behalf will be dispatched to Texas if a judge fails to grant McNamee lawyers' motion to dismiss Clemens' defamation suit against McNamee. The officers, Gerry Kane and Stephen Davis, would "look at everything" regarding Clemens, McNamee attorney Richard Emery told the Times.

'Breakthrough' in Zulu Car Crash

A major breakthrough in a private investigation into the fatal car crash involving Prince Sifiso Zulu's luxury car seven weeks ago, is expected, said Pastor Phumlani Ndlovu of Souls' Harbour Ministries on Saturday.

Hlengiwe Dlamini, 25, of Mondlo, and Sidumisile Ncube, 24, of Ulundi, were killed when the driver of Zulu's BMW X5 allegedly drove through a red traffic light at the intersection of Masabalala Yengwa Avenue and Somtseu Road, crashing into a double cab bakkie carrying church members home after a service.

Unclaimed Property: Private Investigator Finds Your Money

What's worth 400-million dollars, is owned by one in ten Missourians, and sits in a state account?
Unclaimed Property.
Cash from bank accounts, stocks, bonds, utility deposits that the owners or heirs either lost track of, or don't even know exits.
Last November KSPR did a special on Missouri's Unclaimed Property Division.
The state search team came to the Battlefield Mall and for one afternoon, checked people's names against their database.
They found more than $100,000 that afternoon. That’s more than the state finds in a week at the Missouri State Fair.

Private Eye Sues Google Over 'Unwanted Ads'

Lawyers acting for an American private detective claim hundreds of thousands of companies that signed up to advertise on Google might have been deceived into paying for adverts they did not want.

The private detective has launched a legal action against the search engine, and his attorneys want the lawsuit to become a class action, which could cost the company millions of dollars if he is successful.

Investigators Re-Examine Student's Drowning

10TV News on Tuesday learned that investigators were re-examining evidence in the drowning of an Ohio University student 10 years ago.

Police originally determined that there was no foul play in the death of Keith Noble, 10TV's Cara Connelly reported.

Pellicano Calls Himself 'a Lone Ranger'

Anthony Pellicano was "technically a lone ranger" who went to great lengths as a private investigator to keep the information he gathered secret from everybody, including associates and lawyers.

And that information would have remained secret had the government not searched and seized computers from Pellicano's Sunset Boulevard office in 2002, the former gumshoe told a federal jury during closing arguments.

Argentieri Family Hires Private Investigator

The family of an Alfred University student who died five months ago has hired a private investigator, according to Allegany County District Attorney Terrence Parker.

Parker said he met with a private investigator the family of Thomas O. Argentieri Jr. hired on Tuesday to discuss the case. He was unavailable to discuss the case further by press time today, as he was in court this morning for an unrelated matter.