Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Death Crash Bike Was 'Removed and Burned'

An investigation into a crash that claimed a teenager's life was "seriously hampered" when the illegal scramble bike he had been riding was deliberately removed from the scene, dumped and set on fire before police arrived.

An inquest in Bradford into the death of Anthony Pearson, 19, today heard how a man told police he had been pressured into driving the bike away from Broadstone Way, Holme Wood, by four other men who had picked it up from the road and loaded it on to his van.

An accident investigator estimated Mr Pearson could have been traveling at about 40mph in a 30mph zone on the off-road moto-cross style bike at the time of the crash.

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Fake “PIs” Are Actually Scammers Passing on Malware

It looks like Veronica Mars and Magnum, PI are getting into the malware business.

Commtouch, an Israeli security firm that specializes in protecting e-mail integrity, says that it has detected a new malware outbreak that is spread through e-mails claiming to be from private investigators. According to Commtouch, the e-mails tell recipients that a private investigator has been recording the recipients’ phone calls and that an audio file of one of the calls is attached to the message. When unwitting recipients download the “call” to their hard drives, their computers become infected with malware.

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Boeing Investigates Employees

Within its bowels, The Boeing Co. holds volumes of proprietary information deemed so valuable that the company has entire teams dedicated to making sure that private information stays private.

One such team, dubbed "enterprise" investigators, has permission to read the private e-mails of employees, follow them and collect video footage or photos of them. Investigators can also secretly watch employee computer screens in real time and reproduce every keystroke a worker makes, the Seattle P-I has learned.

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PIs Search For Missing Man Gone For Seven Years

Luther Boyt loved life.

Luther Boyt loved his family and friends.

Luther Boyt loved his money.

So when the midtown Kansas City man went missing the morning of Nov. 26, 2000, his friends knew the party-throwing, piano-playing, antique-collecting man hadn’t just skipped town.

They knew something bad must have happened.

But they have never found his body.

So the mystery of what happened to Boyt still swirls today, seven years after the 59-year-old failed to show up one morning to help his friends finish moving his stuff from his Janssen Place mansion into an apartment.

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Charge Girlfriend Spied on Private Eye

Former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano is seeking dismissal of charges against him in a wiretapping case on grounds of government misconduct.

Defense attorneys charge an FBI agent and federal prosecutors repeatedly violated Pellicano's rights by using his girlfriend to secretly gather evidence against him, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Private Eye Raises Ire of Voters in Southeast

On Wednesday night, Geoffrey Reinwald was preparing to go to a dinner meeting when he heard a knock at the door.

A "big guy," he described, flashed an ID card and said he was a private investigator hired by Michael Rights, a candidate for Southeast supervisor. The man, Reinwald continued, proceeded to ask him whether he was out of town on Election Day and when he returned. Reinwald said he was in Mexico - a vacation he had planned with his wife back in May - from Nov. 3 to 10. After asking Reinwald whether his wife, who also voted absentee, was with him in Mexico - a foolish question by his account - the investigator walked away, he recalled.

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Friday, November 16, 2007

Witness Says DNA on Tape not Fox's

A private investigator revealed Friday in court that DNA—apparently from the person who abducted, sexually assaulted and killed Riley Fox, 3, of Wilmington—was left on crime-scene duct tape as well as in the girl's rape kit. And it did not match her father, Kevin, who was charged in the case.

Steven Kirby's testimony in federal court led to legal wrangling and further testimony that made it clear the duct-tape DNA did not match Fox's genetic profile.


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City's Investigation Returns Allegations Against Former Fire Chief

The private investigator hired by Mayor Katie Whitley and the Hanceville City Council concluded his investigation of former Fire Chief Mike Watson this week and submitted a summary including 15 allegations against the fire department.

City council members said Daniel Howell was paid $40 an hour from the city budget to look into activities at the Hanceville Fire and Rescue Department after newly-purchased equipment and files disappeared following Watson’s dismissal.

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Monday, November 12, 2007

Private Eyes: Internet Tempts Cheatin' Hearts

When Beverly Barraque got a phone call from the Dallas-based television show "Cheaters" about working a case, she didn't think twice about turning down the offer.

The Beaumont private investigator didn't want to get involved, she said, because she didn't want to "smear people's business all over television."

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Friday, November 09, 2007

Sales Clerk Found Her True Talent as Private Detective

An interesting sideline developed from Jeanne B. Thorsen's part-time job as a sales clerk at a clothing store: She became a private detective.

Her road to becoming a private investigator started in a small boutique called Ruth Miller's, located in the former Arlington Market shopping center in Arlington Heights.


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Hanceville Hires Private Investigator

The Hanceville City council is currently paying a private investigator to look into activities that happened under former Fire and Rescue Chief Mike Watson.

“We were aware that there was probably some equipment missing,” councilman Hubert Jones said, explaining why the council hired the investigator.

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How to Choose an Executive Protection Firm

Hiring the right people to protect you when traveling abroad can be a matter of life or death. Here’s a quick list of what criteria and qualifications you should look for when choosing a private-security team, gathered through interviews with top security experts.

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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Accidental Verdict in Death Crash

A verdict of accidental death was yesterday recorded on a man who was killed in a motorcycle accident in Suffolk which left his three children orphaned.

Glenn Rossell had himself been widowed three years earlier when his wife Amanda died from breast cancer aged 34.

Accident investigator PC Jeff Rogers said in a statement that there was no evidence of the motorcycle having collided with any other vehicle before Mr Rossell lost control and it toppled on to its side, throwing him off.

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