Private Investigator Searches for Answers 38 Years LAter

Each year, thousands of children and young adults vanish without a trace. For families searching for their missing loved ones, it can become a costly and emotionally overwhelming pursuit. That's where private investigator Tom Shamshak comes in.

For the past 10 years, Shamshak, 59, a retired police chief from Winthrop, Mass., has worked pro bono to help families track down their missing loved ones. He also works as program director of the Certificate in Professional Investigation program at Boston University, where students are trained over six months to become private investigators.

"At this point in my career, it's about giving back," he said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

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Oprah Challenges Taconic Crash Investigator on Show

Oprah Winfrey devoted her show yesterday to the Taconic Parkway tragedy, challenging an investigator's insistence that the driver of the doomed minivan was drug and alcohol free at the time of the crash that killed eight people.

Three months ago, Diane Schuler drove her minivan full of kids into oncoming traffic, killing herself, her daughter, three nieces and the three occupants of the car she hit.  A toxicology report found that Schuler had significant levels of marijuana and more than double the legal limit of alcohol in her system at the time of the crash -- a finding her husband has vehemently denied.

Daniel Schuler is so convinced of his wife's innocence that he hired a private investigator to find out what really happened that July day.

Appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show via Skype, investigator Tom Ruskin insisted Schuler was not an alcoholic.

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Price Albert Regrets Not Paying Private Investigation Bills

If you hire a private investigator to uncover all the dirt that can be found on you, it would be wise to pay your bills to him. So discovered Prince Albert II of Monaco this week.

Prince Albert (a.k.a. Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi) hired California resident Robert Eringer to be his intelligence advisor in 2002. The prince paid the former FBI operative hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate individuals of concern, scandals, and any thing that threatened the prince’s image.
Then in 2006, the prince fired Eringer.

Eringer feels he’s still owed money by the prince, so he has sued him in California. In his breach of contract suit, he reveals all of the dirt and secrets that he spent four years collecting.

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Witness Scared Off, Defense Under Investigation

A San Francisco defense attorney - already under fire for orchestrating an incident in which alleged gang members stood in court as a witness testified against their friend - is at the center of what a judge called a "reprehensible" attempt to keep a victim of an attempted murder from testifying.

San Francisco police say a private investigator working with defense attorney Eric Safire repeatedly called Ladarius Greer, 21, the victim in the attempted murder case against Safire's client Phil Pitney, 19. Greer has now vanished, and the trial started Tuesday without him.

Safire denied knowing about any effort to prevent Greer from taking the stand.

Pitney, who prosecutors say is a member of the Eddy Rock gang in the Western Addition, is accused of shooting Greer in the head at Fillmore and McAllister streets on April 12. He is charged with attempted murder with a gang enhancement.

In one cell phone message that Greer provided to police before he vanished this month, private investigator Steve Vender told Greer that he was being sought in a warrant out of Solano County and would be arrested if he showed up in court in the Pitney case.

Vender then suggested that if Greer didn't testify, prosecutors would be forced to drop and refile the charges. He indicated that a critical date for the case was Oct. 13.

"OK, so it's October and it's a good time to visit the Fresno Riviera ... and stay well," Vender said in the message, a transcript of which was introduced in court.

Police said in reports given to the prosecution that the call had been made from Safire's law office.

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Dictionary of DNA and Genome Technology Now Available

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c91722) has announced the addition of "Dictionary of DNA and Genome Technology" to their offering.

DNA technology has a vital role in diverse fields such as criminal investigation and gene therapy - dynamic areas involving many specialized terms and techniques. This unique dictionary offers current, detailed, accessible information to lecturers, researchers, students and technicians throughout the biomedical sciences. This title features more up-to-date than existing textbooks in many aspects of DNA technology - with over 1,000 references from mainstream journals. It provides clear explanations of terms, techniques, and tests, including commercial systems, with detailed coverage of many important procedures and methods. It explains not only well-established methodology but includes new technology and data from the latest research journals, going well beyond the remit of most science dictionaries. It contains essay-style entries on many major topics to assist newcomers to the field. It covers topics relevant to medicine (diagnosis and gene therapy); veterinary science; biotechnology; biochemistry; pharmaceutical science/drug development; molecular biology...


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A Day in the Life of a Private Investigator

 He's the guy in the background you never notice, always the "man standing behind the man."
Well, not anymore. With the news that private investigators located the body of Kate Waring, private investigators are right up front.

"You can't solve crimes if you can't get the information," said James Randolph of Randolph and Habersham Investigations. It appears Randolph and Tommy Blackwood can get the information.

Randolph's company helped lead police to Waring's body. So, what is a typical day like for these guys? "It's exciting, it's exciting - it really is," said investigator Blackwood.

That said, don't think they have stake-outs in disguised vans full of hi-tech equipment. "Those type of scenarios are pretty nil, most often you won't see a white van," said Blackwood.

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Bellevue private investigator accused of ripoffs

The family of a Lynnwood woman who was killed three years ago says they have been preyed upon by a private investigator.

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New Products for DNA Analysis, Digital Imaging and More

New Products for DNA Analysis, Digital Imaging, Fighting Contamination, and More

PCR Buffer
The EzWay Direct PCR Buffer contains key additives that overcome the inhibitory effects in whole blood and commonly used blood anticoagulants. Compatible with most thermostable DNA polymerases, there is no pretreatment step or modification of your current PCR protocol necessary. EzWay Direct PCR Buffer eliminates risks of sample loss and is a cost effective alternative to DNA purification.
Komabiotech, www.komabiotech.com


Analysis of DNA Mixtures
A DNA Mixture analysis module has recently been added to the GeneMarkerHID Human Identity software. The software automatically identifies potential mixtures based upon specific parameters including number of alleles per marker and peak area or height ratios. The mixture analysis function is all combined in one user-friendly interface, eliminating the mistake-prone tedium of data transfer.
SoftGenetics, www.softgenetics.com


Digital Imaging for Forensic Investigations
The MacroVIEW D — composed of a touch screen computer, a fixed camera, and a mobile camera — is designed to capture and store digital images of bodies examined at autopsy or during forensic investigations. Users select from shape drawing tools, editable text tags, voice comments, and video files to annotate case images. Files are automatically collected and organized into case folders.
Milestone, www.milestonemed.com


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Lawyer Sues Sheriff's Office, Private Investigation Continues

More than 48 hours after a missing woman's body is found a new development in the case. A spokesperson for her family, local attorney Andy Savage is suing the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

Savage announced late on Monday that he is suing Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon and his department. Savage says one of his private investigators found the body of Katherine Waring on Wadamalaw Island this weekend.

We spoke with Savage this weekend, before the lawsuit and he was already critical of the police department.

"It's hard to swallow arrogance, as a citizen of this community. I don't think my investigators who solved the case were handled decently by the Charleston Police Department," Savage said.

He is suing for unspecified damages, the return of notes and other items taken from the private investigator  including his car.  The case goes to court on Tuesday. Meanwhile there are still more questions than answers in the case of Katherine Waring.

The Charleston Police Department are calling the case a death investigation and not a homicide investigation. Four months of agony ended Saturday for Laura Waring, her cousin. Kate Waring's skeleton was located in the Polly Pointe Subdivision on Wadmalaw Island She had been missing from Downtown Charleston since June 12.

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Newspapers Allowed to Hire Private Investigators

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. can use a private investigator to look into security breaches, including the leak of an internal planning document to the committee representing the firm's unsecured creditors, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled yesterday.

Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich agreed that the company could spend up to $25,000 to use SafirRosetti, a security firm, to investigate the leak and review the overall integrity of the company's protection of internal documents.

Anne Aaronson, the company's attorney, told Raslavich that SafirRosetti had already launched its investigation and had identified the employee responsible for the leak. She told reporters later that the company was still weighing what disciplinary action might be taken. She did not identify the employee.

The company sought permission to hire SafirRosetti after the Committee of Unsecured Creditors asked Raslavich to order the company to end its "Keep It Local!" campaign.

In its motion opposing the campaign, the unsecured creditors included a copy of an internal company planning document that outlined how the campaign would unfold.

The Committee of Unsecured Creditors opposed the company's request, arguing it represented an unneeded expense. If asked, committee attorney Ben Logan said, the committee would have said how it had gotten the planning document.

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Team of 40 Private Investigators Bust Illegal Weapon Sales at Gun Shows

An undercover investigation funded by the City of New York found weapons were sold illegally at seven gun shows in three states — including at Bill Goodman’s Gun and Knife Show at Hara Arena — Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Wednesday, Oct. 7.

“The gun show loophole is a deadly serious problem — and this undercover operation exposes just how pervasive and serious it is,” Bloomberg said. “This is an issue that has nothing to do with the Second Amendment; it’s about keeping guns from criminals, plain and simple.”

The investigation was done by a team of 40 private investigators, who went to gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada from May through August. Three of those shows were Bill Goodman’s: at Hara, in Sharonville and in Nashville.

Karen Wampler, spokeswoman for Hara Arena, suggested the Dayton Daily News call Dave Goodman, who runs the gun show. Goodman could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
“We rent to Dave Goodman’s Gun and Knife Show and have for many years,” Wampler said. “He has been very good about following the rules of the state of Ohio, from our perspective.”
The report generated by the investigation, Gun Show Undercover, is available on the city’s website, at http://www.nyc.gov/gunshow. Bloomberg said the city would be sending it to every member of Congress, and urged Congress to pass legislation closing the “gun-show loophole,” which gun control proponents say allows people to buy guns without a background check at the shows.

The National Rifle Association has long said there is no such thing as a “gun-show loophole” and that new legislation would be pointless, as most people who sell guns at the shows are licensed dealers, who are already required to do background checks.

The investigators went to the shows to see whether sellers would engage in two types of illegal transactions. The first involvesprivate sellers selling guns to people who they thought could not pass a federal background check. The investigators would offer to purchase a weapon, then tell the seller that they probably couldn’t pass a background check.

The second involves licensed dealers conducting illegal straw sales, which are sales made to accomplices posing as buyers in order to help the real buyer avoid a criminal background check. In those cases, a maleinvestigator played the role of a person who wanted to buy a gun but couldn’t, and a female investigator played the role of the “straw” buyer who would purchase it for him.

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L.A. investigator pleads no contest to conspiracy in payoff of alleged rape victim

A private investigator who has worked for such high-profile criminal defendants as Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder pleaded no contest today to conspiracy to obstruct justice and bribery in connection with the payoff of an alleged rape victim, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office said.

Bradley G. Miller entered the open plea to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and three counts of bribing a witness in the courtroom of L.A. County Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, court spokeswoman
Jane Robison said. The plea came during a pretrial hearing.

The charges stem from Miller's work for Alex Izquierdo, who was charged in 2006 with multiple counts of rape, torture, false imprisonment and other crimes for allegedly abusing his live-in girlfriend. She told police he had burned her with an iron, sodomized her and threatened to kill her.


Miller and two other men are accused of conspiring to take the woman to Las Vegas on the day in 2005 that she was to testify against Izquierdo, who faces life in prison if convicted.

"Mr. Miller wants to put this behind him," said Miller's attorney, Mark Wersksman. "This will allow him to get on with his life."

Attorney Mark Geragos, who represented Izquierdo, is not accused of involvement in the alleged conspiracy. Izquierdo's father, George Izquierdo, and Camilo Valentin were charged along with Miller in the bribery case, prosecutors said.

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School Mistakes Private Detectives as Police

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Sheriff's deputies say private investigators wearing discount store hats reading "CSI" had school staff convinced they were dealing with actual law enforcement officers.

The investigators-for-hire were looking for a missing child involved in a civil custody case. They say Shaffer Elementary School principal Gina Rivas was eager to help and never asked for identification.
"We told them right up front we were private investigators," said private eye John Sampson. "We never said we were police."

A custom-made badge on his belt and his CSI hat seemed to satisfy the principal, said Sampson, who owns CSI Consulting and Investigations.

Over the next few hours, Rivas would volunteer the name of a student she felt resembled the one on Sampson's missing child flyer, provide information about the girl and her family, and interview the girl about the custody case, said Sampson.

The student, 8-year-old Lilly Findley, had no connection to the missing child case. Sampson said the school did not call sheriff's deputies or the girl's parents until he insisted law enforcement get involved in the discussion.

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Canadian Reality TV Star's Family Hires Private Investigator to Clear Name

The family of a Canadian reality-TV performer accused of the sensational murder of his ex-wife has hired a private investigator in California in an attempt to dig up information that might clear the late Ryan Jenkins of the crime.
Jenkins' family is holding a private, invitation-only ceremony in Calgary on Thursday to commemorate the man who was the subject of an international manhunt -- and international media coverage -- after he was named the sole suspect in the strangling and mutilation of Jasmine Fiore before he fled to British Columbia.

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