In 2011, O&O Investigations, Inc. was retained to work a pro bono case involving the disappearance of a person. The person (i.e. the subject) disappeared in 1993 and was believed, by his family, to have died. Upon the subject’s disappearance, the subject’s wife contacted the police on several occasions. However, the police were unsuccessful in locating the subject. Since 2003, the subject’s family had been attempting to collect on the subject’s life insurance policy, but the family’s attorney was unsuccessful due to the conditions of the life insurance policy and bureaucratic red tape. Further, the family’s attorney and his investigators conducted searches and various investigations for over five years with no success in finding the subject.
 
 
When our firm took over the case, our first step was to locate any additional, unexplored leads. Our lead investigator, Oleg Flaksman, interviewed all the subject’s family members and friends. We started researching all missing persons’ databases and calling local and state authorities to file various reports. After several months, we had established a great contact within the NYPD missing person’s department.
 
 
We also contacted every medical examiner’s office in the state and hassled them until each medical examiner confirmed that no bodies matching the subject’s description had ever arrived in their offices. When the medical examiners were unwilling to cooperate (which happened often, as we were requesting that they review 18 years of files), we would continue contacting them until we received an answer. Ultimately, we utilized our contact in the NYPD to follow up with the medical examiners who had still not provided us with answers. After six months, we had confirmed that the subject’s body had not been seen by a medical examiner in the state of New York. As such, we decided to contact medical examiner’s offices in nearby states. Finally, we spoke with one medical examiner who believed that they may have had a body matching the subject’s description. It took the medical examiner’s office another month to locate all the files pertaining to the alleged subject. Our investigator accompanied the client to the medical examiner’s office to identify the body. The medical examiner’s office was very professional and compassionate when speaking with our client.
 
 
Once we received confirmation from the medical examiner’s office, it took our firm almost a year to ascertain the in “John Doe” grave in New Jersey. The subject’s son had the body moved to a cemetery in Florida, as the subject’s parents resided in Florida.
 
 
The subject’s son, wife, sister and parents were still living and still hoped that the subject would be found alive. As such, it was very difficult to notify the subject’s family of his passing and relay the unfortunate news. However, eventually, the family was happy to have the closure our investigation provided.
 
 
The subject’s son, wife, sister and parents were still living and still hoped that the subject would be found alive. As such, it was very difficult to notify the subject’s family of his passing and relay the unfortunate news. However, eventually, the family was happy to have the closure our investigation provided.
 
 
If you are looking for a missing person there is a great website that may help – www.namus.gov. Now, you can also submit DNA to the FBI for a search as well. Unfortunately, when this case began in 1993 many jurisdictions did not take blood or DNA from unidentified bodies.