The Skip Tracer

How do you find someone who has spent years making sure they can't be found?

The Skip Tracer retells twelve real cases of people who vanished, and of the investigators, reporters, relatives and ordinary members of the public who eventually picked up their trail.

A Rolex still ticking on a body hauled up in a fishing net. An obituary with a birthday that was almost right. A man who lived for 24 years under the name of a child who died in 1945. A forensic bust shown on television. A photograph anyone could find online. A locked box in a closet. An aircraft that flew on with no one at the controls. A Winnipeg gold theft, aircraft repossessions on several continents, and a fugitive found in a Mexican resort town.

Each chapter follows the trail lead by lead: how the person disappeared, who was looking, where the search nearly went cold, and the small details that finally linked an old identity to a new one. Every chapter is built from court records, official statements and published reporting. Opening scenes are clearly marked as reconstructions, disagreements between sources are stated rather than smoothed over, and each chapter ends by noting what is still unknown.

Every chapter closes with a Tracer's Notebook: six practical lessons for investigators, with notes on how the law in Ontario, Canada applies to the same techniques today, including privacy, consent and the limits of a private investigator's role.

The author is a licensed private investigator in Ontario.

Written for readers who love true stories, and detailed enough for private investigators, paralegals, collectors and anyone curious about how people are really found.