Good People by Jack Johnson

Bad Neighbors

During my interviews lately, I am meeting a lot of good people in nice houses.
My interview always involves establishing "rapport"--  a mutual respect for the subject of that interview.
The goal is to elicit information and  to assess the credibility of the person I am talking to, which reflects on the credibility of information provided.
So lately...
in the last couple of years...
I am encountering a similar situation which  I now wonder is a trend before I head out for the day.

The scenario goes something like this:
I meet someone in their house somewhere for an interview.
This person lives in a nice, decent house. Often an impressive house, meticulously kept, lots of property, fencing. Almost always a dog or two.

Yet their lovely little house may have a dilapidated, unkempt house  behind it.
Or a property behind it spotted with  trailers.
Often these secret properties are hidden by bushes, walls, fences, even chain links between trees.

Whatever that dark place behind to my subject's property is...
behind the  barbed, or broken wood plank fences, h there are bad people in crack houses or meth labs.
And when those bad people get high at night, like vampires and zombies, they are not good to their neighbors.
So this one man I was interviewing recently,  is a very good person fixing up a foreclosure and living in it during the process. His goal is to turn the property in three months.

It has a backyard retaining wall.
He didn't know, until after he bought the place that behind that retaining wall, is a small house surrounded by multiple trailers occupied by many people.... all related, of all ages, who are allegedly manufacturing crack.
He has since heard them referred to as a crime family.

Though this man I was interviewing, he didn't know how evil they were when he filed one police report against them.
Nor did he realize his identifying information would be on that police report.He has been haunted ever since.
Like a pack of wolves hungry for food at night, this tribe of whacked out, drugged out dope heads wanders by his house, gun their antiquated engines as they drive by the front yard.
And there are other things they do I can not describe here.  The police are doing their best, yet still can do vitually nothing.
They lock some up,
Others stay home and crimes contnue to multiply.
There are bails paid, people released and victims harassed.
Crime is how some families earn their livings.

"What can I I do" he asks me, after I listen to this story and tell him I can see it is getting to him for good reasons.
He lives alone. He's a big tough guy, mid-40's.
The police can only protect him so much.
Once meth and crack kick in, so does the danger.

"Move," I tell him.
"You live alone. Nothing's stopped them.You have cameras, guns, motion detectors, alarm systems, dogs and still these guy are driving you crazy. The police have told you how dangerous they are, they have an investigation underway. Either stay and risk damage or death. Or go. Sell your house, rent your house, walk away from your house... but get away with your life."

I know he wanted to stand his ground. He has every right to.
But why be the lone outpost surrounded by hostiles with no cavalry available?
He was told by the police to just stay away, there's big stuff going down.
When I am advised by a police detective they are looking at the same subject I am on a "higher, inter-organizational, multi-jurisdictional level"....
I am respectfully asked to step away, lest I compromise any ongoing investigation....
I graciously and respectfully step away.
I suggested he do the same.
Truth be told, I have no clue what he will do.
He is stuck between a rock and a hard place in this economy.
Will he be Custer and make his house is last stand?
Or will he retreat, as I have , from a growingly hostile and crowded urban environment.
The same environment I must head back to now on a case...

Musical Confession

Decided to start this week with an old, very old favorite.
The self-defense angle is fascinating.
Who shot the sheriff?
Either this confession is true or false...
or someone else is  holding the bag, or other gun.
Maybe the confessor is deflecting.
I never seen a confession like this once... and it is certainly melodious, albeit incriminating.
Regardless, a word of advice,  before beginning my day's work and hitting the long road....
singing  your  murder confession is not likely to be helpful to your case.

I Shot the Sherrif- A Confession

The Blogger's Back in Town

I missed the blog... and decided not to let it go into hiatus for a number of reasons I will spare you.
Let's just say life is an ocean and I ride its ebbs and tides. When a storm comes, I prepare for it...
batten down those hatches, secure those loose lines, turn bow into the wind.
Today marks one such shift in the weather.

I woke to a very dark and moody Pacific Northwest morning with three things on my mind.
Coffee, murder and mayhem.
The coffee, available in the kitchen.
The murder in a case file in front of me.
The mayhem in the various corners of this beach house on the bay.

Today I decided to quietly reignite the blog or a number of reasons.
In this cyber world it's a good way to send smoke signals to the planet on a daily basis.
And readership logs indicate readers world wide.
Legend has it, a blog is also a good way to make money.
However I  haven't had the time or inclination to figure that  angle out yet.

Bottom line, the blog is back...
and I'm glad whoever is reading this is back too.
The world's become askew as of late.
We need places to we can seek solace or cover.
We need sources to fuel our  insatiable appetite for information.
And we need to help others.

In the days ahead, the blog... and my P.I. business... will be growing.
It's my way of adapting to  the depression we're in....
which, for some reason, the government and politicians prefer to call a recession.

While I'm glad a whole slew of old dictators have left the planet and the troops are pulling out of Iraq, that's not going to help the state of our economy, the amount of war, famine, illness, injury, unemployment and disenchantment among us.
The American economy can and will continue to tank.

I'm the first to admit P.I.'s are not necessarily he most optimistic of people because we see the worst side of life.
However, most of us love what we do because we believe we make a difference. And we often do.
I also  think people who read this blog, think about the same way I do.
We need to team up to stay safe and grounded in an unstable world which is rapidly becoming even more unhinged.

So come back every day and I will too.
Share the blog with you anyone you'd like it and help me build readership so we can all spread information that can help save lives...
or lighten those  hard or lonely lives burdened by the dark side.
These are not easy days...
Let this blog be a place of both retreat and information to keep you safe.
And a place I can offload the words and images that can haunt the head of a PI.

Re: Amanda Knox Verdict

Hindsight being 20/20 vision, even those with super powers could not imagine Amanda would be held in prison so long for a crime she did not commit.
A crime for which another man was already convicted and serving time.
However, the prosecutor, in my opinion, had a few screws lose.
And the media attention certainly didn't hurt the Italian economy any.
In fact, money came into the country quickly with all the false allegations made against Amanda the alleged "she devil."
This was clearly a case a prosecutorial misconduct, among other things.
I am pleased with the fact that justice has been served in this case.
That would be one for Amanda, her co-defendant and their families and friends.
I hear now everyone in her her life has spent everything they had to help free Amanda.
Amanda's grandmother is broke.
False allegations, accusations, are like ripples on the water.
Not only does the defendant experience that ripple effect, that effect extends to family, friends of both victims and plaintiffs.
I do know Amanda and her family will recover from this.
The media will be all over it with huge financial officers I hope, which will no doubt, go to Amanda's legal bills.
I have no clue how the victim's family will respond.
It is doubtful they will close the case on this.
Regardless, just a few days ago, here's what Amanda's mother had to say on the subject.
She was right.

Amanda Knox's mother [CNN 9-23-2011]

Questions, Questions, Questions

When people say to me, "I need to ask  you a stupid question," I usually reply "there is no stupid question."
Truth be told, I think my family and friends will bear witness to the fact that  I ask too many questions. Even worse, I am constantly asking them "Do you think I ask too many questions?"
Which is, indeed, a question.

I wasn't always like this.
It started happening to me after I got burnt once, then twice...
and then as I moved through this process called life, I kept getting burned without seeing the flame coming.
At some point, I got the bright idea that asking questions could divert melt downs. 
As I've gotten older, I've learned to walk on fire.

In the past... I got burned all those times, not because I didn't ask the questions, or the right ones, in the right place in the right time.
I got burnt because I figured ignorance was bliss and I'd run with it.
I didn't know then, as I do now, that a attorney never asks someone a question on the stand that he doesn't know the answer to already.
Sometimes, only the strongest  or safest among us feel comfortable asking the questions that reveal truths and lies.

I've been posting about Susan Powell's case the past couple of days.
And I have names in my head I can not share with you because those are clients and protected by Invesigator/Client confidence.For every case, client, witness, police officer, first responder, whoever, there is my legal pad and list of questions.

So a friend I questioned/interrogated yesterday, pointed out my "inqusitive" nature in a  kind way that got me thinking.
Then she sent me the following You Tube this morning.
I like it for a number of reasons.

I think the people we entrust our money to are not always qualified just because they appear to have the certifications, appear affluent and talk a good game.
I think someone who comes in our homes to do a repair isn't necessarily competent because they got a truck with a company name painted on it and a name tag on their shirt.
I think the people we lay next to at night are not  always good, well-intentioned people  simply because we sleep next to them.

This one's for all the women out there...and the men...who've been taken.
Whenever you can can, ask questions. Make a list of them. They can be quite revealing.
In some cases, like Susan's,  even she they asked the questions,  all the right  questions, a pathological liar could bypass them.
Or another person could kill you for asking them.
So... sometimes.... even questions aren't enough to save a relationship or a life.
Questions certainly are, however, a great start.

Blaque "Questions"

RE: The Susan Powell Case Tipping Point

 The story at the end of this post links you to the most current update I could locate on the Susan Powell case before heading out on weekend rounds.
It's from ABC in Salt Lake City, the location of the search and likely murder or or abduction search.
I remain hopeful about the desert finds and anxious for DNA results which take a whole lot longer than the one hour they show you on CSI.
We are talking months.
But they have material.
They have trace evidence.
They have things burned.
And the more I think about it,
the more I realize how hard it would be to bury a body in a freezing Utah desert in the middle of the night while taking care of your two sons.
If Grampa showed up to help his son in Utah, from Puyallup, the task would be even easier.
Though dad could do it all by himself.
Regardless, I'm thinking the police and search crews are thinking the same way I am.
There must be a grave, though unlikely.
More likely, campfire. Cremation.
I don't want that and don't feel good posting that possibility here knowing some of Susan's family may read it because it is a horrifying thought.
Fortunately though, Susan's Powell's family has her kids.
Unfortunately, this disappearance,  this murder,  the snatched, stolen children, young adults, mothers, sons, babies, it never ends.

Lindsey Baum

There is another missing person in our area, Linsdey Baum, a young girl snatched right off the streets by  who knows who and taken who knows where. She has Facebook page you can join.  And here's a link to her official website.
http://www.findlindseybaum.com/
I often work in or near Lindsey's town, where she was abducted.
Between cases,  I have stopped by the thick wooded areas alongside with my dog and just ventured here and there for a look see, where I would imagine someone could be killed and hidden.

There is a burial ground for the green river Killer's bodies here in Washington.
It is up in the mountains and there were more bodies there than there were victims of the Green River Killer. Think about that for a minute if you feel like walking in the dark lands.

Given Josh's father's inclinations for child porn.... and his lust for daughter in law Susan Powell (which really had her concerned according to her friends and her journal), it is indeed possible she wasn't killed sold into some kind of white slave trade.
That idea frightens me, oddly, more than death.
Though I think it unlikely.
Either way, this story will not end quickly or fast enough for anyone until Susan is found.

And that's what today's post is about.
Here's a link to the what they're finding in the Utah desert searches which still go on.
http://www.abc4.com/s/UKndT35q0kSO43n678Qesw.cspx#.TocxiNh6c48.blogger