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I'm getting emails from people who can't see the full You Tubes on my blog because of the Google ads beneath them. The only way past this is to just double click on the video and it will take you full screen. Hopefully.

George Dennehy: He justs want you to know who he is.

George Dennehy - The Young Man Who Can.

When I first saw George Dennehy play guitar,  not only did I realize he's amazing...
he's an inspiration.  And a hero.
His music is an epiphany. It says no matter how challenging a life we face, few us even come  close to what this kid faced at birth... and overcame.
See George, age 18, was born without arms.
He didn't let that stop him. He taught himself to play with his feet instead.
You may wonder how that ties into a blog about private investigation.
My counter is this:
ever since I got into this business...
and way before that...
the words "I can't" where often a part of my vocabulary.
One day, I realized how many "I can'ts" were between me and my dream to be a P.I..
When I decided to stop saying "can't" and replace the word with "can"...
my life changed.
Simple as that.
Yours can too.
It is never to late to become who we might have been... or wish to be.
If you have a dream, make it a goal.
Run with it, you got feet.
Do what George did.

Jennette McCurdy-"Stronger"-With lyrics

Tough Times

I have to be out the door to catch a boat  within 10 minutes. That gives me just enough time to post a message via You Tube here to a few people I know going through tough times. This song says what I can't right now.
 It's what you do not want to hear from anyone.
Yet it is the truth.
There is a wellspring of strength in each of us.
Drink from it.
Your inner strength, instinct and resources are the key to surviving these dark and tough times.

"COME HOME" - Song for Missing People 2011

Can you Identify Me?

People go missing every day.
Some are abducted, some are killed, some have just had it with their lives and walk away.
The ones who walk away, usually change identities and become someone else.
Time passes.
Bodies are found.
And when they are...
many are unidentified.
So a friend started a Facebook site and group called "Can You Identify Me?"
It's an online blog dedicated to America's Unidentified.
According to my friend, she and her associates have  been working behind the scenes for the past six months to team up... and turn "Can You Identify Me" to a non profit that will work toward the resolution of America's Unidentified.
So what I'd like to do is just stop time for this moment...
and take that time before I hit the road on this hot Northwest day and post a link to the "Can You Identify Me" site on Facebook.
Just a little warning beforehand...
I found it disturbing.
In a way I haven't experienced before.
I see grim images every day. With my eyes, my camera, in hospitals, on the streets, in police photos.
I see autopsy photos, death scene photos and the grimmest of injury shots.
I will never forget focusing my camera lens into a hole in a man's face where there used to be eye.
That hole was left by a bullet. It was ugly.

These photos are disturbing too, though in a different way.
Because they are lost souls.
Someone found these people, these bodies, yet no one knows who they are.
So as I scrolled the images, I found them very unsettling and sad.
Yet I knew it was necessary I look at each and every one... just in case.
Here's the link to "Can You Identify me" on Facebook.
Please hit "like" on the link and spread the word.
Here's a link to their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CanYouIdentifyMe?

Big & Rich - "That's Why I Pray"

Why I Pray

At a certain point...
when every emotion converges...
or every cloud darkens...
or every thought stops...
what else is there really... but prayer?

I was born into a religion, as are most of us.
And over the years, I have observed children tend to follow the religious faith of their parents.
Some stay with it... some stray.
Yet at some point in our lives, we pray.
Today... I pray.

I pray for the little boy by whose case I just wrapped the investigation on.
He was killed by driver who was so drunk he had no clue what he did.
I interviewed grieving family and witnesses...
and photographed yet another  graveside memorial, one of so many captured by my cameras over the years, I could not count them all.

Today... I pray, for the souls of the deceased who deaths are less defined...
like the homicides disguised as suicides, heinous acts committed by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Today... I pray, for the wounded, injured people I see in my business life.
And the tattered warriors, the family and friends  in my personal life...
people I know, love, have held... who are hurting so deeply inside.
Too many were taken from me before I saw it coming, before I got to say good bye.

Sometimes, in my head.... the boundaries....
they blur.
Like this morning.
There's so much pain floating around.
It is indeed hard, on some days, to just get up and get out there on the streets and see one more broken body.
One more shattered dream.
So here's what I do on days like this.

I pull my car, or my body over.
I shut the engine off.
I close my eyes.
And I pray.

When everything goes out of focus in your life...
(and it will, because it always does)
consider looking inward...
and pray.
It may or may not change things.
It may, however, make you feel a little less powerless.
It make give you the strength to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and begin another day.

I heard the song above yesterday on my rounds.
It came just at the right time.
I hope you see in it... what I do.

"Stronger "| -Seattle Childrens Hospital

"What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger"

As a Personal Injury Investigator, I spend a good bit of time in Children's Hospital of Seattle, visiting young clients who are seriously hurt or injured.
My  clients are children who were injured in their car seats in  car wrecks; children who fallen from buildings; children who have been shot by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooter.
When I'm there, I sometimes stop by the cancer ward and drop off what I can the kids might like.
I'm often successful in my attempts to engage in a conversation with a kid who responds to my "hello".
I do what little I can in a situation so big...
I still don't understand how a kid can handle cancer.
Yet they do, with strength, dignity and a deeper awareness of the intrinsic value of life and health, than any other kid who wants to play their video games or text and party all day.
Chris Rumble is 22 years old and  a patient in Children's. You'll see him at the end of this video.
He thought up the idea and pulled it off.
If you want to know the story behind the making of it, go to this link:http://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/cancer-patients-sing-their-strength-in-stronger-music-video-3/

In the Wake of Colorado

According to some reports, including the one, just released... which I am linking you to below...
James Eagan Holmes’ psychiatrist allegedly warned a  Colorado  threat-assessment team  that Holmes was indeed a threat.
However, her warnings were ignored. Or lost in transmission.
I wonder though, if it would have made a difference.
There are plenty of sick and twisted people walking around out there no one can do a thing about.
Until they commit a crime, you can't commit them.
However, this article  gets you thinking.

If only there were way we could know...
that someone would booby trap their home, hoping to set off a diversion to occupy the police...
while he, the shooter was busy shooting people in the theater.
Imagine what would have happened had that apartment blown up as Holmes intended. How many more lives would be lost?
It took a brilliant mind to excel in neurology school; to build the complex set of triggers, trips and wires leading the major explosives in his apartment.
I think that same mind could fool a threat assessment team.
Just like he's trying to fool us all now with his courtroom act.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/12340/james-eagan-holmes-psychiatric-crisis-raises-questions-about-strong-warning-systems

RE: James Eagen Holmes, the Colorado Shooter

I,  like almost everyone, am totally fascinated by the psyche of the man with a promising future who blew it all... and blew so many lives away for... what?
Is he insane? No.
Is he a narcissist? Yes.
Was he suicidal?  I'm not sure.
Was he homicidal? I'd say yes.
There is this theory, that when we reach break point...
when things get so bad and so dark and life is so hopeless...
those standing at the precipice do one of two things:
they either commit suicide or homicide. 
  
In my line of work and life observation, I have observed that to be true. With an addendum....
When unstable people when people reach  the point where they just don't want to go on...
They take themselves out. 
Or they take others out. 
Or they take themselves... AND others out.
The latter would be "suicide by cop."

Mug Shot 07-23-12

So why did James Eagen Holmes do what he did that  Dark Night in Colorado's Aurora Movie Theater?
I think he  added a new element to the motive equation.
I do not think he was suicidal.
I do not think he was insane.
I do not think he wanted to take himself out.
I  think he was one big ball of inner rage, hate and loathing -- a toxic blend of id, ego and super ego that combusted. He exploded rather than imploded.

And this whole act he is playing out on in the courtroom right now, it offends me. Truly. He's not even a good actor. 

In the end, I wish he could be sentenced to the same hole batman was in the Dark Knight movie.
This kid's so weak, he would never climb out alive.
 Here's a great link and look inside this guy's head that was just released a few minutes ago.
http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/ci_21238407/holmes-part-intellectual-elite-before-aurora-theater-massacre 

The Sunday Project

It's fairly obvious I stopped blogging again for a while.
I've got the usual excuses... too much work, too little time... yadda, yadda, and yadda.
However, I have a medium and I have message.
And this would be the place for it to be. Even if I have write shorter blogs.
Less is always more.

It's been one heck of a few weeks.
As summers heat up and the economy continues its slow down...
edges get rougher, tempers flare and ignite.
Cars crash, people clash, lives get smashed...
and the phone rings.
or an email comes.
And someone needs help.

Most P.I.'s prefer to work through attorneys rather than direct with the public.
Attorneys provide a legal shield and often, the soundest direction on cases.
Working with individuals, AKA regular people without attorneys, can be difficult and most of us avoid  doing so... because often clients become too invested in their case and the outcome of it.
While Investigators seek the truth, other people would rather keep running from that truth than face it.

An attorney can handle an P.I. who says,  "Yes I interviewed those witness and they all say your client is a guilty scumbag who did it"
However, many are the private clients, the public citizens, who get really ticked off when the truth is NOT what they want to hear.
They have their version of the truth and hired a PI to substantiate it.
When we tell them what they do not want to hear,  many turn their anger on us -- complaining about our abilities. Or refusing to cut a check.
Which is one reason most savvy P.I.'s get money up-front when working directly with the public.

And so, while this blog has been slumbering...
I have ticked a few people with the truth, while pleasing others with it.
It is has been a rough road on many levels lately...
however I am still here.
The blog is still here.
And so are you.

I wish you a very safe and peaceful Sunday...
and invite you to comment today,  or say hey on Facebook, if you have found your way to this blog today.
My goal, my Sunday project, will be to rise a half hour earlier every day to post daily here.
It just helps to know... someone's listening.