Longings

This has been a week of longings.
Longing inside.... for the people I love in this world... to get, stay and be well.
Longing for a way to stop injustices I see swirling around me.
There appears to be no whirled peas.

And there has been a longing for this blog.
So before I hit the road again, I am hitting the keyboard.

A majority of my work as a P.I. is Personal Injury, meaning I work for lawyers with injured clients and legitimate claims against the DEF that caused that person's injury.
I find great satisfaction in this work because the attorneys I work for make a huge difference in people's lives.
There is no high quite like helping someone who is uninsured get treatment.
Or guiding someone who is lost to the attorneys who know the way and truly care about their clients.
According to many experts, a great cure for depression is volunteering, helping others less fortunate.
As a PI, I get paid to do that.

Though it is  often difficult work.. because the injured I deal with, are seriously hurting and their body and lives are falling apart.
And not all the injured clients make it.
I write the word, "deceased", next to their name on my case file. 
I work many death cases in the personal inury field.
And I also have my own death investigations, from private parties, the family or families of the deceased.
Most of those are homicide vs. suicide.
The families are convinced their loved ones were murdered and didn't commit suicide.
Often, this is true.
Most often, the murderer gest away with it.
 So maybe I'm the only one noticing this.
It sure seems to me murders staged as suicides are on the rise.
With the economy tanking,  many bad people are preying on good people for the almighty dollar.
Insurance policies are seductive pots and targets to those without moral, scruples and money.
Because so many marriages are ending... many over money issues....
it takes only one psycho to stall a divorce to reap maximum rewards.
And with so many people stuck in situations where they can't pay their mortage, and can't sell their home, adversarial couples are living together under the same roof with children.
It is not pretty.

And if there is an insurance policy in place...
and one loose cannon in a relationship just feels it's cheaper NOT to keep her (or him) alive...
we got murders staged as suicides.
Money is the motive for so many murders.

I know I have written about this subject frequently. That's because these cases don't go away.When the police and medical examiner investigate, that  alone can be enough to make a determination, for example, of  "suicide by self inflicted gunshot wound to the head."
The prosecutor may consider probing further, yet with budget cuts everywhere, there are not enough police detectives and prosecutors to investigate  the huge ocean of cases.
Some ships sink unnoticed unless the family hires a Private Detective/P.I. 
The family hopes we can get the case re-opened, the death certificate changed, the killer behind bars.
And if only it were that easy.

Even if you, as a P.I., are  100% convinced there's enough evidence to reopen a case, just getting the death certificate changed from suicide to "undetermined" is hard enough. Getting someone indicted and convicted for staging a murder as a suicide is very difficult. Truth be told, I have yet to be successful doing any more than getting death certificates changed except in one case.
There simply is not enough evidence for a grand jury to indict.

Now I tell my clients (being,the families of the murder victims whose death were staged as suicide),
that even if we do find the evidence, "Look at the Casey Anthony criminal case. Look at the OJ case. They were declared innocent in criminal court. Look at all the money the families spent. Think hard about how far you want to take this case."

In civil court, it  turned out differently for OJ on the murder charge.
I  also suspect Casey Anthony will have her hands full in the civil arena.
Maybe it's not cool to be this opinionated as a PI...however, I worked on neither case.
And I am entitled to my opinion.

I'd put all my money on the table Casey Anthony is guilty  and murdered her child.
And I believe OJ Simpson killed Nicole and Ron.
Yet they both remained free for their crimes.
OJ, now behind bars, is at least... a broken man.
I have heard he has lost his celebrity status in prison.
Yet he didn't land there on murder charges. What got him to prison was a crime involving sports momentos.
How absurd is that?

Still, the families of the murdered were drained dry physically and financially by legal and investigative costs.
There is no joy in such matters.
The grieving never stops.
And justice is not served.

Today I send prayers out to the universe and hope someone up there is listening.
A lot of people are hurting right now and  many folks on planet earth could use a helping hand.
May the righteous, honest and vigilant among us protect the weaker ones from the predators.
Today is a fine day to say grace.