When the family gathered for the reading of their mother’s will, the adult children were surprised to find that their mother had left a significant amount of money to her youngest child. The reason this was odd? That child, known to have significant mental health issues, had been estranged from the family for years.
Yet in the will, the mother left specific instructions. Her other children were asked to find their long lost brother and use the portion of his inheritance to help him get the treatment he so desperately needed. To honor their mother’s dying wish, the other three children made their best efforts to find the missing heir, but found no trail. After all, their brother had been missing from the family photographs for nearly fifteen years.
So they contacted . They were embarrassed to admit what little they could offer that would help in finding a missing person. All they knew was their brother’s name, age and birth date. They had a few old, old photographs.
- They had no idea if he had ever worked another job, since he had been fired from a job years ago as a dishwasher.
- They had no idea who his friends were, or if he had any.
- They had no idea if he was even in the same state, much less the same county.
They felt as those though they were seeking unknown heirs since their lives had been severed apart.
The missing person investigation team at wasted no time in beginning the search to locate the brother who seemed to have vanished. Finding people requires an objective look at the environment and circumstances of the subject. They began the missing person search by conducting several searches through databases that are not available to the general public. They discovered that he had been arrested a few times in the last 15 years, usually for loitering and public intoxication. All of these records suggested the brother remained in the local area.
Canvassing the local shelters by foot with photo in hand, the located him. The lost brother was living in a homeless shelter and working part-time as a garbage collector within just a few miles of all of his siblings.
After agreeing to meet with his brothers and sisters, the missing heir underwent a psychiatric evaluation. Following that evaluation, he was hospitalized and received psychotropic drugs to improve his ability to function.
Using the inheritance from their mother, the siblings were able to get their brother placed in a residential program for people with chronic mental illness. He has regular contact with his family now, is working at a steady three-quarter time job and has a home to return to every night.
The mother’s wish was fulfilled because knows how to find a missing person.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
