Search for the Dead?

[PeteC]

This is a strange one, I admit it, but perhaps a niche missed so far. Plus, it's a rainy evening over here and not much going on.

Some background. When I worked over here for the USAF 1969-72 I was a police investigator. I had three Thai investigators that I was very close to. One I found and met with, he was head of security at the Rama Intercontinental Hotel at the time. I think hotel name changed to something else now. He passed away in 1989. Another was assassinated in 1975 by the family of a man he jailed for theft. The third was the closest to me and was immense help getting everything done concerning my Thai wife and first son who was born here. He has totally disappeared off the earth. I have checked where he lived, the Rayong police records, talked to his ex-neighbors, and dozens of other leads with no success. He is either dead or changed his name, as he had many contracts out on him as well. He would be 72 now. He had a wife and one daughter. On rainy evenings such as this, it drives me nuts that I haven't been successful in finding him or any of his family.

So bottom line, a search engine that specializes in helping people find information about those deceased. They would do nothing but scan obits and investigative reports and post data. Of course to start in the USA and EU, but could expand to non-english speaking countries as well.

I would think there would be a huge interest in this, similar to the 'family tree' websites, and subsequent advertising revenue. Pete

[sandman67]

Allo mate

The is part of what my consultancy do for clients.....finding people.

The data you are talking about - registry data - is always owned and managed by either governmental organisations/quango's or controlled by private organisations.....so in the UK Catherine House is the central registry.

All this information is what we term "Deep Web" - it is available online but only through controlled portals.....and almost all organisations charge for access.... a lot for each search and document / report supplied. £15 per search and report in the UK.

Then you rely on each organisation managing and collating the data properly. This is Thailand mate....

Then you have language difficulties - all those different alphabets and phonetic rules - to take account of.

Finally there are the legal hurdles areound international access. In the US we get access to a whole lot more information under US laws than we would on a UK individual under UK law. Here in Thailand and most SE Asia its who you can get access to and pay for that info.

What this means is a lot of footwork and time online......here in Thailand forget it. Good luck finding anyone. The police here are the very very last place by a long way on our "consult" list.

Heres an example: Two years ago one of our clients had a problem with a farang in Patayya distributing online counterfeit copies of their product. It took us a month or so of groundwork, but we tracked him down. Consult local police - seems our man is also wanted here for two attempted murder charges. Ho ho we think. so we do our work, send the report to the client. They contact BKK and the local police, supply the details and ask for an arrest. For two years he has evaded arrest..... they say they cant find him.

Last week said individual avoided arrest (again), this time on drug charges, and is now on the lam.

The real kicker......he lived, and still does, 300 meters from a police station. The house they raided was the same address we found 2 years ago.

So

No mate....there is no such search engine because mostly the information it is searching for is controlled access or just not available.

Now you know why corporate PI consultants cost so much.

[PeteC]

Thanks SM, that explains a lot, and why I really haven't seen anything like I described in existence already on the general web.

I given out phone numbers (small reward offered) and got a call from one of his ex-neighbors a few weeks ago who thinks she knows yet another ex-neighbor who attended the wedding of his daughter, and knows her married name. That would be super if true. The daughter would be 42 now. I remain hopefull of at least finding out what happend to him, if impossible to see him again. Pete

[Wanderlust]

This doesn't really fit in any of the sub forums but it definitely shouldn't have been in Entertainment Zone! So I moved it here as the most relevant one.

[sandman67]

funnily enough mate I was gonna suggest sticking ads in the local Thai press offering small nominal rewards for info.

when people contact you just explain the story and assure them you arent some bad guy......they will probably fall over themselves to help.

A little money in the right hands alwas nets better results than a stack of money thrown at a crowd...... (company mindset).

[PeteC]

This doesn't really fit in any of the sub forums but it definitely shouldn't have been in Entertainment Zone! So I moved it here as the most relevant one.

I started it out in Digital Realm and it's been moving around. A life of it's own. Pete