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The Do It Yourself Detective
CASE # 4 Witness Locate
This case was a little different from my usual case in that my client was the Federal Government and my task was to locate a potential witness for the defense in a felony case.
My checklist was looking grim as all I had was a first name, a physical description, he was short and confined to a wheelchair and the name of an apartment complex forty miles from my office where he had met with the guy in trouble with the government.
My search began by traveling to the city where this apartment complex was supposed to be. I searched the side of town indicated in my information and found nothing. I contacted an apartment locator service. They had never heard of the apartment name I was looking for. Nothing sounded even remotely close to the name I had been given. Searching the phone book turned up nothing. It looked grim right out of the chute.
I went to the local jail where our guy was being held and asked him to describe the actual apartment complex where he met this guy and I asked if he could remember how to drive to this place. He tried. He gave me three different versions, but I wrote it all down and decided to try all routes until I succeeded. One thing that I had to consider was the possibility that this witness might not actually exist. Our guy in trouble knew his was around the system and there was a possibility he could delay his trial date if I could not locate his key witness.
So off I went again. The first two routes he gave me were bogus. The third proved to be a charm. The name of the place did not match at all but I recognized the place from the description, it was government projects.
I cruised around the various buildings until I spotted the apartment that our guy had been staying but it was empty. Spotting a couple of guys standing around on a nearby corner, I pulled up and asked if they knew of a small guy in a wheelchair and much to my surprise they knew him. They knew his name, but they did not know where he could be found. Just when I thought I had run out of luck for the day, another guy walked up. His friends asked if he knew where the wheelchair dude had gone. Miracles of miracles, he wasn't sure but heard that this fellow had done to a local homeless shelter for some medical help.
I drove immediately to the shelter, talked to a social worker and was told my witness was indeed there. An interview followed and our guy went to trial as scheduled and everyone was happy.
