how in the world do you look for someone?

[Jaeh]

er, no, not writing romance.

basically, without giving much away, a writer teams up with a disgruntled police rookie to look for a kidnapper before time runs out. writer, btw, knows the kidnapper enough (childhood "friend" and all, and he cooperates with the police along with the victim's daughter) to catch said kidnapper.

how do you look for someone who just disappeared? ideas?

I've had a few, and please tell me what else I missed?

1. ask around - question people who knows the criminal.
2. wait for the criminal to call again (he already called for ransom).
3. figure out the criminal's possible steps before he takes them (i.e., he may take the kidnappee to a place he knows that is secure and "safe" from the outside) (oh, and this is possible because the writer knows the kidnapper)

...any more ideas? thanks.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Use the internets.  There's a lot more information out there than most people think, particularly if someone is good at putting together patterns from data, which is the sort of thing one can i think expect of someone who can convince your readers as a detective.

Writer knows kidnapper, therefore writer knows angles to approach kidnapper that are specific to kidnapper's personality and not obvious to regular cops ? or that regular cops do not pay attention to ? I'm not overly fond of detective stories that work because regular cops are too dumb to figure obvious things out, though.

[LizW65]

Credit card usage, security camera footage, prior police record of perpetrator if applicable.  As it's a kidnapping, presumably the cops are involved (and probably the Feds as well, if it's in the US and crosses state/country lines.)  Talk to known associates--spouse(s), current/past lover(s), siblings, parents, friends, business partners, and so on.  Try to get inside kidnapper's head and guess his/her next move.

[Jaeh]

Use the internets.  There's a lot more information out there than most people think, particularly if someone is good at putting together patterns from data, which is the sort of thing one can i think expect of someone who can convince your readers as a detective.

Writer knows kidnapper, therefore writer knows angles to approach kidnapper that are specific to kidnapper's personality and not obvious to regular cops ? or that regular cops do not pay attention to ? I'm not overly fond of detective stories that work because regular cops are too dumb to figure obvious things out, though.

Not obvious to regular cops. the writer is not really that good - the only thing going for him and that he watches too much police procedurals based in the US and reads a lot of novels, and that he knows the kidnapper and the victim well. He has no experience in these things - except that he was a juvenile offender once, so the police are originally reluctant to trust him (er, long story how they trust him.) the police are, of course, the intelligent ones in here. I'm tired of the dumb cops thing, too.
hmm, yeah, internet - that is an idea that I weirdly didn't think of. -_-

Credit card usage, security camera footage, prior police record of perpetrator if applicable.  As it's a kidnapping, presumably the cops are involved (and probably the Feds as well, if it's in the US and crosses state/country lines.)  Talk to known associates--spouse(s), current/past lover(s), siblings, parents, friends, business partners, and so on.  Try to get inside kidnapper's head and guess his/her next move.

thing of it is, the setting is not in the US, and we don't really have that much tech on our hands right now in the setting - but I can slip some in. the police record would be really, really good - and the known associates, yeah, i need a partial list of that. thanks.

[Zolt]

For the police angle, nothing much but the usual: question witnesses, check cctv cameras, profile the kidnapper, track credit cards and cellphones. Getting lost in a modern environment is actually pretty hard nowadays.

Using the internets... sure, but a passive search won't lead you to much, unless your kidnapper somehow posted his location on Facebook. Go active: start a tweeter manhunt - ask everyone to retweet the call for help etc. If the writer is a bit of a celebrity it might reach a lot of people.

If the writer knows the kidnapper, then try to talk to him, get him to reveal something. If by phone have the police track it. If by email or internet chat, get a computer security expert on it.

[Aakaakaak]

I don't know if it was shut down for privacy reasons, but I do know people were trying to set up a facial recognition system for criminals in England and the U.S.A. What happens is if a facial recognition system hits on a criminal it alerts local authorities and includes the snapshot. That's how it works in theory.

Credit cards are a very common theme. You take the criminal's credit report and track the usage location of all his credit cards. Normally they get caught when they use a card after the crime. What I haven't seen too often is to pinpoint a criminal to an area because of previous transactions. The ability to geo-track a person's previous locations based on a credit card history is completely viable. For example:

Smiegel goes to lowes and buys a shovel, axe and a tarp using is Master Card. He then goes to a gas station and gets 20 bucks in gas on the same master card. That gas will get him X number of miles if he's using the vehicle he owns as registered with the DMV. You see no more transactions. He's either using cash he already had (can't use an ATM) or holed up somewhere within the driving radius of what the 20 bucks will get him in gas. Crossreference that with the frequently used locations in the driving area and you have hotspots to search. You can also pick up the local video surveillance in those areas. Usually the store owners will volunteer them, but you can also get a court order.

[Snowleopard]

If the writer knows the kidnapper - does he know him well enough to know what kind of
fast food or food he likes.  If so - then checking out the local food places to see if anyone has seen
him would be a possibility.  Or food likes or dislikes of victim if kidnapper is capable of being that
compassionate.

[Jaeh]

If the writer knows the kidnapper - does he know him well enough to know what kind of
fast food or food he likes.  If so - then checking out the local food places to see if anyone has seen
him would be a possibility.  Or food likes or dislikes of victim if kidnapper is capable of being that
compassionate.

...oooooh. there's something in mind I have for this. thanks!

I don't know if it was shut down for privacy reasons, but I do know people were trying to set up a facial recognition system for criminals in England and the U.S.A. What happens is if a facial recognition system hits on a criminal it alerts local authorities and includes the snapshot. That's how it works in theory.

Credit cards are a very common theme. You take the criminal's credit report and track the usage location of all his credit cards. Normally they get caught when they use a card after the crime. What I haven't seen too often is to pinpoint a criminal to an area because of previous transactions. The ability to geo-track a person's previous locations based on a credit card history is completely viable. For example:

Smiegel goes to lowes and buys a shovel, axe and a tarp using is Master Card. He then goes to a gas station and gets 20 bucks in gas on the same master card. That gas will get him X number of miles if he's using the vehicle he owns as registered with the DMV. You see no more transactions. He's either using cash he already had (can't use an ATM) or holed up somewhere within the driving radius of what the 20 bucks will get him in gas. Crossreference that with the frequently used locations in the driving area and you have hotspots to search. You can also pick up the local video surveillance in those areas. Usually the store owners will volunteer them, but you can also get a court order.

mmm, this would be an interesting thing to play around with. thanks.

For the police angle, nothing much but the usual: question witnesses, check cctv cameras, profile the kidnapper, track credit cards and cellphones. Getting lost in a modern environment is actually pretty hard nowadays.

Using the internets... sure, but a passive search won't lead you to much, unless your kidnapper somehow posted his location on Facebook. Go active: start a tweeter manhunt - ask everyone to retweet the call for help etc. If the writer is a bit of a celebrity it might reach a lot of people.

If the writer knows the kidnapper, then try to talk to him, get him to reveal something. If by phone have the police track it. If by email or internet chat, get a computer security expert on it.

Ah. facebook and twitter. should be useful. xD should be an awesome thing to play around with. thanks guys.

[Snowleopard]

Glad to have helped.

[OZ]

If the main character knew the kidnapper in the past then they could look for people that the kidnapper knew then and ask them who else knew the kidnapper. By following this thread up to current times it is possible that the main character might find acquaintances of the kidnapper that the cops didn't know. If you can get a fairly recent picture of the kidnapper, you can actually canvas if you get the search narrowed down to a small enough area.

If you can get access to property tax records for the kidnapper and his close family members it may give you a clue to where the victim is being held.