Expert: Jack Toomey - 7/18/2004

Question
Hello, Mr. Toomey -

I am doing some research for a screenplay I'm writing.  At the center of the story is a 17-year-old boy who disappears (it turns out that his classmates are responsible for his accidental death, and they've hidden the body to cover up their actions).

Here's my question(s):

How long before the police become involved?  Is it the standard 24 hours, or can it be sooner?  Whom would the police speak to?  What kinds of things would they ask?  Would they go to the boy's home?  Check out his school locker?  Interview his girlfriend?  Do the police need the parents' permission to question minors?  Would the police come to the missing boy's school to conduct their interviews?  Is there anything the police CAN'T do in the course of their investigation?

As you can probably tell, I'm looking for any and all information you can give me about the process.  No detail's too small.  

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Eric Haywood

Answer
Hello Eric,

   I guess you got that "24 hour" thing from television or the movies but no such thing exists as far as waiting time for the police to investiate a missing person.  Now if this was simply a seventenn year old boy who didnt come home for school I am not saying that the police would drop everything and conduct a full scale search.  Proably a uniformed officer would respond to the call, reasure the parents, obtain the names of friends, call the friends to see if they know where he is, then write his report which would then go to whoever investigates missing persons for that police department.  He would also enter the teenagers name into NCIC.

   Would they check his locker or home?  If the officer had reason to believe that clues to his disappearance were contained there then maybe.  If this is not a potential suicide or no hint of foul play then I doubt it.  The parents would probably resist the police searching a bedroom.  

  Would they inveterview school officials?  if this thing streteched out for several days then probably.  As you know over 99% of teenagers leave on their own and come home in a day or so the detective might talk to the counseler or some teachers if this went into its second or third day.

  Its hard to say what they "can't" do because you havent told me what they might do.  I guess they can do anything that they want short of breaking into peoples houses, conducting illegal searches, etc.