Expert: Jack Toomey - 11/20/2006

Question
Hello Mr. Toomey

Thank you in advance for volunteering to answer questions. I know it can take a fair bit of time, and I am sure you can tell by the popularity of the service how much it is appreciated.

I am writing the first novel that I would consider passing on to an editor (and I have good comments from editors in the past on other work). In my experience as a reader and a writer, inaccurate details distract from the story. There are some gaps in my research regarding this missing person- who it turns out was a pedestrian in a fatal hit-and-run not carrying ID.

[this takes place in a small CITY in Maryland, though I wasn't planning on naming the city; of course, I may change my mind]

1) Would the investigating officer suspect foul play (as oppose to she just left without telling the guy) if her best friend making the report said:
-she had arranged to meet her friend for dinner only 2 days before she didn't show
-although her running shoes are missing, her purse was left in her apartment (which he brought her wallet, thinking the ID might help) with money in the wallet, and other money was left in her home
-he found her 12-week old kitten without food or water, who promptly gorged herself to sickness when fed, something a cat owner knows happens if a cat isn't fed for days
-he called her Mom in another city, who says she last spoke to her around the same time he had last spoke to her
-admits that he crashed at her place overnight, waiting for his friend to return, which she obviously never did. In that time, he lied to her supervisor about why she didn't show to work yesterday, in hopes that when she returned alive and well she'd still have a job

2)  Is there anything you can think of that would add-to/detract from suspision of foul play?

3)Given this information, in there anything the officer might ask?

4) Would the investigating officer suspect my guy of doing something to her? Is it a fair assumption that my guy reporting her as missing would be save from suspision considering he has witnesses to his being out of town?

5) What sort of investigating would they do? Would they do that before or after comparing her description to Jane Does?

6) Would the officer check out her apartment? If so, is it safe to assume he would need a warrant?

Sorry for so many questions. It seems the more I research, and the further I get in writing, the more questions I have!

Thank you,
Lauren

Answer
Lauren,

    Imagine that.  I actually live in a small town in Maryland.  Anyway I have helped numerous authors with their work but I don't know if any of their planned books ever made it into print.

  I am sorry to make you retype question number one but I am not clear on who is the best friend if "he" is a best friend or a boy friend.  I am also not clear about your preview statement that "turns out to be a fatal hit and run".  Is this the missing person who turns up dead after being a victim of a hit and run?

    I can clear up some of the other questions before you answer those;

   I can't tell you exactly what any individual officer would ask or do because it is like any other profession.  You have agressive and eager officers who are on the ball and willing to go the extra mile while on the other hand you might have an older, burnt out officer who simply writes a report and turns it in and lets the report go where all reports go and that is to the detective bureau for follow-up.  

   6.  There would be no reason that an officer would need a warrant to check the apartment of a missing person unless the missing person shares it with someone else who might be a suspect in the disappearance.  If the girl is the sole occupant of the apartment then no one else would have legal standing to contest any search of the apartment.

   So clear up the first part for me and I will be happy to help you.