Expert: Jack Toomey - 11/12/2007

Question
Mr. Toomey:

    First of all, thanks so much for your time . . . .

    I am a novelist who is looking for information regarding the protocol when small-town law enforcement (i.e., a Sheriff's Department) is faced with the case of a missing 14-year-old girl.  Specifically, I would like to know if the Department would handle such a problem all on their own, or if the SBI or even the FBI would step in (considering there is a murder involved also; the character's stepfather was killed the night she went missing, and the Sheriff believes that the 14-year-old -- who has had a history of getting in trouble, often running away from home in the past -- was not abducted, but might have committed the murder and then fled the scene due to a history of abuse).

    I guess that's about it.  Thanks so much for any and all information you can give me regarding the steps, protocol, etc. involved in searching for a missing minor.  Again, I really appreciate it, sir!


    James Newman
    http://www.james-newman.com

Answer
Hello James,

   Glad to make your aquaintance.  I frequently help authors with their plots and scenarios so this is certainly not a problem.  

  Let me start in the middle of your question.  Contrary to popular belief the FBI does not get involved in a case unless federal law has been broken.  Even if it is a murder case because there is no federal law about murder unless an elected official or a candidate is killed.  The FBI might lend its expertise, which would be mostly their laboratory, in a murder case but would not send agents to the scene or do the legwork.  In fact FBI agents are not very experienced in dealing with the general public since they do so much espionoge and while collar crime.  Real police officers and detectives deal with real people every day and it is not uncommon for an officer to interact with a hundred people a day where an FBI agent might talk to one.

  Now the FBI can and would get involved if a person, wanted for murder, if they were believed to have crossed state lines since it is federal offense to cross a state line to avoid apprehension.  If there is more than a suspicion that the fourteen year old was kidnapped for ranson then that would also be a federal offense and they would take over the investigation in most cases but that is so rarely commited that its not even listed on statistics page for police department.

   If a fourteen year old, with a history of running away, was missing I would doubt that the case would initially be handled by anyone but the officer and/or the section of the detective bureau that handles missing teenagers.  In my department it would land at the Family Crimes Division but that is a term unique to my department only.  It used to be called Juvenile Aid.  If your department (the one that you are writing about) is truly small (50 to 100 officers) then I wouldn't be surprised if the officer who took the report would be in charge of the investigation.  Now if the step-father was killed and she was missing then that would put a completely different spin on the whole thing.  The obvious suspect would be the fourteen year old girl so if this was really a small department then they might call in the SBI if there is one.  My state does not have a state bureau of investigtion since every county is big enough and has enough resources to handle such a case themselves.  So yes, if this was a small department and it was a murder case with a missing suspect who might have crossed state lines, then conceivably there could be three agencies working together on the case.

   If the girl was missing before the murder was discovered an officer with initiative would probably contact the friends of the girl, ask to see her computer, ask her friends if they knew her password to see her emails, ask her parents the same question, see if she shows up for school the next day, and generally check her favorite haunts.  If the she was missing after the murder was discovered then all of that would change and the computer would probably be seized and turned over to some computer crimes section (department or SBI) for them to get inside and read her email, etc.  Also Facebook and MYSpace would be checked for motive, comments, abuse, etc.  Of course her friends would also be interviewed as well as her teachers, counselers, and any other person who she might have gone to for help.

  I know that this is disjointed but I wanted to give you all of the scenarios and ways that this kind of case could be handled.

  Any other questions or if this is not clear please ask a followup.