TL/DR: My father-in-law is missing, asking for help/advice in coordinating search from abroad
This is not the thing I hoped I would post here after years of lurking, but situation is rather extreme and I try to get all the help I could get.
My father-in-law, Igor, has gone missing in LA after the stroke; because of his medical condition he is confused and unable to use his phone. He doesn’t have any friends or relatives in the US, his English is not very good (he is Ukrainian and only moved to LA last year), and he doesn’t have a place to go to – his landlord has evicted him from the apartment he rented when Igor was admitted to the hospital.
My wife and I live in Georgia (the country, not the state), and we try to organize a search for him from abroad; we can’t come to the US.
So the question is – what would be the recommended course of action to coordinate the search for a missing person from abroad? We have filed a missing person report to the police, we post to Facebook groups and made a simple website with basic information – what could be our other options?
We have found him! All it took in the end was to call all the hospitals and ERs in the LA until we found the one he was admitted to. Hoorah, and thank you!
Glad to hear it!
A local private investigator might be your best option if mingyuan’s suggestion doesn’t work out.
Thank you!
Is there somebody you could recommend? I’m not sure how much should I trust the reputation of a PI based on web search results only; any confirmation from a real person (especially from this community) would be of great help;
Do you have any idea how much could the services of a PI cost? I’m afraid that we do not have a lot of money, especially by California standards; we had to flee Russia at the start of the war, and Igor’s disappearance coincided with us trying to settle in a new place and figuring out new sources of income.
At what point should we contact the PI? I understand that playing to win might mean that we utilize all the resources at once since time is an issue; on the other hand I don’t understand the effectiveness of the police + community, so maybe in the early stages of the search when raw data is gathered / awareness is raised PI won’t have much to work with.