Retracing Their Steps

Build the timeline

Start a shared document or a notebook with three columns: time, what happened, how we know. Work backward from the last confirmed sighting.

• Last confirmed contact — the last time someone actually saw or spoke to them (not just a text that could have been anyone).
• Last digital activity — texts sent, calls, "last seen" on messaging apps, posts, likes, Venmo/Cash App, rideshare, music or game activity, smartwatch sync.
• Routine — what do they normally do on that day of the week? Which route, which store, which coffee shop? Where would they go if upset?
• What's missing from home — phone, keys, wallet, charger, car, medications, a bag, the dog. Each tells you something about intent.
• What's unusual — new friends, a new relationship, money stress, a fight, a change in mood, a sold or pawned item, a search history.

Phones, accounts, and devices

• If you share a phone plan, the carrier account shows call and text logs (not content) and sometimes approximate location. Family-location sharing apps (Find My, Google Maps, Life360) may show a last location — screenshot it with the timestamp.
• Give police the phone number, carrier, and IMEI (on the box or the account). Ask them to request a location ping and records.
• Shared streaming, gaming, or smart-home accounts can show activity (a login, a door unlock, a show playing). Note it; don't change anything.
• Check for a car with a telematics app (OnStar, FordPass, Tesla, etc.) — some can locate the vehicle. Toll tags and parking apps leave records too.

Security camera footage — move fast

Most businesses and doorbell cameras overwrite footage in 3 to 30 days. This is the most time-sensitive thing you can do.

1. Map the last known location and every route out of it. List every business, apartment complex, school, church, transit stop, and traffic intersection along the way.
2. Visit in person with a flyer and the police case number. Ask the manager: "Can you please preserve your footage from [date and time range]? The police will request it, case #____." Preserving is easy for them; releasing it to you often isn't. Preserved is what matters.
3. Post in neighborhood groups asking people to check doorbell and dashcam footage from that date and time, and to send anything to police.
4. Give police the list of places that agreed to preserve footage. They will not have time to canvass every block; you just did it for them.
5. City traffic cameras, transit cameras, and license-plate readers are police-only requests — ask the detective to make them.

Talking to the people who saw them last

• Ask open questions first: "Walk me through the last time you saw them." Then details: mood, clothes, who they were with, what they said about plans, which direction they went.
• Write down exact words. "Said he was going to see a friend" and "said he was going to see a friend, wouldn't say who" are very different.
• Get phone numbers for everyone mentioned and pass them to police. Don't confront anyone you suspect — tell the detective.

Organizing volunteers

• Tell police before you search so you don't disturb a scene or duplicate their work. Ask where it would help most.
• Split the map into zones. Each team gets a zone, a phone, water, and a photo of the person. Teams check in at set times.
• Search the places people don't: behind buildings, drainage ditches, culverts, brush along trails and water, parked cars, stairwells, parking garages, under bridges.
• Anyone who finds something should not touch it — photograph it, note the location, call police.
• Volunteer search-and-rescue teams exist in most states and often work for free; ask the sheriff or your state clearinghouse.