A majority of Americans have enjoyed the life-long comforts of total border security and homeland security that protect them from the threats of the outside world. Of course, most people remember where they were on 9/11 when the nation experienced a foreign terrorist attack on American soil for the first time in 60 years. However, the devastation that war conflict can bring to a nation has hundreds of unseen ripple effects. One of those is the searches for individuals who have gone missing in war conflict or during occupation by a foreign entity. When a loved one goes missing in a war zone, their family should always consider the expertise of an international missing person investigator to ensure that no important leads are missed in the search.
It may be difficult for Americans to wrap their heads around the numbers of missing person cases that can be yielded as the result of military conflict. When a loved one goes missing in a war zone, the odds of their family getting answers through typical channels are very low. The International Commission of Missing Persons (ICMP) reports that over 20,000 people remain missing in Sri Lanka following the conclusion of their civil war. Likewise, in Columbia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) calculates the number of missing persons at 80,000 in Columbia following decades of civil war. Regardless of the conflict or the location, you can expect to find cases of tens of thousands of missing persons that have been entered into international databases.
Americans do face confusion in missing person cases following some form of natural disaster, such as the collapse of the apartment building in Florida that left dozens unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of the incident. It took weeks for rescue crews to sift through the wreckage and identify remains of those missing following the collapse, and provide families with answers in the matter of their loved one’s fate. However, this tragic event was just that—a singular event. Imagine the impact of multiple buildings collapsing, all within days of each other, and how the problem can further be exacerbated for families who cannot account for their loved one’s recent whereabouts. These situations are only further compounded when a loved one goes missing in a war zone. In areas where residents are experiencing a high volume of military/war action, it can be impossible to find clues to their disappearance. A perfect example of a pervasive pattern of war conflict is the state of Palestine, where the region has experienced hundreds of incidents of violence perpetrated in the name of sovereignty over the state. Regardless of what side of the conflict you stand on, you’ll find families on both sides who have lost loved ones in the chaos of the occupation, and still need closure in those disappearances.
Families often seek the expertise of at least one independent missing person investigator when their loved one goes missing in war. These investigators are typically private investigators who have international license to practice. These private investigators have specialties in international investigations and have diverse methodology in approaching these cases. Private investigators are most famous for their skip-tracing services, which is an industry term for locating a person based on their footprint in the public record. The same methodology these private investigators apply to skip tracing can also be applied to the location of people missing in war zones. Private investigators also possess the boots-on-the-ground mentality and the autonomy from any state or national organization that might hinder them from following leads in a case. When a lead goes outside the country where the person is reported missing, there are no bureaucratic issues preventing a private investigator from following that lead.
If you have a loved one who has gone missing in a war zone, please reach out to Lauth Investigations International for a free consultation on how our investigators can help your family get closure. We have a glowing A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and regularly receive 5-star reviews from grateful families. Call at 317-951-1100 or visit us online at www.lauthmissinstg.wpengine.com
There is always an outpouring of sympathy when it is shared publicly that someone has gone missing overseas. However, few international missing person cases have drawn as much attention—both compassionate and controversial—as that of 21-year-old Elisa Lam. In January of 2013, the Canadian college student had been making a solo trip around the West Coast of the United States, taking a break from her studies at the University of British Columbia. Having promised to check in with her family every day, concern grew when Lam failed to make contact on January 31st.
Disappearance at the Cecil Hotel
On the day that Elisa Lam disappeared, she had been scheduled to check out of her room at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. The Lam family contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, reporting Elisa missing. While the search at the Cecil that followed revealed no sign of the missing student, CCTV footage of Lam in one of the hotels elevators quickly triggered an escalation in the investigation.
The video, which was released by the police to the public, showed Lam behaving erratically, pressing all of the elevator’s buttons, and anxiously peering into the hotel’s corridor as if in fear of a nearby threat. After Lam exited the elevator for the final time, no trace of her was seen again. This video serves as a poignant reminder of the impact that such international missing person cases can have on society at large, having amassed tens of millions of views since Lam’s disappearance.
Confusion and Conspiracy
That Elisa Lam had vanished from the Cecil Hotel only added fuel to the fire of speculation surrounding her story. Since its opening in 1927, the Cecil had been host to sixteen non-natural deaths and a number of supposed paranormal occurrences. Two of America’s most notorious serial killers had called the hotel home; Richard Ramirez in the 1980s and Jack Unterweger in the 1990s. Perhaps most notorious of all, the Cecil Hotel was the scene of certain events leading up to the murder of actress Elizabeth Short in 1947, immortalized in the story of the “Black Dahlia”.
Testimony from hotel manager Amy Price revealed that while Lam had originally been booked to stay in a shared room within the hotel, complaints of “odd behavior” from her roommates had given cause for her to be moved to a single room. This led to the idea that Lam, who was Bipolar, may not have been effectively managing her medication. However, within the same time period, nearby bookstore owner Katie Orphan shared that Lam had been buying books and music to give as gifts to her family upon returning home, further muddying any clear sense of Lam’s frame of mind during the days leading up to her disappearance.
More Unanswered Questions
On the 19th February, nineteen days after Elisa Lam had gone missing overseas, an unwelcome break in the case finally arrived. Hotel maintenance worker Santiago Lopez received complaints of low water pressure from guests at the Cecil, and decided to make his way to the hotel’s roof to investigate. After taking the elevator to the 15th floor of the building, Lopez deactivated the rooftop alarm system and climbed up to inspect the water tanks. Upon reaching the top of a tank-side ladder, Lopez noticed that the hatch of the main water tank was open.
Within the tank, Lopez found the floating body and clothes of Elisa Lam. The Los Angeles Fire Department were called to cut open the water tank and retrieve Lam’s body, dashing all hopes that the young woman might be found alive. A full investigation was deemed impossible during the autopsy that followed because of water decomposition, however no indication of foul play was discovered. What remained baffling to all involved was that had Lam attempted to reach the water tanks by herself, the alarm would have been heard across the top two floors of the building as well as at the front desk.
A Mystery Unresolved
Several months after the discovery of Elisa Lam’s body, her parents David and Yinna Lam filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Cecil Hotel. However, because of the security system in place and the fact that Lam had been found in an area off limits to guests, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Howard Halm ruled that the tragic death was unforeseeable, and dismissed the suit. Although the final conclusion of the case of Elisa Lamb was “accidental drowning”, her story continues to perplex global investigators and amateur sleuths alike, as the world continues to grieve her loss. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide work tirelessly to raise awareness of people missing abroad, while providing support and guidance to those with a loved one missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers the highest caliber of assistance to those in need. If you require aid in locating a missing person, contact our team today.
This July, Police confirmed that an additional £350,000 has been allocated to continue the search for internationally missing person Madeleine McCann. Only two months earlier, parents Kate and Gerrie released a statement on the Find Madeleine website, marking the 18th birthday of their daughter. Thanking all who continue to send the family positive messages, the statement read: “We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again. As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.”
Madeline, Missing Since 2007
More than fourteen years have passed since Madeleine “Maddie” McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz—a resort on the southern coast of Portugal. Madeleine and her siblings were sleeping while her parents dined with friends at a restaurant a couple of blocks away. The adults took turns going to check on the children, and when mother Kate McCann’s turn arrived, she found that her three-year-old daughter had vanished.
A sizeable and costly international missing person search has ensued in the years since Madeleine’s disappearance involving efforts from a number of European authorities spread across several countries. Speculation swirled around the case as police searched for a man seen carrying a child near the apartment—only to discover it was a false lead—and Portuguese police admitted that vital forensic clues may have been lost due to procedural failings at the scene of the disappearance. The missing girl’s parents were briefly named as suspects in the case, although their “arguido” status was lifted in 2008.
The Continuation of Operation Grange
In 2011, the UK Government launched Operation Grange in an effort to try to bring closure to the case. Two years later, British detectives announced that they had identified 41 potential suspects in the international missing person case, triggering the Portuguese police to reopen their investigation. The following year, in 2014, detectives travelled from England to Portugal to continue the search amid rumours of planned arrests, however no new developments were revealed.
Another “significant line of inquiry” was reported to have emerged in 2017, however no results were yielded. Authorities shared that Operation Grange had so far cost British taxpayers £12.5million. Three years later, in June of 2020—following yet another extension of funding—police identified convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann. The 43-year-old German native is currently serving a sentence in his home country for drug related charges.
Those Hunting for Madeleine Hold Onto Hope
In what many consider to be the most widely known international missing person search of all time, rumours continue to cause confusion. Last year, Kate and Gerrie McCann issued a statement to address reports that the German authorities had informed them of proof that Madeleine was deceased. News of a letter containing such information turned out to be false, and the parents shared with their online following that the circulation of such misinformation had “caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives.”
While the emergence of a new suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann is yet to provide clear answers to all who are closely following the case, an air of hope remains, and the international outpouring of public support for the McCann family continues to remind of humanity’s capacity for compassion—even in the face of such a terrible loss. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, as well as providing guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers assistance to those urgently looking for much needed answers. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today.
While the role of an international private investigator usually revolves around people missing overseas, at times a mystery arises in another form all together. Such was the case when, in 2016, sisters Annie and Robin Korkki were found dead on the same hotel bed in the Seychelles. Both from Minnesota, U.S., the pair had been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime. When their sudden deaths both shocked and fascinated the world, it became the task of those at the helm of the case to deconstruct the perplexing circumstances that surrounded the sisters’ death, and provide much needed answers to both their family and the public.
An Unexplained Loss Of Life
On the 15th September of 2016, Annie and Robin Korkki had arrived at the Maia Luxury Resort and Spa in the Seychelles, having already journeyed through Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. Rounding off their Africa trip with a stay at this exclusive holiday destination—where rooms are reported to have cost $2,000 a night at the time of their visit—the two women were seen making the most of the decadent setting, relaxing in the hotel’s bars.
On the night of September 21st, Anne “Annie” Korkki and Robin Korkki—37 and 42 years of age respectively—were helped by a butler to return to their room at the end of the evening. Locking the door behind them, what happened to the sisters next remains partially unclear. The following morning, as the hours passed, resort staff noticed that the door remained locked, tried to wake the women, and then reported their concern to local police. Upon investigating, the authorities discovered both of the Korkki sisters lying motionless on the bed and quickly identified them as deceased.
A Series of Strange Circumstances
News of the tragic deaths of Annie and Robin Korkki soon reached the international media, and reports emerged that medications were taken from the room as part of the investigation, but that the room was undisturbed with no signs of struggle, and that no illegal substances had been discovered. Initial postmortem results revealed that Annie Korkki’s lungs were full of fluid—described as acute pulmonary and cerebral edema—while only Robin’s lungs had been effected. While these indicators gave some clue to the circumstances of the two women’s deaths, what had triggered these symptoms remained a mystery.
Speaking with the Chicago Tribune, a forensic pathologist shared that any number of things could have caused the edema, including drugs or poisons. And yet, both of the sisters were in good health, seasoned travelers, and upstanding citizens—with the elder working as a financial trader in Chicago and the younger at a JPMorgan Chase in Denver. As media interest continued to swirl around the concerning case, the Korkki family arrived on the islands and coordinated with the local authorities and U.S. embassy to arrange bringing the bodies of their loved ones home, all the while hoping to find answers.
Some Clarity But a Sadly Sombre Conclusion
Months after the passing of Annie and Robin Korkki, a conclusive toxicology report was finally released in December of 2016. The police concluded their investigation, announcing that both Korkki sisters had died following a lethal combination of codeine, morphine, and alcohol. Their statement shared that the deaths of the sisters were determined to be accidental. While this final revelation in the Korkki case brought at least partial of closure to the sisters’ story, a degree of mystery will always remain as to how such a tragic loss of life could have come to pass. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, and guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers the highest caliber of assistance to those who need it most. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today to learn more.
Almost five months after Sarm Heslop vanished without a trace, her parents, Brenda and Peter, have made an emotional appeal to the authorities investigating the case. Heslop disappeared from a luxury catamaran in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the early hours of Monday 8th March 2021, and has not been seen since.
While one might expect no stone to remain unturned within any such international missing person search, reports suggest that to date the boat not been fully forensically examined, nor has Heslop’s boyfriend—the owner of the vessel in question—submitted to police questioning. Expressing their desperation in July, Heslop’s parents shared, “There are no words for our suffering. We want a forensic search of the boat. We want, need and demand answers.”
Turning to the Internet for Answers
With no light shed so far on what happened to Sarm Heslop, her family and friends have turned to technology in order to seek answers of their own. Posting regular updates via the hashtag #findsarm and on the website FindSarm.com, and in launching a viral TikTok campaign, loved ones of the missing woman have been able to increase awareness of her disappearance and raise funds to support their search on GoFundMe. Heslop herself was a keen social media user, sharing shots of her seemingly idyllic coastal lifestyle.
41 year-old Sarm Heslop is a former flight attendant turned chef from Southampton, England. Pursuing her passion for all things food-related, Heslop moved to the Virgin Islands in a hope of harnessing her talents professionally. Her appearance is described as Caucasian with an athletic build, and she stands at approximately 5ft 8ins. At the time of her disappearance, Heslop had long dark brown hair, while a large tattoo colorfully depicting a seahorse, butterfly, and lily is located on her shoulder.
Ryan Bane Reportedly Continues To Avoid Cooperation
At the time of her disappearance, Sarm Heslop was working as a chef on the 47-foot luxury catamaran that belongs to her boyfriend, Ryan Bane. On the evening of March 8th, the pair went to dinner at a local eatery on the island of St John. Heslops movements that evening were reportedly not captured on CCTV because of a power failure. Having returned to the boat and gone to bed several hours earlier, Bane is believed to have called the police to report Heslop missing at around 2:30 in the morning on 8th March—claiming that she was no longer on the boat when he woke up.
According to The Times of London, officers instructed Bane to contact the Coast Guard so that a search could be initiated. However, Bane delayed making such a call until much later, at 11:46 a.m. As a search and rescue operation began, Bane is reported to have refused investigators access to the upper deck of his vessel. Having been issued a citation for “obstructing law enforcement agents,” Bane is said to have “invoked his right to silence.” Speaking to The Times, Yachtsman David Woody—whose boat was next to Bane’s that night—expressed concern that no alarm was raised, saying “I’d start yelling and wake up every boat in the area and [would have] gotten into the dinghy, bang on the boats, you know, ‘Help me, help me.’”
The International Missing Person Search Continues
After extensive searches of the water and coastline both in proximity to Bane’s boat and further afield, no indication of the fate of Sarm Heslop has been uncovered. While Bane has not been named a suspect or person of interest in the case, a history of domestic violence has been reported in the media, as has his hiring of the lawyer of disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, David Cattie. The case has now transitioned into an international missing person search, with Virgin Islands investigators staging a joint investigation with FBI agents and U.K. Authorities. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers the highest caliber of assistance to those who need it most. He and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, and guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today.
