As a Romanian private investigator with 25 yrs of experience, I have been involved in several such cases of child abduction over the years. Sad and fist-clenching affairs they were; such events bring the best and the worst in a person.

You are called to step into a nightmarish realm: heartbroken family, feeling guilty for what had happened, although they are not. Well, not always. Sometimes, abduction has been encouraged or at least helped or made easier by small daily life details, such as leaving your child roam around your bench in a public park, or being caught in a conversation with a friend, or talking on the phone. Perhaps you never checked that nanny for her background, or her references, and you trusted her a tad too much.

Small things, but they can be the helping hand to a kidnapper. Mind you, most of the times, kidnapping doesn’t happen. But if and when they do, you would have wanted to take the simplest of measures for it not to happen at all.

Abductions, and specifically child abductions, are very tedious  affairs to investigate, be this investigation handled by either public or private investigators. It’s always marred by lack of strong leads, or should I say, too many weak ones; basically anyone could be the kidnapper. And when you have what you professionally believe to be a lucrative lead, you are herded into a different direction by the ones who feel most hurt by this kidnapping: the family.

For you see, they are in a terrible pain and their pain can speak volumes. And because of this pain, you have to be and you are seen as the main helping hand here, which you obviously are and should be. Which means you cannot dismiss beforehand  with their suspicions on who might have done this (and many times properly interviewing the family can get you a winning lead). But most of all, your presence there is seen as a promise of hope.

But…when exactly a line has to be drawn, separating compassion and human empathy for the parents, from your position which is supposed to be objective to the whole affair? Or shall I say, at which point in time( a very early time) one cease to be counseling the family, and becomes the investigator who has to deal with this abduction in a timely and professional manner?

I do not believe such dividing lines can exist in my profession; not when it comes to child abductions or similar heinous crimes. The family hired you to find their beloved child; they hired you both as a human being and a professional. No room for doubt here. At least I never sensed otherwise.

Yes, you have to be sympathetic, yes you have to empathize with the family, and YES, you have to deal with this as both human being and a professional. If you are one, you will not have any difficulties in discerning the subjective from objective situations. Because you are a professional, this is what you do. And you do it, to the best of your abilities.

We, at Eurosurveillance CI Romania, a Romanian private investigator firm, handle such investigations and in fact all our assignments with the utmost of care, honesty and confidentiality for all our clients, be they individuals or companies. And we take crime dead serious; there aren’t two ways for dealing with it.