When the Thief Has Vanished

Find an Employee Who Embezzled or Stole

When you discover that an employee stole from you – skimmed cash, diverted payments, or quietly embezzled over months – the first sickening realization is often that they are already gone. They resigned without notice, stopped showing up, or were let go and dropped off the map, and the records you have on file are a stale address and a phone that no longer answers. Before anything can be recovered, that person has to be found, and finding people is exactly what we do. We are a public-records research firm working under a permissible purpose – not law enforcement, not a law firm, and not a forensic accountant. We locate the former employee and research where the stolen value appears to have gone, then document it for you and your counsel. We never interrogate anyone, decide who is guilty, contact the subject, or access private financial account contents. Guilt and prosecution belong to the authorities; civil recovery to your counsel. We find the person and surface the recorded trail. This is general information, not legal advice.

Locate the Former Employee Find First, Then the Assets Since 2004
Already GoneThe Usual Starting Point
Find Them FirstRecovery Depends on It
Facts OnlyNo Guilt Calls, No Contact
Since 2004Locating People

The Short Version

When an employee steals and disappears, recovery is stuck until that person is found – and the file is usually a stale address and a dead phone. Finding people is what we do. We locate the former employee and research where the stolen value appears to have gone, documented for you and your counsel. We are a public-records research firm under a permissible purpose – not law enforcement, a law firm, or a forensic accountant. We never interrogate, decide guilt, contact the subject, or access private account contents. Guilt and prosecution belong to the authorities; civil recovery to counsel; the financial reconstruction to a forensic accountant. We find the person and surface the recorded trail. This is general information, not legal advice.

Watch: Finding the One Who Took It

Why recovery starts with the locate.

▶ Video Overview

Find the Person, Then the Trail

Why the locate is the first and hardest step.

Internal theft cases share a frustrating pattern: by the time the loss is discovered and reconciled, the person responsible has often moved on – sometimes deliberately, sometimes just in the ordinary churn of leaving a job. They may have relocated to another state, changed a phone number, started using a different name after a marriage, or simply gone quiet. Until they are located, none of the recovery options matter, because a civil suit needs a defendant who can be served and a judgment needs a debtor who can be found. So the first and usually hardest step is the locate, and that is squarely our work – the same disciplined effort behind judgment debtor location, applied to someone who has good reason to stay out of sight.

We confirm the right individual, rebuild their address history forward to a current, corroborated location, and follow the trail across state lines if they have moved. Once the person is found, the second question is where the value went – whether the proceeds appear to have turned into property, a vehicle, or a transfer to someone close to them. Researching that recorded trail is part of any serious effort to investigate fraud, and a recurring pattern is value being moved to look out of reach, where the records behind a fraudulent conveyance or asset transfer matter – though whether a transfer is legally voidable is your counsel’s determination, not ours. We deliver a located person and a documented asset trail. We do not contact the subject, accuse them, or decide whether a crime occurred.

What We Supply, What Others Own

The locate from us, the case from your team.

StepOur role (facts)Your side (legal, criminal, financial)
Find the personRebuild a current, corroborated location. RecordsDecide how to proceed.
Trace the valueResearch recorded assets and transfers.Forensic accountant reconstructs flows.
Guilt and prosecutionNot our call.Law enforcement and prosecutors.
Civil recoveryProvide the factual foundation.Counsel files and pursues it.
Confronting the subjectNever – we do not contact.Handled through proper channels.

The division is clean: we are the factual layer that finds the former employee and surfaces the recorded asset and transfer trail, and your counsel, a forensic accountant, and law enforcement are the layers that reconstruct the finances, decide guilt, prosecute, and pursue recovery. We do not interrogate, accuse, conclude, or access private account contents – we research and document.

When You Need to Find Them

The situations that bring employers to us.

Resigned Without Notice

Gone the moment it surfaced.

A Stale Personnel File

Old address, dead phone.

Moved Out of State

Left the area entirely.

A Name Change

Harder to track on paper.

Proceeds Into Property

A home or vehicle to trace.

Assets Moved to a Relative

Retitled to look judgment-proof.

How We Work the Locate

Confirm, locate, research the trail, document.

1

Confirm the Person

The right individual, not a namesake.

2

Locate Them

A current, corroborated whereabouts.

3

Research the Trail

Recorded assets, ownership, transfers.

4

Document for Counsel

Sourced, with a confidence note.

Our Role: Find and Verify

The factual layer, lawfully done.

The decisions that follow a theft – whether to involve police, whether to prosecute, how to reconstruct the loss, whether a transfer can be unwound, and how to pursue civil recovery – belong to law enforcement, a forensic accountant, and your counsel. We supply the factual layer beneath them: confirming the right former employee, developing and corroborating a current location even across a move or a name change, and researching the recorded property, vehicles, and ownership the proceeds may have touched, through public records and lawfully licensed data under a permissible purpose. We are a skip-tracing and public-records research firm, not law enforcement, a law firm, or a forensic accountant. We never interrogate, confront, accuse, determine guilt, pretext, impersonate, or access private financial account contents.

One practical note worth stating: if your response involves screening current staff or any employment decision, that is governed by consumer-reporting rules and must run through a compliant screening process, not an investigative locate like this – and we will tell you plainly when a need crosses into that territory. Our work here is to find a specific person and surface a recorded asset trail for a recovery, nothing more. We document each finding with its source and an honest confidence note, tell you how current it is, and flag when a trail has gone cold. The facts are ours to develop accurately; the criminal, financial, and legal calls stay with the professionals who own them.

Who We Help

For employers responding to internal theft.

Business Owners

Hit by an inside theft

Corporate Counsel

Building a recovery claim

Forensic Accountants

Tracing the financial loss

Insurers

Fidelity and crime claims

Franchises

Multi-location loss

HR and Risk Teams

Coordinating the response

Whoever leads the response, the first need is the same: find the person who took it. We do that locate lawfully, then research where the value went, and document it for your counsel and forensic accountant. We never interrogate, accuse, or contact the subject. Tell us about the matter and what you know, along with your permissible purpose; a first read typically comes back within 24 hours.

Our Commitment

We give a theft response its first essential step – the former employee found, even across a move or a name change, and the recorded trail of assets and transfers surfaced, each finding documented with its source and an honest confidence note – so your counsel, forensic accountant, and law enforcement can act on something solid. We find and verify; we never interrogate, accuse, decide guilt, contact the subject, or touch private account contents, and we never make employment determinations. Lawful research since 2004 – never pretext, never private financial contents, never a substitute for legal advice.

People Locator Skip Tracing Investigation Team – professional investigators conducting skip tracing and people-locating since 2004, working public records and investigative-grade sources lawfully and for legitimate purposes only. Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

The employee stole and disappeared. Can you find them?

Usually, yes – that is the core of what we do. People who leave under a cloud still generate records: a new address, a vehicle, a job, a property. We confirm the right individual and rebuild a current, corroborated location from those records, following the trail across state lines and through a name change if needed. We deliver the documented whereabouts; any contact or legal action is for your counsel and the authorities.

Can you also trace where the money went?

We research the recorded picture – property, vehicles, business interests, and ownership the proceeds may have been turned into, including transfers to relatives or entities meant to look judgment-proof. We do not access private bank account contents or balances; we surface what the records show. A forensic accountant reconstructs the actual financial flows; we map the recorded assets that intersect them.

Will you confront or interrogate the person?

No. We do not contact, confront, or interrogate the subject, and we do not pretext or impersonate. Internal interviews are for your HR, counsel, or a licensed investigator engaged for that purpose; criminal questioning is for law enforcement. Our work is records-based locating and asset research, kept clean and at arm’s length so it holds up.

Do you decide whether they’re guilty?

No. We never determine guilt, accuse anyone, or draw legal conclusions. Whether a crime occurred and whether to prosecute are for law enforcement and prosecutors; whether a civil claim succeeds is for your counsel and the courts. We stay strictly on the facts – who the person is, where they are, and what the records show about assets and transfers.

How is this different from your employee-theft guide?

This page focuses on the locate – finding a former employee who has gone to ground – because that is the step that most often stalls a recovery. The broader guide walks through the whole response, from finding the person to tracing the value and the boundaries around it. Both reflect the same method and the same limits: we find and document, and counsel and law enforcement act.

We also want to screen current staff. Can you do that here?

That is a separate process. Screening employees is an employment decision governed by consumer-reporting rules and must run through a compliant screening process using a regulated consumer report, not an investigative locate like this. We will tell you plainly when a need crosses into that territory so you use the right, compliant tool. This service is about finding a specific person and the asset trail, not screening.

Can the assets you find be recovered?

Whether and how a specific asset or transfer can be reached – including whether a transfer is a fraudulent conveyance that can be unwound – is your counsel’s determination, applied through the courts. Our job is to surface the recorded picture accurately so your counsel can make those calls with real targets in hand. We find and document; the legal recovery is theirs.

How fast can you help?

For a workable request, a first read typically comes back within 24 hours. You receive identity confirmation, a corroborated current location where one is locatable, and a documented read on recorded assets and transfers, each finding sourced and completeness noted honestly, so your counsel, forensic accountant, and the authorities can act. The research is ours; every legal and criminal decision remains theirs.

Find the One Who Took It

Recovery from an inside theft is stuck until the person is found – and that is exactly what we do. Tell us about the matter and what you know, along with your permissible purpose, and we’ll confirm the former employee, develop a current location, and research the recorded asset trail – documented for your counsel and forensic accountant – typically with a first read within 24 hours. We find; the legal and criminal steps stay with the professionals. Contact us to get started.

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