There is no trust more important than the trust that cements a personal relationship. When one party to a relationship suspects that the other has broken that trust, the uncertainty can be devastating. Suspicion is insidious. Suspicion alone can destroy a relationship. Even a long-standing and previously solid marriage is endangered.

A private investigator often is called upon to uncover the facts and circumstances that can convert mere suspicion into hard evidence, but the job of a good private investigator is to uncover the facts and circumstances, wherever they may lead. The suspicion may be unfounded, perhaps the result only of the kind of poor communication, even disassociation, that seems to effect some long-term couples. It might even be the result of mischief perpetrated by a third party with a grudge to enforce.

More often than not, of course, the suspicion is valid. And the need for action is immediate and imperative. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we stand ready to respond to request for help with minimal advance notice.

What We Can Do To Help Part-1

Much of the best information we can obtain in a domestic relations investigation is developed from direct observation, including video and/or photographic evidence that often can meet state evidentiary standards.

No ethical investigator violates property rights and reasonable expectations of privacy to peek into windows and skulk through essentially private premises with a camera boldly in hand, but almost all public places are fair territory for observation and the making of a visual record.

And most people in illicit relationships seem to think their invisible, so opportunities for this option generally are available.

The Surveillance Option

• During Work Hours: A hotel may have a restaurant, but that may not be the primary attraction.
• After Work Hours: Happy Hour with the boys or the girls really may be a much smaller and more private event.
• Trips Out Of State: Supposed business trips that aren't all business or aren't for business at all.
• Trips To Nearby Cities: Private meetings with friends who aren't that distant.
• While You're Away From Home: When the Cat's Away….

What We Can Do To Help Part-2

People generally are not experts in the practice of deception. Paper records inevitably tend to exist.

Telephone bills can reveal long distance numbers that are called frequently but don't correspond to normal personal or business use. Personal credit card billings can reveal unusual patterns of expenditures that may be traceable. Bank statements also can identify questionable withdrawals; for example, withdrawals from ATM machines are recorded by location. The identification of such locations may prove useful.

Even where a businessman or woman uses corporate credit cards or accounts to mask unusual and suspicious expenditures, it may be possible to detect the inevitable paper trail.

In this time, when computers and Email are common and commonly used without much thought toward security, a hard drive, even floppy disks, can reveal a wealth of information. Often times, even erased files may be recoverable without extensive technical expertise and without revealing the intrusion to the user of the computer.

The Paper Trail

• Telephone Bills: Unfamiliar numbers, suspicious patterns of calls.
• Credit Card Bills: Curious, unusual locations.
• Bank Statements: Unexplained withdrawals, checks to unknown persons or for unexplained purposes; for example, jewelry you never received.
• Email Records: Even deleted Email may remain elsewhere on a computer.
• Other Computer Files: Encrypted files, hidden directories.

Often of critical importance is the option of surveillance, including photographs and/or video recordings of conduct that sustains the suspicion.

People tend to feel particularly free and open on trips away from home. The other party to an affair may openly meet a person under suspicion at an airport, hotel, or other public location. The person who lives in the destination city may drive a car that will reveal his or her identify. Both may have arrangements in place to reside together at a hotel or residence. If it's a residence, a property record can identify the owner.

At the same time, a good private investigator must be able to recognize the difference between normal business conduct and illicit conduct. A woman who meets a husband under suspicion at the airport may only be the business associate he was sent to meet. They normally could be expected to share a business dinner during the visit. At issue will be how they relate to each other while in public and whether or not they avoided opportunities to express some deeper personal relationship. Also at issue is whether or not the person who lives in this city feels constrained.

In the home city, a spouse under suspicion can be observed during the hours corresponding to lunch breaks and immediately after working hours. Both are times when meetings with a third party are likely. Day trips to nearby cities, ostensibly for work or business reasons, can be monitored. Again, these may be routine and required by the type of work involved, or that very routine can provide cover for illicit activity.

Discretion is Paramount

Not all suspicions turn out to be sustained as verified or even verifiable facts. It's imperative for an investigator to conduct research and/or surveillance in a manner that protects the interests of both the client and the subject of the investigation. Even where the result of an investigation proves illicit conduct, discretion and observance of law are critical.

Observance of law is an important element in any domestic relations investigation; for example, an investigator may accept and research bank statements provided by a client who, as a member of a household, has a legal right to such records, but an investigator may not impersonate someone in order to obtain those records.

Any deviation from accepted professional practice and ethical standards can taint even good evidence. Certainly, professional or ethical violations can lead to the exposure of the fact of the investigation to the subject of the investigation and expose the investigator's employer to unwarranted consequences.