We’ve created a step-by-step guide to develop your unique abilities, test your knowledge, and even discover new talents. We need more Citizen Detectives to polish their skills to join us at Uncovered!
Whether you’re researching a cold case from several decades ago, the background of a community anchor institution, or identifying the property of your relatives, you may decide to start digging through court and property records as your next logical step. And with...
Every year, approximately 600,000 people in the United States are reported missing, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS). And every year, about 4,400 unidentified bodies are found, with 1,000 of them still remaining unidentified...
What’s happening behind that yellow tape at a crime scene? That’s an intriguing question for anyone witnessing detectives securing a crime scene. While most people obviously will be interested in why the tape went up in the first place, crime scene investigation fans...
Ever wanted to make the leap and become a private investigator—at least once, maybe? We also have had our share of private investigators brought to life over several generations, from Magnum P.I. to Veronica Mars. If you are serious about pursuing it as a career, it’s...
As of 2020, the total number of cold cases in the United States topped 250,000, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. And, despite the best efforts of law enforcement officials, more than 6,000 more unsolved murders and abductions are added to that number every...
From finding and collecting it to bagging it, gathering physical evidence for a criminal investigation has many facets. “Inadmissible.” That’s the last thing any prosecutor wants to hear from a judge as part of a criminal investigation case. That’s why the collection...
With the reliability of eyewitness testimony increasingly falling out of favor, and DNA evidence trumping it all, or so it seems, we’re facing a reckoning over what types of evidence really matter — and which types of evidence are so weak that they could potentially...
In their fight against crime, investigators have gained an incredible advantage in the past couple of decades. And, more than likely, that advantage is in your hand—or at least within easy reach. It’s a smartphone. Well, a more accurate statement would be to say at...
Every investigation starts with the gathering of evidence that helps outline actors, events and motives that develop a narrative, whether it supports an accuser or an accused. Though many investigations start with eyewitness testimony, according to the National Center...
While eyewitness testimony is likely the oldest crime-solving tool in history, it’s increasingly undergoing scrutiny as one of the most unreliable ways of determining a person’s innocence or guilt. The consequences of an inaccurate eyewitness testimony can be...