Canadian Missing Person - adult

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I have a character who estranged himself from his family after his twin brother killed himself (they were in their early twenties).

The parents would have been worried about my character, and because of the recent suicide, they may have been able to convince the police that my character was at risk of harming himself. They also have quite a bit of money, so they would have had lawyers, etc. advocating for them. So I assume they called the cops and filed a missing person report?

But it's now eight or nine years later. My character has gone into a police station to report a fairly serious crime. Would they still have a record of the missing person report?

There's a bit of a geographic challenge - the parents and my character, at the time of the suicide, all lived near Calgary. So I assume they'd have reported the disappearance to the Calgary cops. But the dead twin lived in Vancouver, and that's where my character ends up being when he reports the crime. So it would be two different municipal police forces. Would an adult missing person, with no real reason to believe in foul play, be reported to the RCMP? And would they share the information with the municipal cops?

Thanks for any help with this.
 

Xelebes

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If the family are outside of Calgary -- say Vulcan, Airdire or Cochrane, they would be reporting to the RCMP. Calgary Police Service would only be called on crimes or disappearances that happened in the CPS jurisdiction: The City of Calgary. RCMP would work with CPS if they believed if there was any involvement that took place within the boundaries of the City.

That being said, a missing persons report is accessible by all police forces. All police try to work together and with regards to missing persons, they work fairly well. So the VPD would call the RCMP for the report if the report was filed with the RCMP, the CPS if CPS. The report and file would be opened for investigation if new evidence arose.
 

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Good info - thanks!

Do you know how long the case would stay open for? Would my character be told about the report eight or nine years after it was filed? And assuming that my character wanted to stay hidden, would the parents be notified at all? Like, I assume the cops wouldn't say where my character was. But would they tell the parents that the case was closed, and their son was fine?
 

Xelebes

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I have no idea. Probably at least a minimum of seven years (federally-mandated practice for financial documents.) I would suspect that they would an archive for any unresolved documents.
 

Horseshoes

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You get to write this either way and make it work.

If you want him to report the serious, current crime and remain undiscovered as a "reported missing x many years ago" guy, then the cops taking info never happn to run him in their national computer. Could happen.

If you want him discovered as a "reported missing x many years ago" then at some point in his current police contact to report his serious crime, they run him (meaning, name, DOB, etc) in the national computer system.

By the by, if you never had him fudge his ID to disappear, then he must never since he went missing have had a job that required a background check or had so much as a traffic stop.
 

Drachen Jager

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If the parents were wealthy and really wanted to find the guy they'd hire a private detective. Police forces wouldn't do much beyond filing a report for an adult who's gone missing with no reason to suspect that a crime had taken place. It's not the job of the police to find someone who's simply avoiding his family.
 

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You get to write this either way and make it work.

If you want him to report the serious, current crime and remain undiscovered as a "reported missing x many years ago" guy, then the cops taking info never happn to run him in their national computer. Could happen.

If you want him discovered as a "reported missing x many years ago" then at some point in his current police contact to report his serious crime, they run him (meaning, name, DOB, etc) in the national computer system.

By the by, if you never had him fudge his ID to disappear, then he must never since he went missing have had a job that required a background check or had so much as a traffic stop.

So, say he got a traffic ticket. That would somehow trigger the 'missing person' machine?

I assume he has a right to privacy - if he got a ticket, and the cops said, hey, we've got a missing person's report on you, and he said, I don't care...would the cops erase the missing person's report? Would they tell his family that he's found but doesn't wish to contact them? They wouldn't tell his family where he is, would they?
 

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If the parents were wealthy and really wanted to find the guy they'd hire a private detective. Police forces wouldn't do much beyond filing a report for an adult who's gone missing with no reason to suspect that a crime had taken place. It's not the job of the police to find someone who's simply avoiding his family.

I figured they probably would hire a private detective, but it seems like the gov't would have resources at its disposal that the private investigator wouldn't. Would a Canadian PI have access to all the same databases, etc., that cops would?
 

frimble3

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If the dead twin lived in Vancouver, and the brother was known to be distraught and suicidal because of his death, wouldn't these wealthy parents have contacted the Vancouver police back in the day? After all, it's got high places and bridges for suicides. Even without the dead twin connection, it would be a reasonable place for a man running away from his life in Calgary to end up.
 

Drachen Jager

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I figured they probably would hire a private detective, but it seems like the gov't would have resources at its disposal that the private investigator wouldn't. Would a Canadian PI have access to all the same databases, etc., that cops would?

He wouldn't have access under normal circumstances.

The government wouldn't do anything, that's why they'd need a PI. Unless there's a crime the police don't investigate. If the guy left for his own reasons it's a waste of resources to send people looking for him.

A PI is pretty likely to track the subject down unless he's being very careful though. I had a friend once who tried to run away from her family, they found her with a PI three times before she gave up. I do not know what measures she took to hide though.
 

Xelebes

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If the dead twin lived in Vancouver, and the brother was known to be distraught and suicidal because of his death, wouldn't these wealthy parents have contacted the Vancouver police back in the day? After all, it's got high places and bridges for suicides. Even without the dead twin connection, it would be a reasonable place for a man running away from his life in Calgary to end up.

That it is.