Just thought I'd post here and make sure I've got my i's and t's dotted and crossed, respectively, if anyone has some feedback. 
One of my characters is trying to establish the legal identity of a someone he's supposed to hire. He works privately, as a civilian, for an influential person with government connections (which he generally prefers to not take advantage of), and I would like to make sure that the sort of sleuthing he's doing is feasible for someone in his position and the logical sort of thing an experienced (and somewhat paranoid) person in his position might do (and won't turn off knowledgeable readers).
He has the person's name, her picture (one he personally took of her, not a picture ID), a general sense of how old she is but not a precise birth date, and no legal documents (birth certificate, SSN, etc.) to use for proof of identity. She says her mother probably has them, if anyone does, and gives him the name of her mother, but claims to not have any other information on her mother or any idea where her mother might be (or even where she used to be, such as an old phone number or address; not even general information such as which state), and indicates that she hasn't seen her mother since she was a child ("decades ago"). She says her father has never been in the picture and that she has no other family that she is aware of. (Feedback on what other questions he might ask is appreciated; keeping in mind that they are not really on friendly terms with each other.)
My character doesn't have much choice about hiring her, but feels compelled to make it as legal as possible, so he wants to establish her identity (and hey, if he can find dirt on her that kicks her out, that's icing on the cake). He believes she is withholding information, and guesses that the information she's keeping back is a history in foster care and/or her mother has a record, based on the fact that she last saw her mother when she was (presumably) too young to remember anything else, but that hunch doesn't pan out/can't effectively be pursued without further information. He then checks missing persons, where he finds her and her mother. He tracks down information for her grandfather, whose name is associated with the report (both were minors and living with him before going missing) and discovers that the grandfather has a history of domestic violence (police reports) and is associated with an unsolved double homicide investigation dating back to a few years after the missing report was filed-- presumably the bodies found were the mother and daughter, but there was no positive ID and the grandfather was not convicted (chatty local people, or possibly the grandfather himself reveal that). Based on all the above, plus a photo of the mother, who doesn't at all resemble the woman's he's dealing with, he suspects she's using a stolen identity.
Y/N this works?
One of my characters is trying to establish the legal identity of a someone he's supposed to hire. He works privately, as a civilian, for an influential person with government connections (which he generally prefers to not take advantage of), and I would like to make sure that the sort of sleuthing he's doing is feasible for someone in his position and the logical sort of thing an experienced (and somewhat paranoid) person in his position might do (and won't turn off knowledgeable readers).
He has the person's name, her picture (one he personally took of her, not a picture ID), a general sense of how old she is but not a precise birth date, and no legal documents (birth certificate, SSN, etc.) to use for proof of identity. She says her mother probably has them, if anyone does, and gives him the name of her mother, but claims to not have any other information on her mother or any idea where her mother might be (or even where she used to be, such as an old phone number or address; not even general information such as which state), and indicates that she hasn't seen her mother since she was a child ("decades ago"). She says her father has never been in the picture and that she has no other family that she is aware of. (Feedback on what other questions he might ask is appreciated; keeping in mind that they are not really on friendly terms with each other.)
My character doesn't have much choice about hiring her, but feels compelled to make it as legal as possible, so he wants to establish her identity (and hey, if he can find dirt on her that kicks her out, that's icing on the cake). He believes she is withholding information, and guesses that the information she's keeping back is a history in foster care and/or her mother has a record, based on the fact that she last saw her mother when she was (presumably) too young to remember anything else, but that hunch doesn't pan out/can't effectively be pursued without further information. He then checks missing persons, where he finds her and her mother. He tracks down information for her grandfather, whose name is associated with the report (both were minors and living with him before going missing) and discovers that the grandfather has a history of domestic violence (police reports) and is associated with an unsolved double homicide investigation dating back to a few years after the missing report was filed-- presumably the bodies found were the mother and daughter, but there was no positive ID and the grandfather was not convicted (chatty local people, or possibly the grandfather himself reveal that). Based on all the above, plus a photo of the mother, who doesn't at all resemble the woman's he's dealing with, he suspects she's using a stolen identity.
Y/N this works?
