By Elaine Viets
You knock on your neighbor’s door, and it swings open. Funny, Melanie always locks her door. You step into the hall, and see Melanie on the living room rug, dead as a mackerel. The police say Melanie’s death was an accident. She tripped.
But you know Melanie was no klutz. You’re sure she was murdered. The suspects could be her soon-to-be-ex-husband, her new boyfriend, or her boyfriend’s wife.
How do you investigate Melanie’s death if you’re a cozy detective?
You don’t have access to local, national or law enforcement databases, AFIS fingerprint databases, and other official sources.
Many writers cozy up (sorry) to someone in law enforcement. Even that shrewd spinster, Miss Jane Marple, had Sir Henry Clithering, a retired Scotland Yard commissioner, to make sure the local cops didn’t kick her off a case. Dame Agatha’s other creation, Hercule Poirot, had Inspector James Japp.
There are other ways to get information besides befriending a cop.
Check the suspect’s official biography.
Look at verifiable facts such as the suspect’s parents’ names, marriages and divorces. Check for brothers and sisters. Crooks can make up entire fake families.
Better yet, maybe your suspect doesn’t get along with their real family, and those relatives will happily spill the tea to your cozy detective.
Check the suspect’s birthplace and birthday, education, marriages and divorces.
College and high school yearbooks may have information about the suspect’s early years, as well as some mortifying photos.
You’d be surprised how many serial killers are well educated. The Unabomber went to Harvard. At age 16, no less. The Roadside Strangler graduated from Cornell.
Amy Bishop graduated from Northeastern and was hired at the University of Alabama. When she was denied tenure and her appeals were turned down, Amy was furious. At a faculty meeting Amy shot six people and killed three. Anyone who’s sat through faculty meetings might have some sympathy for Amy.
Check the suspect’s military service.
What does it mean if your suspect served in the military?
Not a whole lot. At least 20 serial killers served in the military, from Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh to David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam. Uncle Sam gave serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer an honorable discharge after two years because Dahmer’s performance was impaired due to alcoholism.
Check the suspect’s social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Dozens of killers have confessed on Facebook or Twitter. Some even livestream the murder.
Check the local police records, if they’re available.
Not just for arrests, but for incident reports, including neighbor complaints, reports of thefts, noise, and more. Your suspect could be the complainant, witness or suspect. Never underestimate fights between neighbors. In New York, Houston and other cities, people have been shot dead over parking spots.
Check with the Better Business Bureau. If the suspect has a business, you may find out he’s a cheat and a liar.
Check with delivery people.
Do you have a friend or a relative who’s a delivery person? FedEx, UPS, Amazon, as well as Lyft and Uber drivers, have all kinds of useful information. They know who gets a fifth of Scotch delivered every Thursday, and who had to go to the hospital because her boyfriend broke her arm.
In one of my novels, a pizza delivery person gave my amateur detective the information to solve a murder, thanks to the delivery person’s dashboard cam.
Last but not least
don’t forget to Google the suspect’s name.
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What great tips, Elaine. School yearbooks are full of great clues and even motives from long-ago rivalries, jealousies, and unrequited love. Dash cams capture all sorts of misbehavior. And the delivery person can be the killer b/c they have access to homes and businesses.
Thanks for ideas to prime the pump for a new mystery.
Elaine was nice enough to make my eldest child the witness in DEAD OF NIGHT. My dashcam is on when the car is on. Dr. Tushy and their red Tesla found out. This clip was sent to the local PD. Dr. Tushy has vanity plates…and a moving violation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTRs3cpWT0
Alan and his family have been constant sources of good ideas.
Glad you found this useful, Debbie.
Full of great information, Elaine. In my current wip, looking into a very old possible crime, my characters are looking at newspaper archives. We get a weekly local “throwaway” paper, and the Hubster immediately turns to the crime reports page. In fact, he calls the paper the Crime Report.
Love it. Small town crime reports can be hilarious, along with the serious news.
What you are looking for is call Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Publicly available information, most of it free. There was a time when if I wanted to find your marriage license, I would need to hit county courthouses and leaf through files. Now I can do a search and cover a metro area in a few hours.
I like real estate records. Blockshopper.com is my favorite. A very good way to find a divorce. Mr. & Ms. Johnson sold the house to Ms. Johnson and 6 months later Ms. Johnson sold it to Mr. Smith. The Johnsons got divorced.
thanks for the extra information, Alan.
There are security concerns that use OSINT very effectively. About 10 years ago a video clip appeared online. It was a Taliban beheading. I group using flight data, Google Maps and meteorology identified the location of the terrorist camp. They Tweeted the coordinates to MI5. No more training camp.
Yikes!
These are terrific tips, Elaine. As a fellow cozy writer, I really appreciate today’s post.
One of my oldest friends is a long-time UPS driver and you are right, they get to know the people and businesses on their route.
My own 1980s cozy mystery series pulls in local history, and your local library (and historical society) can be a great source for that information, but so can long time residents.
The 1980s were about the last pre-tech time, Dale. That’s why Sue Grafton set her Kinsey Milhone mysteries during that time.
Thanks for these tips. I’m sure I’ll find them helpful during the course of my next couple of cozies.
Glad you found them useful, Al.
The bad news is that cozy mysteries aren’t about serial killers and data bases so most of this information is useless for the nosy Nelly in a small town cozy. Gossip and chats are the primary source for information as well as snooping where the cozy detective shouldn’t be. Nothing says cozy like destroying the chain of evidence while figuring out which local killed another one because of that stolen pickle recipe before the State Fair.
Great tips, Elaine. I love amateur sleuth mysteries and watching the dabbler use his/her wits to outsmart the professionals and solve the case.
We have a good friend who’s a UPS driver. I need to talk to him.
Bet you’ll find out some interesting things, Kay.