We Find People
Who Don't Want
to Be Found.
Cases Closed
4,812
Since 2018
Avg. Locate Time
31 hrs
Across all case types
Locate Rate
94.3%
Verified closes
Raymond Kowalski
Former U.S. Marshal · 22 Years Federal Service · Licensed PI, 14 States
“A single database hit is a rumor. Three corroborating sources from independent systems is a lead. Six is an address you can put in a filing.”
Most firms run a name through one commercial database and call it a locate. That is not a locate. That is a guess with a receipt. The database layering protocol we use at Trace sequences across six independent source categories: credit header data, utility account records, motor vehicle registration, voter rolls, PACER civil filings, and proprietary address aggregation feeds. No single source controls the output. Each layer either confirms or contradicts the prior — and contradiction is where the real work begins. When a subject appears at Address A in the credit header but Address B in the utility pull, that gap is not an error to discard. It is a timeline. It tells you when they moved, and it points to where they went next. Federal fugitive work taught me that people don't vanish — they leave residue. A forwarded utility. A child enrolled in a school district. A vehicle registered to a relative at a new address. The database is not the answer. It is the index. The investigator reads between the entries. We run every locate with a minimum four-layer corroboration requirement before we issue a verified address. That standard is why our locate rate holds at 94.3%.
Priya Nambiar
OSINT Analyst · Former DHS Contractor · CISA Certified
“They deleted the post. They forgot the comment. They changed the username but kept the profile photo. The breadcrumb trail is always there — you just have to know which platform to look at three years back.”
Social media is not a primary source. It is a timestamp and a geography engine. When a subject goes dark on commercial databases — the classic skip pattern — they rarely go dark everywhere. They move the channel. A Facebook page goes quiet; a neighborhood Facebook Group shows them asking about trash pickup schedules in a zip code two states over. The name is different. The profile photo is the same one from 2019. The OSINT framework we run at Trace sequences platform-by-platform with a defined lookback window: 90 days for active social, 36 months for archived or deleted content via Wayback, cached Google results, and third-party archiving services. We cross-reference usernames, profile images (reverse image search across seven engines), tagged photos, and geolocation metadata embedded in pre-2020 mobile uploads. LinkedIn is the most underused skip tracing asset in existence. People lie about their address. They do not lie about their current employer on a professional network — because lying there has immediate professional consequences. Current employer gives us a city. A city gives us a county. A county gives us a court record search. That search closes the case. The breadcrumb trail is never fully erased. It is only waiting for the right question.
Marcus Delacroix
Compliance Officer · J.D. Georgetown Law · FCRA Certified Investigator
“A locate that can't survive a motion to suppress is not a locate. It is a liability. Every step we take is documented, timestamped, and defensible in front of a federal judge.”
The Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act are not obstacles to skip tracing. They are the architecture that makes the locate admissible. Attorneys who use locate services that operate outside FCRA permissible purpose frameworks are not saving time — they are building reversible judgments. When opposing counsel challenges the provenance of an address in a post-judgment collections matter, the question is not whether the address is correct. The question is how it was obtained. At Trace, every case file opens with a documented permissible purpose declaration: collections attorney, probate proceeding, bail bond agent, or legal process service. That declaration governs which data sources we access and how we log the access chain. We do not touch DMV records without a documented DPPA permissible purpose. We do not access credit header data without a FCRA-compliant credentialing structure. The audit trail we produce is designed to travel with your filing. Opposing counsel will ask. The judge may ask. Our documentation answers both questions before they are asked. We have had zero successful suppression motions against locate data we have produced in six years of operation. That is not a coincidence. It is the result of treating compliance as a deliverable, not a checkbox.
4,812
Cases Closed
Since 2018
31 hrs
Avg. Locate Time
All case types
94.3%
Locate Rate
Verified closes
18
States Covered
Active licensure
$2.4M
Judgment Recovered
Last 12 months
72 hrs
Bail Bond SLA
Clock guarantee
The Playbook is free.
The locate is not.
Eighteen pages of methodology we use every day — database layering sequences, OSINT decision trees, FCRA audit trails. Download it. Use it. If you hit a wall, you know where to call.
No credit card · No sales sequence · FCRA compliant
Inside the Playbook — 18 Pages
Database Layering Protocol
Which sources to hit, in what order, for each case type.
OSINT Decision Tree
Social media, domain records, and public filings — structured.
FCRA & DPPA Compliance Checklist
The guardrails that keep your locate admissible.
Bail Bond 72-Hour Framework
Speed-optimized locate sequence for bond agents.
Probate Heir Tracing Template
Multi-state beneficiary locate with documentation trail.