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Believe the Evidence – AFI-LLC – October 2024 5 of 9

will do the best we can to answer your questions honestly based on the facts and evidence. Please understand there are
four possible findings, and we cannot know until the official evidence is first reviewed and analyzed to conclude:

1) The official investigation was competent, with the official findings consistent with the facts and evidence; or
2) The official investigation was not competent, with the official findings consistent with the facts and evidence; or
3) The official investigation was competent, with the official findings not consistent with the facts and evidence; or
4) The official investigation was not competent, with the official findings not consistent with the facts and evidence.”

When retained by a PI or attorney, we tell them the same. These are in the order most often seen. The client comes to
us – and you – because they are looking at #4. This is most often not our findings.

Why does this happen? Most often the family and PI are focused on the circumstantial drama – family relationships,
personalities, unusual behavior, anger and grief. For example, we often hear of abuse and neglect or even affairs and
acting strange. These may be valid concerns. Imagine if a person were arrested, charged, tried and convicted based on
these circumstances? It has happened – a bit simplified, but it has and does. The damage and harm is to more than the
defendant. It is to review and analyze the facts and evidence independently and with no bias or desired outcome.

If there are concerns from the official investigation, and particularly in developing the fact-based legal strategy in civil
and criminal litigation, the independent investigation is the next stage of the investigation. As part of our review and
analysis we then make recommendations. This is part of the overall team work with the attorney, investigators and
other experts. Specific to family questioned deaths, it can be a big hardship on the family to have them convinced of
homicide and the evidence doesn't support it - and they will live with the unanswered grief the rest of their lives. This
hardship is financial and emotional. We have had families, attorneys, and PIs come to us with how much they have spent
and are now ready for our expertise. This is often $2,000 to $10,000 (more than our base fee to families), only for us to
tell them their findings or legal strategy are without fact and evidentiary basis. This has happened to such a degree, we
now have law enforcement and prosecutor offices coming to us to independently review their cases as expert
consultants and to tell them which of the four possibilities their cases fall.

We strive to do the best we can for our clients, colleagues and profession. We are passionate about our civil and criminal
roles, and about helping families. Our first recommendation for any investigation is to follow this Investigative Protocol,
a simple process – from intake to investigation to conclusion:
1. Prepare
2. Inquire
3. Analyze
4. Document
5. Report

Adapted from our book – “Professional Legal Investigations: Methods and Protocols in Civil, Criminal, and
Probate Litigation" (revised edition). Visit the new book website at www.ProfessionalInvestigationsBook.com
for details and pre-ordering information.

Doing so provides for the Passionate Search for the Facts, and as legal investigators, this is our only true purpose. This
includes extenuating, aggravating, mitigating, objective, and subjective information. Anything that supports or refutes
any or all of the components of the death, or serious bodily injury, investigation is evidence.

Legal investigators have professional obligations to themselves and all clients to be: 1) Informed, become informed, and
to inform; 2) Unbiased and open minded; 3) Conscientious of their fiduciary responsibility; 4) Honest and ethical; and 5)
Unrelenting in their search for the facts.

Thank You!

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