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Totality of the Evidence – AFI-LLC – January 2023 3 of 5

Instead, we tell the family, “We understand the concerns you have, but cannot offer anything further until we look at all
of the records, reports, and photographs available to us. Even then, if they are incomplete our findings may also be. We
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 your review concluded:
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. Our only purposes is to review and analyze the facts and evidence independently and with no bias or desired
outcome.

Then we can make recommendations to the family, PI and attorney as to the next stage of the investigation - the boots
on the ground field work. 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 consults 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 helping families. Our
first recommendation for any investigation is to follow a simple process – from intake to investigation to conclusion:
- Prepare
- Inquire
- Analyze
- Document
- Report
(see the PI Magazine article – ‘A Look Into the Practical Methods for Legal Investigations’ at
www.DeathCaseReview.com/uploads/8/7/3/8/8738199/beers_-_pmli_pi_mag_082014.pdf

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.

Professionals provide value to their clients, and Professional Investigators do so through results.

PRIDE – Professional Reliable Investigators Defining Excellence!

Thank You!

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