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So yesterday, I received a Federal Subpoena from a law firm to serve to a lady in Sulphur, LA. Let's say this lady's name is Courtney. I was given an address for Courtney, and they confirmed that she lived there. At Southwest Louisiana Process Service, we provide three attempts at one address for a flat rate fee that is pre-paid. The law firms are promised the attempts will occur in the morning before 8 am, in the evening after 5 pm, and anytime during the weekend.
Upon arrival to make my first attempt on Courtney, I knocked on the front door and made contact with a young woman named Sabrina. Sabrina stated there was no one by the name Courtney living there. For due diligence, I made contact with the neighbors and asked if there was a Courtney living next door to them, and they advised the lady's name was Sabrina, and Sabrina had three young children.
I went back to my vehicle and updated Serve Manager of my attempt and logged it as a "Bad Address." Before emailing the law firm of my findings, I ran a database search on Courtney through Delvepoint, and it came back to the same address the firm provided. As an expert in OSINT, there had to be some updated information for her online somewhere.
I logged into Facebook using one of my Sock Puppet accounts and searched for Courtney. Courtney's profile was located, and I began searching through recent posts and pictures to find any clues about her whereabouts. The first thing I noticed was that she had a boyfriend named Joseph, and they lived together in some trailer park. I gathered Joseph's information from his Facebook and conducted a search through Delvepoint. Delvepoint provided an address to a trailer park in Lake Charles, LA, but it failed to provide a Lot #. This was a massive trailer park in Lake Charles, with over 400 lots.
I continued to search through Courtney's Facebook and stumbled across a video from Christmas 2022. The video showed a little boy playing basketball in the front yard. At first glance, it was not much to go on, but I noticed a tree in the front yard next to the driveway and a trailer house with an orange roof in the background of the video. Also, in the background of the video was a tree line.
I proceeded to Google Maps and located the trailer park. The first thing I did was locate the tree line. After locating the tree line, I began looking for an orange roof. An orange-roofed trailer was located next to a tree line, and now all I had to do was locate that tree near the driveway. And what do you know, I found the tree and trailer, which matched Courtney's location from her Facebook photos and videos.
I contacted the law firm by email and updated them on my findings. They were advised that another address for Courtney was located and given my fee for an additional address for service and my fee for conducting a skip trace. They had the option for me to provide an Affidavit of Non-Service or proceed to the new address.
So today, I woke up to an email from the law firm that stated, "We would like for you to proceed to the new address for service. Please send an invoice." I immediately updated the invoice in Serve Manager and emailed it to them. Almost after being bitten by a dog in the front yard of Courtney's trailer, she was successfully served at the new address.
I always encourage my friends in law enforcement and private investigations to become well-versed in OSINT techniques. Databases don't always provide the most up-to-date information, so mastering OSINT can be crucial. As illustrated in the story above, utilizing OSINT not only led to a successful outcome but also increased revenue. Instead of merely informing the client about the bad address and submitting an Affidavit of Non-Service, I was able to go the extra mile, ultimately resulting in both the client's and my satisfaction.
Brandon LaVan, Process Server
Southwest Louisiana Process Service