TWIN CITIESCOM

RUBÉN ROSARIO: High-profile cases lure private investigators

RUBÉN ROSARIO

The trip to Sarasota , Fla. , to visit friends in early February was a welcome respite from the emotionally draining searches Robert Heales helped coordinate for Dru Sjodin's family and friends.

But the private eye had grown so close to the parents and relatives of the missing college student that there was no doubt he would mix pleasure with reverent duty on that trip. He attended the memorial services in Sarasota that week for Carla Brucia, the 12-year-old Florida girl whose videotaped abduction and subsequent murder had shocked a nation.

Carrying out the wishes of Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin, as well as his own, Heales bought flowers and wrote down the name of Dru Sjodin in the guest book at the church, linking in memory and spirit the two victims.

"It was just something that I had to do,'' says Heales, who knows the missing girl's boyfriend and also runs two private detective firms in Minneapolis and Denver.

Heales, in part, represents a mostly welcome presence in high-profile cases: private investigators.

Like Heales, some freely volunteer their time in a highly competitive, dog-eat-dog profession because of family connections or a compelling moral impulse. Others are retained by family members who are dissatisfied with the way police are handling or not handling the case. A few do it strictly for publicity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get their mugs on CNN or national media to help build a client base.

Today, Heales and an army of 250 volunteers will trek through marshes, thickets, farm and prairie terrain and river edges again, in a massive land, air and waterway search for the young woman's body.

Brian Westphal, president of the Minnesota Association of Private Investigators and Protective Agents, says an increasing number of members in the past year or so have asked for or undergone special training in how to conduct missing-person investigations.

"I believe cases like Dru and others from across the country are having an effect,'' he says. "We are seeing more and more interest in this.''

Carol Watson, executive director of Missing Children Minnesota, says a good, ethical private investigator can dig up critical information in cases — mostly involving college-age adults or kids taken in custody disputes — that police either don't have the resources to adequately probe or are unwilling or unable to devote manpower to because of other crime priorities.

But she also cautions that like hiring a good plumber or contractor, families should do a little checking before they decide to bring a private detective into the mix. A good one can break the case. Bad ones, Watson says, could drain a family of finances by floating nonsensical hypotheses or pretending they know things they don't.

Ben Ermini, director of the missing children division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington , D.C. , agrees.

"We know a number of families that have hired private investigators because they are frustrated with the response from law enforcement,'' Ermini said. "Certainly, there are many good and honorable investigators. But one of the problems we've seen is that some charge parents huge sums of money and never really come up with anything. That is not in the best interest of families searching for their child.''

Watson said most families with means hire private detectives because of legitimate or perceived conflicts with police. That was the case with the parents of Christopher Jenkins, a University of Minnesota student who disappeared Nov. 1, 2002 , following a night of drinking and carousing at a downtown Minneapolis bar. Jenkins' body, clad in the American Indian costume he wore Halloween night, was found four months later in the Mississippi River near St. Anthony Falls .

The family still maintains that Jenkins was a victim of foul play. Although Minneapolis police have not closed the case, the prevailing police theory is that Jenkins committed suicide or accidentally drowned after leaving the bar.

Steve Jenkins said he hired local private eye Chuck Loesch when Minneapolis police informed him they would need to wait 72 hours to take and act on a missing-person report on their son.

"They didn't begin to do anything until five days after my son's disappearance,'' says Jenkins. "We decided they weren't interested and decided to take matters into our own hands.''

Loesch pushed forward the theory that Jenkins, as well as other college student disappearances in the Midwest in recent months, was the work of a suspected serial killer currently serving time in Missouri on an attempted murder charge.

"Our relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department at this point is zero,'' says Jenkins, who has requested a sit-down with newly appointed Police Chief William McManus.

Minneapolis police inspector Rob Allen, who supervises the downtown police precinct that initially handled the Jenkins disappearance, would not comment specifically on the Jenkins case.

He said most private investigators, particularly those who work on employee theft and credit card fraud cases for corporations, do an excellent job in assisting police and county prosecutors.

"I think a general problem in some cases is when they pursue alternative theories to keep themselves employed,'' said Allen. "That's unfortunate because police sometimes have to spend some time to rule out some of these theories.''

By most accounts, from private investigators and police counterparts alike, Heales has done the honorable thing. He first contacted Grand Forks and Minnesota police involved in the Dru Sjodin case about his involvement with the family. He has worked with them and a Grand Forks private eye to assist in search efforts.

"Frankly, I think he has done an excellent job representing our profession,'' Westphal said.

FYI

Private investigators must be licensed to work in Minnesota . To learn more, contact the Minnesota Department of Public Safety at www. dps. mn.us or the Minnesota Association of Private Investigators and Protective Agents at www.mapi.org.

Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651- 228-5454.