Copyright © 2013 Brian Blackwell
SEATTLE
Tuesday, May 22, 2013 — Received a call from a lady in Oregon needing skip trace work. A guy she sold a boat to (contractual agreement for monthly payments) skipped town the previous month...with the boat and without paying.
SEATTLE
Tuesday, May 22, 2013 — Received a call from a lady in Oregon needing skip trace work. A guy she sold a boat to (contractual agreement for monthly payments) skipped town the previous month...with the boat and without paying.
The last known whereabouts of the individual was western Washington—the Washington coast to be exact. So naturally, I began checking the docks along Puget Sound starting on the Olympic peninsula.
Wednesday, 2:20 a.m., a chilly, windy night down at the docks. Cold, dark, and damp throughout the night. 4 a.m., I headed home down the lonely highway. Another night of watching completed.
1:23 p.m., sitting at home, staring out the window...reflecting, decided to check another port.
Midnight, sitting in the car, watching, binoculars, camera with long range lens next to me. Listening to the night sounds of the docks and Puget Sound orca whales and sea lions.
Monday, May 28, 2012, 6:18 p.m. — Subject and boat located on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Tuesday, 5:10 a.m. — Daylight forming, sitting in my vehicle on the side of the road overlooking the house and dock where the boat is. Photos taken the previous evening confirmed it is the boat and where he is living.
He thought he covered his tracks well enough to never be found. Perhaps he did for others, but not for me.
I observed Subject's movements for the day, and contacted an old friend, George Ripley—Trooper George Ripley turned independent insurance investigator. Together we devised a plan to get closer to the boat to obtain an exact identification.
I met Ripley back in '96 working an officer involved shooting. While other officers and detectives were set on labeling the incident as a "good shooting" Trooper Ripley wasn't so ready.
Something just didn't sit right with Ripley. The family of the victim felt the same. That's where I came in. It's not often a private investigator gets the opportunity to work a police involved shooting, so I jumped at the chance.
To Trooper Ripley—the first responding officer to arrive at the scene of the Code: 510—officer needs help—the scene didn't look right, things didn't add up. Sixteen years on the force told him that. The officer's statement of what transpired didn't make sense. But the detectives weren't easily convinced of Ripley's suspicions. Neither was I, at first.
Initial investigation of the fatal shooting appeared to show self-defense by the officer. But Ripley believed that it was no self-defense shooting, and that he had a "ham sandwich" (street lingo for when situations are false.)
The path of the bullets, the position of the body, the officer's statement of what transpired...all didn't add up. So together, Ripley and I investigated the incident, and the officer and victim.
Our investigation led us down a path of corruption, extortion, prostitution, and drugs...you name it, it had all elements. The case had just about every criminal activity connected to it imaginable. Ripley and I stayed in contact over the years, and he became another viable law enforcement contact.
I knew I couldn't run any type of ruse in which I showed up at Subject's door to take a close look at the boat without him being scared off to somewhere else. So late last night, using Ripley as a lookout, I donned scuba gear I rented from a shop nearby, and made my way to the boat by water from a few houses down.
I was on the boat getting an exact identification by serial and model numbers, and just about finished, when all of a sudden, I heard the sound of footsteps. I turned in the direction of the sound and realized....
Copyright © 2013 Brian Blackwell
BRIAN BLACKWELL
Private Investigator
info @ brianblackwell.com
The rest of the story will be in the book I am writing. Stories will be from my cases working as a private investigator. I have some intriguing, and very strange and fascinating investigations to share.