SEARCHES
As a cold case team, we and several of our colleagues combine our skills in search of long-term missing persons, all of whom are presumed deceased. These cold cases are not forgotten. They are those for which new leads are needed. We look at those cases for which we see potential for our knowledge and experience to answer some questions that may narrow the search.
Our approach is to build upon existing efforts of police and journalists, adding less applied specialist knowledge and modern technological skills. We combine forensics, archaeology, criminology, psychology, construction knowledge, heritage studies and analytical research, with ground penetrating radar, drone, and lidar. With such an arsenal, our real speciality is adapting our approaches to the many physical circumstances that face us.
Every case is different. Our aims are to reduce search areas, narrow the fields of suspects, reduce the number of unanswered questions, and encourage social change.
Each search area is different and carries with it different expectations depending on the case. Louise and Gerald Steding select survey methods and geophysical instruments, that might best perform in different locational environments or search areas.
Roads to Nowhere by Louise Steding
Published in 2022, Dr Louise Steding is the author of Roads to Nowhere. This book combines analytical research, site analysis, and geographical profiling, to narrow the pool of possible offenders in the abductions and murders of so many young adventurers in the 1970s.
Such studies are among our inspirations to explore solvability potential. The cases we look at are those deemed less solvable, usually because of the passage of time and a perceived lack of surviving evidence. Yet change over time is at the heart of the archaeological, psychological and forensic components of our work.