Skip Tracing & Locating People

People disappear for all kinds of reasons. Some are running from a debt or a court date, some have simply drifted out of contact, and some are family members lost to time, a falling-out, or an old adoption. Skip tracing is the work of finding them, and it's equal parts records research and old-fashioned legwork.

I'm Eugene Butler, a licensed Michigan private investigator in Flint, and locating people is one of the most satisfying parts of what I do — especially when a search reconnects a family. A good skip trace starts at a desk. I work through public records, address histories, and the kind of database access available to licensed investigators to build a current picture of where someone is and how to reach them.

Names change, people move, and the trail goes cold — so when the records run out, I go to the field: knocking on doors, talking to neighbors and known associates, and following leads in person until the picture comes together. The instant find-anyone websites people try first are usually stale or mixed up between people who share a name; verifying that I've found the right person, living at the right place, today, is the part that actually matters. I locate a lot of different people.

Witnesses an attorney needs for a civil or criminal matter. Debtors who've gone quiet on a creditor or a judgment. Birth relatives and long-lost family.

Old friends. Heirs who don't yet know an estate is looking for them. The methods overlap, but the care does not — a family-reunion search is handled very differently from tracking down someone avoiding a court.

I'll be honest about what I can and can't do. I don't have magic access to sealed or private data, I won't pretext my way into protected records, and I can't guarantee that every person on earth can be found — some people are genuinely good at staying hidden. What I can promise is a real, lawful effort and a straight answer about how the search is going.

If someone truly can't be located with the information available, I'll tell you that rather than keep your meter running. And once I find someone, I respect the situation. In sensitive reunions I can make a careful first approach rather than handing over an address cold, so no one is ambushed. If you need to find someone, call or text the Butler Investigations office at 810-513-0662 and we'll talk through who you're looking for and why.