Private Investigators Must Seek State License Starting This Month

Until this year, anyone who wanted to call himself a private investigator in Missouri could do so under the law if no city license was required.

But starting this month, the state of Missouri has started accepting statewide applications for private investigators.

Under a Missouri law passed in 2007, all newly formed private investigators operating in Missouri must be licensed. Since the law went into effect, a Missouri Division of Professional Registration has created the State Board of Private Investigator Examiners, hired staff and has developed rules and regulations to implement the law.

On Feb. 1, applications for a private investigator license in Missouri were accepted for the first time.

"Until now, becoming a private investigator in Missouri required little more than a business license fee and a place to hang a shingle," says Dwight McNiel, chairman of the newly formed State board of Private Investigator Examiners and an investigator from Springfield.

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Famed Private Investigator Takes on 'Baby Gabriel' Case

The ‘Baby Gabriel’ investigation is ramping up this week with a planned search of a San Antonio landfill where police fear the boy's body could have been dumped.

Now there is a new face involved in the case. Jay J. Armes is considered a quirky private eye with a track record of getting results. The eccentric investigator talked about why he is taking on the case as police say leads are drying up.

Armes’ clients include celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon along with royalty from around the world.

Armes is high-profile and high-price fetching between $150,000 to $1 million per case. Nevertheless he says he will search for Gabriel for free.

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Stalker Put Electronic Surveillance in Ex-Girlfriend's Home

A 37-year-old man has been accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend by repeatedly sneaking into her residence over a period of months, installing voice recorders in the home, spyware on her computer and sending her threatening e-mails.

Sarah Huntley, spokeswoman for the Boulder Police Department, identified the suspect as Christopher Spiewak of Boulder.

Huntley said Spiewak is being held for investigation of domestic-violence related to stalking, second-degree burglary, computer crimes and repeated harassment.

She said Spiewak was arrested about 11:25 p.m. Friday

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Snooping by Detective 'Legitimate' Part of Divorce Process, Judge Finds

A man who hired a detective to trail his wife to a motel where she was having an affair with a local priest was not stalking her, an Orange County, N.Y., judge has ruled.

Forced to resign after her husband turned over a recording of her and the priest to officials at the church where she worked, the wife accused her husband of violating an order of protection requiring him to stay away from her home and place of employment.

But Family Court Judge Debra J. Kiedaisch, who was sitting in the Supreme Court's integrated domestic violence part, held that the husband, who only handed over the tape at the urging of church officials, had the right to gather evidence to defend himself in a divorce proceeding.

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Missing Stoughton Man’s Family Getting Help From Investigator

The family of Ilya Lastovkin, a Stoughton man who has been missing for more than 11 weeks, has a nationally known private investigator working on the case.

Joseph Moura, president of the National Investigation Bureau, took on the case Dec. 21.

An investigative consultant with the CBS TV show “48 Hours,” Moura has been running his Stoughton-based detective agency for 27 years and has worked on many missing-person cases, including the high-profile 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann from a resort hotel room in Portugal.

Lastovkin, 22, was last seen Nov. 12, as he left his Memorial Drive home at about 6 a.m. Authorities have said foul play is not suspected.

Moura said a credible source reported seeing a man resembling Lastovkin walking on Route 138 in Stoughton on Nov. 15. The information was investigated by Stoughton police at the time but did not lead anywhere.

Acting Stoughton Police Chief Thomas Murphy said there have been no new leads since.

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