Some time ago, an entrepreneur approached us with a problem that initially seemed trivial, but the day after signing the contract, it turned out to be very demanding. Let’s start from the beginning. The client operates in the aggregates industry, involved in their extraction. It happens that in the area where he has a mine, deposits are quite abundant, especially on a large plot of several hectares adjacent to his land. Naturally, our client wanted to purchase this property. He managed to identify the owner of the plot, but there were difficulties.
The documents only contained the owner’s first and last name, which happened to be very common, like “Smith” or “Jones.” Undeterred, our client presumed that the person he was looking for likely resided in the nearest village. He went there to inquire but encountered another challenge. The village was very small, with just a few houses, mostly inhabited by people who had moved there to escape city life. There were only two native residents, but even they didn’t know who owned the mentioned plot. At that point, our client realized he needed support.
First clues about the property owner
After taking on the case, our detective visited the neighboring village and began speaking with the locals. One woman remembered that the surname had once been present in the village and was used by a family that ran a shop there. However, she had no idea where these people could be found now and wasn’t sure if any of them were still alive. Another man confirmed this information, adding that one member of the family should now reside in a nearby town. The detective attempted to verify this information but quickly hit a dead end. There were no records of the shop-owning family from the 1980s, nor did anyone in the neighboring town recognize the surname of the sought-after plot owner. In this situation, it was time to turn to archival sources. The parish register contained information about the family in question, listing several individuals, including parents and children, along with their ages at the time of the census, which helped establish their year of birth. This was a breakthrough of sorts.
Further action by the detective
Further investigation led to locating one family member on a list of soldiers from World War II, which crucially provided his exact date of birth. With each small step, the case began to progress. For reasons unknown, other archival documents yielded no results, or at least none that were groundbreaking. Faced with this, the detective decided to explore the area further, specifically the cemetery. It took several hours in the heat to inspect all the graves in the nearby necropolis, yielding meager results. Only one grave of the sought-after family members was found. By chance, a person approached and mentioned that a man with the exact name of the plot owner lived in a house deep in the forest. The residents confirmed this information but also revealed details indicating that he was not the person being sought. A peculiar twist, but still a twist. During this encounter, the detective learned that people in the neighboring village might have more information. This lead proved accurate. An elderly man remembered the sought-after family and mentioned that one of its members had been his classmate in primary school. This provided information on the birth year of the man, and another online search, this time through cemetery databases, pinpointed the location of the grave.
The final straight
With the detective now aware of the location of the grave of the family member, the next step was to attempt to contact living relatives. Public databases facilitated this task, and it became clear that the investigation was nearing its conclusion. The woman confirmed that she was related to the owner of the plot of land our client was interested in, though she wasn’t aware that this person owned such extensive grounds. It turned out that the man listed in the documents as the property owner had passed away, but his adult children were still alive. As the heirs, our client could negotiate the terms of purchasing the land.
Multiple sources of information
This case vividly illustrates that a complex investigation involving diverse techniques can yield desired results. In this instance, it enabled us to locate a person of whom only the name was initially known. Searching archives, conducting field interviews, analyzing information, and using OSINT techniques—all combined—become tools that provide significant capabilities in obtaining information about the legal status of properties and the fates of their owners.
Author: Marcin Silwanow
*Due to respect and the safety of our clients, all sensitive data has been anonymized for publication.
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