Carolyn Hardnett has been providing information to journalists for more than 25 years. She has worked for the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, Army Times Publishing and Emerge Magazine. She has also been an independent information broker and library management consultant.

Ms. Hardnett has been active in SLA since 1977. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors and is a past chair of the News Division. Carolyn is currently employed at the St. Petersburg Times as a news researcher. Her email address is hardnett@spte.sptimes.com.

Years ago when I was trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, "private detective" never crossed my mind.p But here it is, 1996 and that is exactly what I have become. It really makes my day to be able to locate someone who does not want to be found, or uncover that unlisted number that is supposed to be oh so private.

Any part of your life that has become part of a public record I can find. Oh and that wonderful social security number that is required on just about everything you do. Once I get that the sky is the limit.

I can put the pieces of your life together like a jigsaw puzzle. I can find relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, supervisors and business associates. I can find previous addresses. I can find property records, address, value and description. I can find what kind of car or boat or airplane you drive, sail or fly and any you used to own. I can get your driving history records and detailed accident reports.

I can find worker's compensation records. I can also find any corporations or businesses you are affiliated with. If you own a concealed weapon I can find the permit. If you have any kind of criminal history I can get it and your incarceration records. Sexual predator, got you.

Married or divorced, no problem, got you and your spouse. If you hold any kind of professional license, not a problem at all.

Have you ever filed a lawsuit or has anyone filed one against you, public record, I can look at it.

By now you should be thoroughly convinced that there is no way you can hide from me and that there is very little that I cannot find out about you. The reality is that your unlisted phone number and your private information is only private until it becomes part of any public record. Now I would like to discuss some of the things to keep in mind while trying to locate that elusive person.

First I get as much information on the person as possible. Asking first for a middle initial and any tidbits no matter how trivial they may seem at the moment because they could come in handy later. Asking about martial status, kids, occupation, employment past or present, family or associates and approximate age. Unfortunately sometimes all you have is a name and no details and that is when it is really fun. Finding that needle in a haystack.

Recently I had a request such as that and turned it into a real coup. A reporter I am working with on a project to be published later this year came to me to find a person that had been in Pinellas County (FLA) some 25 years ago and no one knows where he is or how to get in touch with him and she needed to talk with him on a very important matter pertaining to the project.

All she had was a name and that he was a Presbyterian minister. I started with phone disc for Southeast, two persons by that name in the State of Virginia in the same general area. There was no junior or senior attached but by now I suspect this a father and son. I was lucky that the name was somewhat unusual. I asked the reporter if she knew where this man was from, she did not. I still needed to make a Florida connection.

I decided to take a chance and run the name through Autotrack, bingo, I got one and a Virginia address turned up. I took the social security number and ran it through WDIA, bingo again, Virginia and Florida turned up. By now I am convinced. I go to the reporter and she thinks the first guy with the Florida and Virginia connection is too young, however the dates are connecting. I give her the phone number she make the call, the phone has been disconnected. She feels it's a loss cause.

I did not want to get her hopes so I go back to my desk and call the other number, an elderly gentleman answers the phone. I identify myself and tell him who I am looking for and why and ask if he is that person. He says no. That's my son you are looking for. So I tell him we have called another number and I give him the address and he tells me his son is in the navy now and is out to sea on a ship, but he talks to he sometimes. I quickly ask if I may give his number to the reporter and have her call and talk with him immediately. He say yes. I race over to the reporter's desk, she is shocked.

She makes the call, talks to the father and he tells her that his daughter has son's address she asked how to get in touch with daughter, he says she will be back from the store shortly. She gave the daughter all the information and is now waiting for a response from a ship somewhere in the Mediterranean.

There are also the exceptions in which cases the name is just to common and without a real good lead or one or two minor details it would be impossible to locate John Doe somewhere in Florida. The same would be true of a Mary A for Anne Smith (married name) who is really Mary J for Johnson (her maiden name) Smith. Women's names can really tax your skills. If they have been married more than once we are talking real headache.

Asking the reporter why he/she is looking for this person (accident, crime, political) I sometimes find there can be a clue hidden there.

In my handouts I have included copies of three stories that were published in the St. Petersburg Times in which news researchers received a credit line. These three stories are among many for which we have received contributing credit. We see our names in the paper daily and we really feel we are and extension of the newsroom as we work together with reporters to make their stories the best that they can be.

I will give you a brief summary of our contributions to these stories.

December 20, 1994, Big Mike, Big Lies; Bitter Truth by Tim Roche.

This story evolved over a period of several weeks starting with the two names of Max Dub and Michael Fair.

Running the names through Autotrack then taking the social security numbers and running them through WDIA. Searching the courts for divorce records, searching newspapers all across the country to see where the names would turn up, searching the Assets library in Nexis to look for property records.

Every time Tim would get a piece of information he would bring it to me and I would take the information through all the steps which would turn up something new to bounce back to him and he would go off to connect yet another dot. It was a very tedious back and forth process putting all the pieces together. When the smoke cleared Tim had an excellent page one story and we had created a team that works very well together.

December 15, 1995, A woman of mystery, by Larry Dougherty.

This story took a double team, Kitty Bennett in St. Pete and Barbara Hijek in Tampa. Together they helped Larry track down the five previous husbands that Tampa Mayor Greco's new wife forgot she had. Searching newspapers and public records in Texas and Pennsylvania. Using bits and pieces to search Autotrack, Infotek, WDIA, Nexis and Datatimes Kitty and Barbara were able to locate records and people for Larry to interview in his quest to reach the former husbands. As you will read in the story they found all of them. The entire project took about one week. May 26, 1996, Sheriff's race in Keys is tawdry page-turner by Monica Davey.

This story evolved over several weeks research was done on the Sweetwater Police Department and the candidates. John Martin had the most fun trying to find out if Linda Lovelace was dead or alive and if alive where was she. He found her through liver transplant story in Nexis that gave him her new name which he then ran through Autotrack, WDIA, Assets on Nexis. He also found stories in the Syracuse newspapers concerning lectures at schools. Monica was able to contact her personally.

Now lets briefly touch on finding law enforcement officers and unlisted telephone numbers.

First the law, if you have searched for a law enforcement officer you know that their social security number does not show up and their phone numbers are unlisted. However, if they are married I go after the spouse because somewhere along the way the spouse will put that number down on something and bingo, got you. Sometimes someone living at their address may have a telephone.

Did you know that when you register your dog you must put down your address and phone number. Well The CAR team bought the tape and created a database on CD and we call it doggy data. It is just choked full of unlisted numbers. Just the other day a reporter was trying to find a number and just happened to mention that the person owned a dog. Well that was the only place where a phone number for this person appeared.

I think because Florida is a government in the sunshine state and different types of information is so readily available finding people is less difficult than in other parts of the country and we are most thankful for that.