NALI MidWinter Conference 2025

Daniel Collins, CLI

Title: Skiptracing Ghosts: The Art of Locating Hard to Find People

Description: There are an infinite number of reasons why locating an individual would be important, and as intensive as the data available on the internet can be, it is only comprised of information that *might* be true at some point in the past. Where are they right now? Homeless, undocumented immigrants, substance abusers, low-income couch surfers, college students, minors, people in the midst of life transitions, and on and on. What if someone is actively avoiding you? Many assignments will bring easy results, but there will be a frustratingly high number of subjects that will force you into a deep dive. This discussion will bring together online skiptracing processes with pre-internet methods to review the tools available to investigators for those hard-to-find people.

Daniel J. Collins, CLI, CCDI is a licensed private legal investigator in the Greater Boston Metro Area. He is President and Chief Investigator of Level Investigations of New England, Inc., which is a team of professionals that specialize in criminal defense investigations, post-conviction appellate investigations, as well as both plaintiff and defense side civil litigation investigations. Over nearly 20 years, he has worked with hundreds of law firms to lead thousands of comprehensive criminal and civil investigations in state and federal jurisdictions. He earned his Board Certification (CCDI) from the Criminal Defense Investigation Training Counsel (CDITC) in 2008, in addition to being awarded two national CDITC commendations for demonstration of superior investigative ability. He is currently serving as the Northeast USA Regional Director for the National Association of Legal Investigators (NALI), earned the Certified Legal Investigator (CLI) designation, and in 2024 was awarded NALI’s National Director’s Award for dedicated service.