Trying to Do the Unthinkable: Locating Someone in Jail

Michelle Wilson - June 26, 2019

Sometimes you think you have just about seen it all in life. After a while, you mistakenly believe that nothing can shock you anymore. But let me tell you, the moment you start believing this, the unthinkable happens and you are placed in the oddest of situations.

My Story

I come from a middle-class family and was raised to have morals, integrity, and respect for those around me. Both of my parents were active in raising me and my two brothers. I wouldn’t say it was the perfect childhood, but it wasn’t too bad either.

All three of us went to college, moved away from home, and were able to get decent jobs where we could pay our bills and still have a bit of money left over to put away for savings. With this in mind, we did enjoy our space from one another. All three of us boys lived in different states, but that made holidays even better as we were actually happy to spend some time together.

Each of us got married within a year of each other. It was definitely one of the busiest years of our lives. Our parents retired and stayed busy by coming and visiting our families at least once a year. Life was basically pretty ordinary. When you are young, you think your life is going to be some sort of amazing adventure filled with riches and somehow becoming so famous the whole world knows you. But when it comes down to it, just working a job you can tolerate and raising a family is pretty cool, too.

But Then…

My oldest brother’s name is Jeremy and he could get a bit out of hand even while we were younger. It seemed like he was born with the common sense part missing from his brain. He never got into any serious trouble, but my parents would have to go meet with the principal now and then when we were growing up because Jeremy was caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.

Flash forward to us as adults and if you ran into Jeremy on the street, you would think he was completely level headed and normal. But in reality, he had a rather short temper and you never could tell what would set him off.

Then one day my mom called me up and asked if I had spoken to Jeremy for a while. She said she had been trying to get ahold of him for the last week and he was not answering his cell. On top of that, she had been calling his wife’s number and she was not answering either. Even though I told my mom that everything was probably fine, I had my doubts. This started my search for my brother.

The Adventure Begins

Since I was in another state from Jeremy, I couldn’t just hop in my car and drive over to his house. That meant that I would have to do my investigation completely from my phone. When I called Jeremy and his wife, neither answered their phones. My mom was correct. So I did the next rational thing. I called the hospitals located in their city to see if there was any record of them being brought in recently. I thought perhaps they had been in an automobile accident or something. Still, that search turned up absolutely nothing. My brother Jeremy was technically missing.

Whenever you are faced with trying to find a missing person, the obvious thing to do is contact the police. After calling up the city’s police department and being transferred four times and being placed on hold for well over a half an hour, I was asked if I wanted to fill out a missing person’s report on Jeremy. At this point, I asked the police officer I was talking to on the phone if perhaps Jeremy had been arrested for something and he was being kept there. It was just a shot in the dark.

I Felt Like I Was on Dateline

He said that he did not have any record of a Jeremy being brought in during the last couple weeks. That is when I banged my head up against the wall and remembered that Jeremy is my brother’s middle name. His actual first name is Richard and he never wanted to be called by this name growing up. Once again, the officer said my brother had not been brought there, but I should check with the county jail as well. Who knew there were so many different police departments to check with? There was the city’s police department, the county’s police department, and the state’s police department.

At this point, I figured I had to find a quicker way. I didn’t want to have my search lasting days as I was constantly put on hold every place I searched for my brother. After a quick online search, I came across the CheckPeople website. It is the easiest way to determine if someone was recently arrested or even if they have spent any time in prison. I just needed Jeremy’s full legal name, birthdate, and the state he lives in. Within minutes, I located Jeremy as he was being kept in the county jail and was having to wait to be arraigned and for his trial. It turns out his wife and he had split and she had filed a restraining order against Jeremy that he evidently paid little attention to. This led to him being arrested. In the end, Jeremy finally moved on and a divorce took place. He only spent a couple more days in jail and hasn’t been back since.

Live and Learn

If you are ever in the same predicament as I was, trying to hunt down a missing loved one, don’t bother wasting your time and calling all the different police departments. It will take you forever and you may not even be receiving the right information. Plus, they are incredibly rude on the phone. Go directly to CheckPeople and save yourself some serious time and frustration.