r/coldcases • u/Alternative_Car8250 • 8d ago

Discussion OSINT

New to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Will be working with a local group to help find missing kids, hikers, etc. Would love to hear you techniques and tricks for find that first thread or rabbit hole.

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u/tonypolar 8d ago

How so? Do you have a case example or just want tips and tricks?

I do research for a podcast and my fave tip is: remember that not everything is on the internet and that if you need to track something down that is not online, a librarian is a very good place to start

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u/Alternative_Car8250 7d ago

I will be working cases involving missing people people, primarily hikers. Personal interviews will be part and trying to scrub any recent activities online to get a timeline of activities and where tge mindset may have been prior to dissapeance.

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u/tonypolar 7d ago

Really cool (I would love to chat about a thought I’d had about historical cases like that).
I do investigative genetic genealogy so I’m on the “proof of life” side, but I would suggest looking at any socials (keyword searching but also seeing who friends are in pics, places they post, etc). If these are hikers, are there hiking friends or groups on their posts advertising events (like hey we are planning on doing this on x date), you can creep on certain groups (like if there is a local hiking group or outdoorsy group). I like to search google to see if there are close spots to attractions or things a person may want to see…
Don’t know if you will have location data or coordinates or any of their history but that can be mined, too.
Check close friends for comments on pages, around things like “wow that spot looks so awesome!”
Hope any of that is helpful!

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u/DuAuk 8d ago

I'm not sure what type of info you have, but i remember getting some hints from this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5W82KN9B8