Child Custody Investigation Case Study:
An American grandmother contacted us to ask for help with a child custody dispute with her son. The client learned her American son was living in an apartment in Tokyo with his second wife and an infant who had been born to his first wife. He had lived in Japan for the previous two years, but he began abusing alcohol and had been unemployed for two years. His second wife, who was way older than him, was the breadwinner, but she was suspected of engaging in an unsavory work such as escort services and exotic dancing at nightclubs.
The client didn’t think this was in the best interests of the child and was seeking full custody. She needed to make sure that her grandson would not have to endure an unstable lifestyle in Tokyo.
Summary:
Japan PI devised a plan to conduct surveillance on the subject and a background investigation into his second wife.
As the subjects refused to provide their address in Tokyo via cell phone, the investigators traced their address by following them home after they met with our client. This way, we located the current address of the subject.
A few days later, we commenced surveillance of him from home at 07:00 a.m., but he was not observed leaving the house till 02:00 p.m. The male subject just went to the nearby supermarket to buy liquor and cigarettes. We heard the male subject swearing loudly in the house.
Around 07:00 p.m., the female subject was observed leaving the house. We began mobile surveillance and followed her to an escort club office. The female subject was observed leaving the escort club at 04:00 a.m. and coming home at 05:00 a.m.
We continued the same surveillance for the next three days, and we learned that the male subject was completely jobless and receiving government aid. The female subject was observed working for the same escort club regularly every day.
We began a background check on the second wife. The background investigation turned up that she had a previous marriage record with a Japanese guy who was the pimp at a brothel in Sendai, Japan. The ex-husband of the female subject had a criminal record where he was accused of drug trafficking, and he is currently serving 6-year imprisonment.
Conclusion:
The surveillance reports and background investigation were provided to the client along with the photos. The client was very sad to hear the news, but she was optimistic the evidence would gain her full custody of the child in the family court.
