Ep. 17October 8, 2018· 24:10
17 - Shiela Wysocki | Mighty Process Server
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Episode Highlights
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In this gripping episode of "Process Server Daily," host Mighty Mike Reid converses with private investigator Shiela Wysocki. Shiela shares her intensely personal journey into private investigation, fueled by the desire to solve her college roommate's murder case. She elaborates on her various experiences, the challenges faced while dealing with law enforcement, and her innovative crowdsourcing approach in tackling unsolved cases.
- 00:34 — Shiela Wysocki introduces her work in cold cases and her journey from a mother to a private investigator.
- 01:45 — Shiela recounts obtaining her PI license and solving her college roommate's murder case.
- 02:30 — Discussion on persistence and the nickname "PITA" (Pain In The Ass) given to Shiela by her partners.
- 03:50 — Shiela shares her worst experience of being intimidated and discredited by state police.
- 05:17 — Insight into the repercussions of taking investigative matters to the media.
- 07:38 — Shiela acknowledges the challenges of building cooperative relationships with law enforcement.
- 12:02 — Introduction of crowdsourcing in investigations and its success in generating solutions.
- 15:10 — The impact and potential of CrimeCon in building a community of crime fighters.
- 17:35 — Shiela discusses utilizing a Facebook group for investigating cases and sharing insights.
- 19:20 — Mighty Mike invites listeners to join the Mighty Process Servers community for resources and networking.
Full Transcript
Shiela Wysocki:My very worst experience was working with a family, figuring out who took their missing child and murdered their missing child and trying to get the state police to work with me. And they got so mad at me that they came and searched my house and intimidated me, threatened to throw me in jail and put out press releases that I was not credible. And
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Intro:From elite pros to the new servers taking massive action, these are the voices of a rising industry. Hosted by the founder of 123 Legal Support, Mighty Mike Reed. This is your backstage pass to building a profitable process serving empire. Let's get into it.
Mighty Mike:Sheila works on cold cases, including missing persons and murders. The Tennessee mother of two has captivated the media as well as the hearts of America with her life changing story. Sheila Wysocki, welcome to the show.
Shiela Wysocki:Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Mighty Mike:Yeah, it's really cool. I heard about your podcast and I heard some of the things that you had going on. As someone who aspires to be a private investigator, I can't help but want to, you know, be involved and just have a good conversation with you. Sheila, tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us how you got started in this industry.
Shiela Wysocki:I got into being a PI in 2004 when I wanted the Dallas Police Department to reopen my college roommate's murder case. And unfortunately, a phone call from a mom wasn't going to make them open up the case. So through a series of events, I got my PI license. And in 2008, we had DNA run. And in 2010, we got a conviction of capital murder for the person that murdered my roommate.
Mighty Mike:So. And I really want to hear all the different stories that you have. You have just so much value to be able to provide to the listeners today. But I want to understand how does a mom who is just a little bit concerned, right? That's one of the reasons why they didn't want to just go into it. It's like there's lots of moms that are concerned. What makes you different than others? Like, how did you get to where you got just that one thing that made it happen for you?
Shiela Wysocki:I was a pain in the ass. And that is the nickname that my partner's have for me is PETA. I don't give up. I'm persistent. I'm not going to let go when I know it's the right thing. You just keep pursuing and that's basically it I wasn't going to go away, and I had to figure out how to get it done. And that's in any investigation. You got to figure out how to get it done and what's the way to do it. And that's what I did. I knew we had DNA. I knew we had fingernail scraping. So I knew the evidence that was available. It was just a matter of getting someone to the case with me.
Mighty Mike:That's awesome. And you found somebody finally?
Shiela Wysocki:Yes, I. There was a female detective. I think they were so sick of me that they had her call me kind of to pat me on the head and tell me to go away. And she actually pulled the DNA and got it sent off. And now, you know, the guy's on death row.
Mighty Mike:Oh, my gosh.
Shiela Wysocki:There in one county, there are 7,000 unsolved cases, and we're talking one county. So can you imagine? There's. I heard a statistic, and I'm not sure. I think they start keeping statistics in the 80s. And I heard recently there's 300,000 plus unsolved cases. So that means there are 300 plus unsolved cases for families, for victims.
Mighty Mike:Oh, my goodness. Well, Sheila, there's a lot. You have a lot of different things going on. I'm excited to hear about all of it. But process river daily. We start. We want to end it on a good note. So we start with your worst experience. What was your worst experience? Working out there in the field?
Shiela Wysocki:My very worst experience was working with a family figuring out who took their missing child and murdered their missing child and trying to get the state police to work with me. And they got so mad at me that they came and searched my house and intimidated me, threatened to throw me in jail and put out press releases that I was not credible and a liar. And that was the worst experience.
Mighty Mike:Oh, wow.
Shiela Wysocki:Yep. They came to intimidate me and shut me down.
Mighty Mike:Wow. And what do you think led to that, specifically? Like, take me to that moment so we can understand it better.
Shiela Wysocki:Okay. Lesson learned. As an investigator, I. Because I wasn't getting the cooperation, I was trying to figure out, well, how do you get cooperation? You take it to the media. Okay, note to self. You don't take it to the media and call out the state police telling them they're incompetent and not expect to get a backlash. And I was too naive to think they could do anything, but they have bigger guns.
Mighty Mike:Wow. That is definitely a lesson learned, Sheila. I had a local experience with a deputy when I called and tried to Get a civil standby. And I did a social media thing talking about how I wish, you know, they'd help me clean up the area. And then I got a letter in the mail said that I needed to go before the business and professions board and stuff like that. And it's just. You got it. It has repercussions.
Shiela Wysocki:Everything you do, you expect the white hat people to be white hat people. You don't expect them to be revengeful because you're thinking you're all rowing the same boat, going to get the same goal and finish line and there are people poking holes in that boat. They're not going for the same goal.
Mighty Mike:Right. And that's really unfortunate. That's sad. And that's honestly. And that's how you end up with all these cases unsolved.
Shiela Wysocki:Exactly. You know, and there are plenty of people out there that want to help these families. But, you know, it's, it's scary going up. Constantly fighting law enforcement.
Mighty Mike:Right. So right away, setting the tone so you can get law enforcement on your side. Is that something you consider right from the get go to try to, you know, try to find, find an end, find a person on the inside so
Shiela Wysocki:we can talk about that? I have had law enforcement help me and then they have lost their jobs. So that's the experience I've had. That's the honest experience I've had.
Mighty Mike:That's too bad. That's unfortunate.
Shiela Wysocki:Yeah. Because they were doing the right thing and they were the good guys.
Mighty Mike:Well, I have to tell you, Sheila, that's, that's, it's terrible to hear that about your own system of government and system, but this is the world, this is the reality that we're living in. You're. Somebody kind of stepped out there and said, you know what? Not only am I going to try to solve these cases, but I'm going to go public with it and on my own platform. And that's the beauty of technology, of social media, of all of this, is that the power has been given back to the people, if you will. And so it's really cool to interview and to hear it from, I guess, the horse's mouth, as it were. That's a terrible experience to have them come into your house and do that kind of stuff. What is your best discovery? What was your greatest experience working in the field?
Shiela Wysocki:So in that same very case, when the trial recently happened, the state police had to admit they were wrong and I was right. So, you know, of course it was several years later, but at least I knew I was doing the right thing for that family, and I did the right thing, and I was right about who murdered their child.
Mighty Mike:Sheila, how do you handle that pressure? I mean, I can't even imagine. Like, I myself, I have a lot of resources. I have a lot of abilities. I'm very. I would consider myself fairly intelligent. I learned from people like yourself. If I got involved in that. I think the hardest part for me was being able to handle the pressure of dealing with somebody that maybe murdered their own child. How do you deal with somebody like that? And if you don't want to go into it too much, we don't have to. But like, that, to me, is the most fascinating thing, is, like, how do you manage that?
Shiela Wysocki:Well, in that particular case, they didn't murder their child. I just figured out who did murder their child. How do I handle the pressure of what I do? I have a lot of faith and, you know, not to get into a religious conversation, but I couldn't do this every day if I didn't. I believe in God. Maybe not religion, but God. I couldn't do it if I didn't have the support system. So I have a huge network of private investigators that support me, and I support them in their cases. So it's a community, and it's a small community of what I do. There's very few of us in the country, and we know what each one has gone through.
Mighty Mike:So, Sheila, what can someone do out there? They have a big heart. They want to help out. What can just. I guess you could say the average Joe. What can they do out there to be able to help you solve some of the cases that you're solving? Does it take, like, a super expert investigative person, or can just anyone do?
Shiela Wysocki:Yeah, anybody can do it. So my. My greatest thing right now is called crowdsourcing investigating. And I have started different groups, Facebook groups on cases. And so we go through the cases I'm working on, and I put out the evidence that I can, and I get the smartest people with the best, greatest insight writing me, talking to me. And that's. That's what I've started doing. And I've worked on other podcasts, putting the cases out there, saying, I need someone smarter than me because I want to be the dumbest person in the room. So I think the general public can look at a case and tell me what I'm missing.
Mighty Mike:That's good. Crowdsourcing is always a good crowdsource investigation, you're saying. So you put out the information, and then all of a sudden you just start getting from multiple sources, different things.
Shiela Wysocki:Yes. And I did Crimecon and I'm a big proponent of CrimeCon. I took a group of people, it's supposed to be 200 and 400 showed up and we took a case and we walked through that case and we're going to trial in November. From presenting that case, that group of people, we had doctors and nurses, just a whole group of incredible housewives, people like me, who had children at home, you know, look at the case and you know, come back with great ideas that I followed up on. Some panned out and some didn't.
Mighty Mike:That is so cool. I'm actually really excited about this. After the show, I want to talk to you more about it and maybe associate on this a little more because I want to be able to help. I live in an area, pot growers and, you know, people come missing all the time up in the middle of the mountains and stuff. And so I'm sure there's some work that can be done in my local area.
Shiela Wysocki:Absolutely. I think it can be done anywhere. I mean, there are cases, you know, Crimecon is probably bringing more crime fighter people together as a community. And what I'm seeing watching their website and their what they've done, how many cases are out there and there's that crime sleuth group. I mean, there are just many, many groups. Why not put them all together and figure things out?
Mighty Mike:That is so cool. Maybe start your own association.
Shiela Wysocki:Yeah, I don't have time. I love our groups though. Like yesterday in my Facebook group from the workshop, I said, okay, I need this on this particular case. How many people can look to it? And you know, I had all these people write me back and I was in a meeting one day with an attorney and he said, can you get me the statistics on this? And I said, let me just put it out. In my Facebook group, within an hour, I had pages of statistics that we needed. Hey, quick break from the episode to tell you about something that's changing the game for process servers across the country. It's called Mighty Process Servers. And yeah, you can join absolutely free inside. You'll get full access to every course, every download, and the educational tools that we use to help process servers build profitable companies. We meet every Tuesday at 1pm Eastern for our live Mighty Mastermind call. Come join the conversation. You can connect with other professionals, post on the discussion board, direct message members, and become part of one of the most engaged communities for process servers.
Mighty Mike:Don't wait.
Shiela Wysocki:Go to mightyprocess server.com and join today, those who get verified, get listed, and start bidding on jobs same day. Now, let's get back to the show.
Mighty Mike:So, Sheila, what are you working on right now that has you most fired up?
Shiela Wysocki:I have taken one of my cases and done a podcast on it. And to me, that has been the most rewarding experience. Experience. Hard experience, but very rewarding. What I've gotten From it is I. 30 minutes each Thursday, hopefully, depending on editing, I put out just a section on the case, and then I've been getting tips. So I have spent this week following up on every single tip that's come in. And it is so incredibly exciting that I'm getting so far in the case that no one's ever gotten this information.
Mighty Mike:And so whenever. So I gotta say, like, it seems like to me, when I'm doing like a skip trace, for instance, I search somebody's address, I find them. I mean, I find their mother, but their mother doesn't know where they are. And, like, it just. I guess you get to, like a cold. That's why they call it a cold case. Right? They got to a point where they couldn't go any further. And so with the tools that you're using with technology and the sourcing and your networking and all this stuff, you're saying that, like, you've kind of developed and built this way to receive more tips, more ideas. And they may not even be particular to that case. They might just be that someone looked at the case and thought, well, have you ever thought about this?
Shiela Wysocki:Exactly. So yesterday, one of the people that I work with, whenever I want someone to poke holes in a case, I'll send it to two people. And this one particular person, he goes, if I were you, I'd get a biometric person to look at the injuries and see the exact fall and exact injury and line them up. And I was like, where do I get that? So now I'm gonna find a biometric person to look at this fall.
Mighty Mike:So people watch these TV shows where they get all excited and, you know, where people are trying to solve these different crimes and stuff on tv and, like, this is. This is real life for you. That's what's so cool.
Shiela Wysocki:Absolutely. And it's so exciting to what I deal. I only work for victims, families. That's. That is the only people. I don't work criminal cases. I only work for cold cases, victims, families. So when I call the mom or dad and I say, hey, I got this tip in, these are the steps I'm taking. Do you know how Exciting. It is for the family to know someone is caring and calling and following up. And they have, I mean, my cases, they have armies of people helping them.
Mighty Mike:So I have to ask you this. So after being a husband and a father and most importantly, an entrepreneur, I have to be able to provide for them. You're going out there and you're doing this great service, and to me, it, like, builds character so much to be able to do the kinds of things that you're doing. But what about payment? Like, how do you, how do you pay the bills?
Shiela Wysocki:So I charge. I have been told I'm the most expensive private investigator in the country, which is not true because I think I could work at McDonald's for the amount of time that I spend on my cases. But I do charge my clients and I'm long term. So I'm with these families for two or three years and my families, unfortunately, some of them have to mortgage the house. And I, you know, I would mortgage my house if it meant answers for the death of a child. So I do charge. I don't charge as much as I should. The reality is I have a husband who makes really good money, and so I am able to support. I don't have to worry about a house or food or anything. That podcast, I'm paying for myself. So I'm going to do Patreon. It's the first time I've ever done it. I don't know if I like it or not, but I'm going to do it because if we're going to get these, these answers, I'm going to have to pay for the production of the podcast.
Mighty Mike:Well, that's awesome, Sheila.
Shiela Wysocki:I will tell you, I charge $10,000 up front. That's my retainer.
Mighty Mike:Well, that's really good. I appreciate you. I'm kind of going into the finances of it a little bit because all of us want to participate and kind of maybe get into it. I mean, I know myself, I do. I don't know how much I would charge based on the skill. But when you first got started, how did you go about it? Is this something that you were like, okay, am I just doing all this for free? You had to feel like that a little bit, right?
Shiela Wysocki:So at first I did do it for free to kind of get a feel for it. I've learned you don't do anything for free. You don't because your client didn't respect you. Your. Your time is not valued. And that's when I got in trouble with the state police. So now I require a deposit, a retainer. We work on the hourly rate. And I have to have insurance on every single case separately. So I don't do insurance overall. Each case I do has a separate policy.
Mighty Mike:That's really good. Okay, what is your favorite tool for skip tracing?
Shiela Wysocki:To hire Valerie in Texas to call her and ask her to find someone for me, or there are several other companies, but I hire out.
Mighty Mike:Yeah, it is. It is a really good thing to have like a Rolodex of people that do the different things where they specialize in that particular thing. Because a, you're going to save time. You will end up saving money as you save more time. And so if people aren't paying, you hire a collection agency to go after them, because this isn't your business. Your business is whatever it is you do, and so you're good at what you do. What is the greatest advice you've ever received?
Shiela Wysocki:One thing is continuing education. So I, along with the other PIs that I work with, we all go to continuing education and I constantly learn something new. So we in Tennessee and Texas, you have to have so many hours. I have triple the hours because I want to know the newest things. So my advice is go to continuing education above and beyond.
Mighty Mike:And then what is your favorite book? What book would you recommend?
Shiela Wysocki:I love Mark McClish's. I know you're lying. He is a statement analysis guy. I love what he teaches, and I've taken his class and talked to him and used him on cases. And he's excellent at the way he teaches. Listen to what people are saying because people are telling you the truth. You just need to listen to what they're saying.
Mighty Mike:So, Sheila, where do you see the private investigation industry going in the next 10 years?
Shiela Wysocki:I believe that we are headed in the direction where private investigators are going to be hired by police departments.
Mighty Mike:Wow. Because now do you think that's because the cases aren't getting solved or because private investigators are becoming prominent at getting the job done?
Shiela Wysocki:I think cases are not being solved, so they're stacking up. And I think there's a lack of detectives out there. And I think that private investigators get the job done.
Mighty Mike:Well, it kind of coincides and goes with what they say about independent contractors. As things move from employees to independent contractors here in the next 20 years, they say 90% of us will be ICs. So it kind of goes along with that that they wouldn't hire necessarily inside the police department, but hire someone else out to get the job done and to be more Efficient. So, right. Sheila, what is your parting piece of advice for Server Nation?
Shiela Wysocki:My parting advice is get involved. Don't sit and watch TV and think I could do that. Go do it. Because you can make a difference in someone's life.
Mighty Mike:And can I just add Sheila and you can make some money doing it?
Shiela Wysocki:Oh, absolutely. There are many. I mean, if you're a good researcher, people like me will hire you. I mean, I know that you know, finding in skip tracing. If you're good at finding people, then go out and help someone like you or find a private investigator that needs help. Work part time. There are so many areas that you can make money if you really work at it. But be smart about it. Don't give your services away because people don't value you if you give it away. And don't be on the cheap. This is one of my biggest pet peeve. I have this conversation with brand new PIs and I mentor some of them. Do not go out and be the $25 an hour. Do not go out and give your services away. Go out and be the most expensive, but by God, you better be the best.
Mighty Mike:So you would say start out with now just to bring it down to the most granular level. Let's say today I wanted to go find a case that was unsolved. Where would I go for that?
Shiela Wysocki:Well, you could go on CrimeCon. They do a great job bringing them, you know, forward. There are many Facebook groups and Google group, Google hangouts that are talking about cases. You can just google crimes. You wouldn't believe how many show up. Then I would get into the Facebook groups and start looking at the cases and seeing what you can add to them. There's a, there are great podcasters out there that are doing crime podcasts.
Mighty Mike:That is some great stuff. But Sheila, before we close here, what is the best way that we can connect with you? How can Server Nation keep up with you?
Shiela Wysocki:They can go to my website, sheilawysaki.com or they can email me at sheilashelawaysaki.com and I also have a tip? 888-599-0008. I don't get back to that as quickly as email and going to my website, but they can get me there.
Mighty Mike:So, Sheila, I want to personally thank you for coming on the show. I've been impressed with everything you have going on. I'm going to go to itunes and I'm going to subscribe to your podcast without warning podcast. And I'm going to do that right after the show because I want to listen to everything you have going on and be a part of this.
Shiela Wysocki:Thank you so much for having me on and I appreciate your listeners listening.
Outro:Until next time, Server Nation. You've been served up some awesomeness by Scrappy Mom PI and Mighty Mike, the Podcast Server. Server Nation. I hope you enjoyed that awesome episode we just had with the wonderful Sheila Wysocki. Go check out her podcast without warning and let's be a part of this crowdsourcing investigative effort. You can listen to the podcast and respond to her with the different ideas you think that maybe she hasn't considered before. And as always, don't forget, go get your free trial. 60 days server manager is given. You guys go to processserverdaily.com servemanager.
Outro:That's a wrap on another episode of Process Server Daily where the legal support industry levels up. Want to grow your process serving business with the best marketing tools, the most engaged community and the highest ranking directory online? Visit mightyprocessserver.com Claim your listing Join our free community Surround yourself with process servers who get it and build something real. From the field to the courtroom. This is Process Server Daily. Until next time. Stay safe out there and live. Mighty.
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