Advice on hiring a private investigator to find a missing person

[cyberxray]

I hope this is the right forum to post this but I want to get people’s advice on hiring a private investigator/detective to assist in searching for a missing person. Obviously I’ve never done this before and need some ideas, advice, pointers, pitfalls on how to go about this.

How much information/leads do I need in order to hire one?
Would they be able to speak with the detective assigned to the case to get additional details that might help them?
How do I go about finding one?
References?
What would the approximate cost be?
What would a reasonable hiring period be? A few days? One or two weeks?
What should the cost cover? I assume it should include travel cost, food stipend, car rental, gas, allowance for miscellaneous other costs.
What kind of goals and expectations should I be setting? Would asking for a daily report be too much on where, when, who be reasonable?
Providing proof of places visited, persons interviewed?


Thank you very much in advance for all replies.

 

[IQuestion]

I hired a private detective...twice. Best experience ever! Cost was 2k per day. They are not bound by
"LE department rules" , have a lot of contacts in the community, and they work just for you. I was amazed at how much better they were at obtaining facts/information LE overlooked.

 

[cyberxray]

Thank you very much for your feedback. I really appreciate it. I will do some research online.