"THE STORY OF MY LIFE?"

You know what I wonder? On cop shows, when you hear about detectives digging into a victim's personal life to see what kind of people they are/were, I wonder where you start? You know what I mean? I guess you'd go through bank statements and such, to see where someone spends their money and all, but what else? Credit reports? Cell phone records to lead you to friends and family members to talk with? I'm just curious here, because I'm watching a thing on Court TV, well, not really watching, but I have it on as background noise, and just heard a detective say, "As we looked into the victim's background, we quickly realized she wasn't the kind of person who would intentionally disappear."

I mean, I suppose that you could easily dig dirt on someone with criminal records or changes in legal relationship status or credit collections or whatever, but what if you've never been arrested or gotten married or divorced or had kids or been sued and you pay stuff on time and whatnot. How do you check out someone who doesn't really have much dirt? Know what I mean? How would someone take a fairly squeaky person and say confidently that they'd never run away from it all? Am I over-thinking it and it's only a matter of talking to people who know the victim? I'm mostly asking for my own curiosity, but maybe a tiny bit as a writer, too.