Some of you may have heard about or watched the real crime show called The First 48. I've had people ask me why the first forty-eight hours are so important to the investigation of any crime.
      There are many things involved in attempting to solve any crime. There's evidence to be collected, witnesses to interview, leads to follow, and a need to identify suspects. The sooner these things can be accomplished, the better chance the police have of catching the criminal. The longer it takes to collect the information, the more chances there are of some of that information no longer being available. Evidence can be washed or blown away by adverse weather. There's also a chance someone may come along and clean up the crime scene (not realizing it's a crime scene) or purposely remove key pieces of evidence (the criminal returns to try to cover their tracks). Witnesses are most likely to remember key details within the first few hours of seeing something happen. While some people can recall details longer or remember things days later they forgot at the first interview, most people will start to forget things soon afterwards. It's not because they have bad memories, but we're all constantly seeing new things and the older information gets pushed to the back of our minds or we totally forget the details. The person who committed the crime will always be the person who committed the crime, but a detective needs to identify the person as soon as possible so he (she) can make an arrest or at least keep an eye on them until he (she) has enough evidence to make an arrest. The longer it takes to pinpoint suspects, the greater the chance becomes they'll leave the area and never be found.
     This timeline becomes even more important when a child goes missing or any person has been abducted. Some kidnappings and abductions are committed in disagreements with child custody and the children are later found and returned unharmed. However, there are times both children and adults are taken to obtain a ransom or so the criminal can commit further crimes against them. There's no guarantee that even someone being held for ransom won't be harmed or killed. If these people aren't found within the first forty-eight hours, the chances increase of them never being found or them being harmed or killed. The sooner they're found, the less harm can be done.
    The first forty-eight hours is only a guideline. Through the collected experience of many officers and detectives, it's seen over and over again that those first two days are the most critical for collecting the information needed for any investigation. That's not to say no further information will ever be collected past that time. Some cases may take weeks of evidence collection and witness interviews before a detective even gets a name for a suspect. There are also cases which have gone "cold" because of the lack of evidence or eyewitnesses which are solved many years later because new evidence is found. While the first two days are critical, it takes persistence and dedication past that time to work through cases in which the criminal was careful to leave very little evidence or the crime isn't reported for several days after it was committed.