As any Child Protective Services caseworker can tell you, the first step in helping endangered children is to find them.

Many low-income families with CPS files move nomadically from relatives’ homes to apartments to rent houses. Locating them can require the skills of a private investigator.

And often that’s whom caseworkers turn to for help.

Under a program funded by United Way of Tarrant County, a licensed private investigator has tracked down more than 300 families that seemed to have vanished from the Earth.

“We’ve found some children in homes with needles on the floor, drugs on the tables, dirty dishes, dirty clothes, filth and slime,” said private investigator Geoffrey Tait, who has helped CPS since 2005. “Empty homes with no furniture, just blankets on the floor where they sleep. Kids who needed to be rescued.”

They might not have been, if not for one miserable, battered little boy who wasn’t found until it was too late.

A child dies

In 2004, a series of child-abuse deaths made headlines.

One of the most disturbing to Pat Cheong, an assistant vice president for United Way, was the killing of 9-year-old Davontae Williams. Police found his malnourished body covered with cuts and bruises inside an Arlington apartment.

His mother and her partner often tied him up or locked him in the pantry, police said. He hadn’t attended school since the first grade.

It turned out, Cheong learned, that CPS caseworkers had tried to help the family, but Davontae’s mother evaded them by moving from one home to another. In fact, in 2003, CPS had received an allegation of abuse or neglect for about 400 area families but had been unable to locate them for investigation, she said.

“These CPS workers had a very high number of cases to investigate and had to try to track down all these families who had moved,” Cheong said. “It was an overwhelming task, and I thought there must be someone out there specifically trained to find people.”

That led the United Way’s Families Impact Council to create a grant for CPS to contract with a private investigator. Starting in November 2004, when CPS caseworkers exhausted their own resources to find a family, referrals were sent to the investigator. This year the grant was $63,000.

“It has been a tremendous help,” said Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman for CPS. “Children who vanish with their families are often the most vulnerable. We wish we had this program in every county.”

Finding families

A few years ago, Tait’s three-person investigation company, Cat’s Eye Intelligence Service in Fort Worth, was doing work for 40 law firms throughout the Metroplex.

In early 2005, when the first private investigator and CPS parted ways, Tait got the contract.

“Generally, a PI’s job is to find things,” Tait said. “We can find virtually anything on everybody. So I thought I could help.”

After a family disappears, CPS caseworkers give Tait whatever information they have on the family, such as accusations against them, last known addresses, whether the adults received public assistance.

The first thing Tait does is run Internet searches. Some are public information searches, but licensed private investigators also have access to state databases usually open only to law enforcement personnel.

Tait can locate about 10 percent of the families without leaving his desk, he said.

For those who aren’t so easy, Tait and his investigators — one of whom speaks Spanish — hit the streets, knocking on doors, asking relatives, former neighbors or ex-employers for information. Once found, the families are often stunned to find a private investigator at their door.

“In many cases, they didn’t even know CPS was looking for them,” Tait said. “Sometimes they say, ‘Well, I called CPS, but nobody answered so I just hung up.’ And, occasionally, they are angry that we are there.”

The program’s success led United Way to create a $48,000 grant for Tait to train CPS caseworkers on investigative skills. Ideally, caseworkers will soon be better-equipped to track families on their own.

“We’re excited,” Gonzales said. “Every bit of knowledge we can gain to find these families will help.”

Finding families

Results of the private investigator project paid for by a grant from United Way of Tarrant County from November 2004 through Aug. 15:

530 Cases referred to private investigator

330 Families found by investigator

Types of abuse found

73 Neglectful supervision

34 Physical abuse

9 Medical neglect

11 Physical neglect

4 Sexual abuse

1 Abandonment

Note: In some cases, more than one type of abuse and/or neglect was found.

Source: Child Protective Services

How to donate

United Way of Tarrant County kicked off its annual fundraising campaign Sept. 7.

The goal is $24 million, which will be used to fund nonprofit social-service agencies in the region.

Mail a check to United Way of Tarrant County, 210 East Ninth St., Fort Worth, TX 76102. Or donate online at www.unitedwaytarrant.org.