First Case: Shane McNeil

In September of 2010, Shane McNeil disappeared while walking the open desert between Henderson, Nevada, where he lived, and the Hoover Dam. The intended trip was more than 28 miles in temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. During the four days he was missing, well-intentioned search resources did not fully understand the subject they were looking for, and ignored simple data recovered from his cell phone. These clues eventually led searchers to his exact location and a tragic outcome.

On day three, Paul Burke and Ben McMinn were notified of the search and employed a process for analysis that has become "Virtual Search Planning". The process quickly developed a fact pattern that initiated actions by local search resources who discovered McNeil three hours later. Although McNeil was found deceased, the efforts of Burke and McMinn proved the rapid success of a process that has now been implemented nationally and internationally in the search for missing persons. The Shane McNeil incident is the story of how this came to be.