Originally Posted by
studentff
Say a man's wife or child goes missing? He knows he didn't have anything to do with it, and he wants her to be found. But we all know the cops will blame the husband/man first (see Jennifer Wilbanks case). In this case, what is he to do? He wants the cops to investigate and help find his wife, but common sense says he shouldn't say anything to them. Should he even report her missing before getting a laywer lined up? Where do you draw the line?
The police suspect the husband first because most of the time the husband did the deed.
In that situation I already know what I would do. I would invite the police to do whatever necessary to eliminate me as a suspect in my wife's or child's abduction, on the basis that the sooner they do that, the sooner resources will be applied to finding my loved one. That would include searching my home and vehicles without a warrant, and a polygraph. It is a very high risk strategy, but balancing my loss of liberty for a crime I didn't commit versus seeing my loved one alive, I'll go for the latter. That's the deal I signed up for when I married.
That situation is runs far afield from talking to LEO during a random encounter. OMNI, here we come.