Lawyer-led tracing & locating
Finding a person the law needs found, discreetly and on the record
Some legal matters cannot move until a particular person is located: a spouse who has disappeared, an heir who cannot be found, a defendant of unknown address, a debtor who has gone quiet. I coordinate a regulated tracing and forensic-enquiry service that locates the person lawfully and produces the evidence a court will accept.
I act as your single point of contact. I assess the legal position, instruct and supervise a vetted tracing partner, and turn what is found into the affidavit, application or order your matter requires, with the care of a litigation-trained lawyer.
Legally framed
The enquiry is built around the legal outcome you need, not around surveillance for its own sake.
On the record
Findings are documented so they stand up as evidence of diligent search before a court or an insurer.
Discreet and lawful
Enquiries run within data-protection rules and professional confidentiality, never as harassment.
Where it matters
When a missing person stands between you and a legal result
Most enquiries fall into two areas, family matters and inheritance, with several others arising in litigation and enforcement. Each begins with the same question: where is the person, and can we prove we looked properly.
Divorcing a spouse who cannot be found
A marriage can break down long before anyone knows where the other spouse is. Where a husband or wife has disappeared or moved without trace, the obstacle is rarely the grounds for divorce; it is serving the petition and showing the court a genuine attempt to find them.
A documented trace supports an application for substituted service or service by publication, and, where the absence is long and unexplained, it underpins the route to dissolving the marriage on the basis of absence or presumed death.
Locating a missing heir or beneficiary
An estate cannot be safely distributed while an heir or beneficiary is missing. Personal representatives carry personal liability if they pay the wrong people, and unknown relatives often sit behind an intestacy.
Forensic genealogy and heir tracing identify and locate the rightful beneficiaries, and the resulting report supports a protective court order or missing-beneficiary indemnity insurance so the administration can close.
Presumption of death and absence
Resolving the legal status of someone missing for years, so a marriage can end and an estate can be administered.
Serving a defendant of unknown address
Locating a party so proceedings can be served, or evidencing diligent search for substituted service.
Enforcing against a vanished debtor
Tracing a judgment debtor and identifying recoverable assets so an award can be enforced.
Locating a witness
Finding and re-establishing contact with a witness for trial, lawfully and without pressure.
Lost members and unclaimed benefits
Tracing missing pension or policy beneficiaries and verifying records, the way institutions already do.
Reuniting separated family
Sensitive enquiries to re-establish contact, made only through a lawyer and with consent respected.
How do you divorce someone you cannot find?
You cannot usually obtain a divorce without the other spouse being served. Where they have vanished, the law does not leave you trapped in the marriage; it asks you to look properly first. Courts expect a diligent search: the last known address, contact with relatives and employers, the relevant public records, and a professional trace. Once that search is documented, the court can permit alternative service or service by publication, and the matter can proceed even if the missing spouse never replies.
Where someone has been absent for a long period, a further route opens. Different legal systems treat this through a declaration of absence or a presumption of death, which can both dissolve a marriage and allow an estate to be dealt with. In Cyprus, the Family Court can dissolve a marriage where a spouse has been inexcusably absent or has been declared missing or dead, and a respondent who does not appear does not prevent the divorce. The evidential pivot in every version of this is the same: proof that a real and competent search was carried out.
- Divorcing a missing or absent spouse, including where they have left the country
- Substituted service and service by publication on a spouse of unknown whereabouts
- The affidavit of diligent search the court will want to see
- Dissolution on the basis of absence, and the presumption-of-death route where it applies
What happens to an estate when an heir or beneficiary is missing?
An administrator or executor must identify every beneficiary and pay the right people. When a beneficiary is missing, or when an intestacy points to relatives no one can name, the estate stalls and the personal representative is exposed: distribute too soon and the liability is personal. The answer is a proper search, carried out and recorded by professional genealogists, that either finds the person or demonstrates that finding them is not reasonably possible.
That evidence then unlocks the practical solutions. A court can authorise distribution on protective terms where a beneficiary cannot be traced, and missing-beneficiary indemnity insurance can cover the estate, but insurers will want to see the search before they offer cover. Cross-border estates add a further layer, with heirs abroad, foreign grants to be re-sealed, and forced-heirship rules in jurisdictions such as Cyprus, which is precisely where structured heir tracing earns its place.
- Heir tracing, kinship research and confirming entitlement under a will or on intestacy
- Missing beneficiaries, missing executors, and unclaimed or ownerless estates
- Protective court orders permitting distribution, and missing-beneficiary indemnity insurance
- Cross-border and diaspora estates, including re-sealing of foreign grants in Cyprus
How it works
From a missing person to a usable legal outcome
A clear sequence, so you know what each stage produces and where it leads.
Confidential consultation and legal assessment
We establish who needs to be found, why the law requires it, and what the eventual application or order will be. This defines the search and keeps it proportionate.
Lawful basis and instruction of the tracing partner
I confirm the lawful basis for the enquiry, record it, and instruct a vetted, regulated tracing and genealogy partner under my supervision.
Documented search and forensic enquiry
The partner conducts the trace through lawful sources and records each step, so the search itself becomes evidence, not just a result.
Court-admissible report and affidavit
I turn the findings into the affidavit of diligent search, the genealogist's report, or the witness statement your matter needs.
The legal step it unlocks
Substituted service, a protective distribution order, a presumption-of-death declaration, the divorce, or enforcement: the search clears the path and I take the matter forward.
The difference
Why this runs through a lawyer, not a tracing agency alone
A located address is only useful if you can use it. Working through a law office means the enquiry is built for the legal step that follows it.
Built for admissibility
Evidence gathered without litigation discipline can be challenged or excluded. The enquiry is shaped from the start to meet the court's requirements.
Confidentiality and privilege
Instructed through a law office, the work sits within professional confidentiality rather than a commercial transaction.
One matter, one hand
The search and the legal application are managed together, so nothing is lost in translation between an investigator and a lawyer.
Ethical gatekeeping
A defined legal purpose is required before any trace begins, which protects vulnerable parties and keeps the work above reproach.
The intelligence partner
In partnership with Bakun Intelligence
The locating and forensic-enquiry work is carried out by a specialist intelligence firm I instruct and supervise. The legal framing, the assessment and the court work remain with my office.
Bakun Intelligence
The intelligence, investigations and tracing division of Bakun Group Ltd
Bakun Intelligence is the intelligence and investigations division of Bakun Group Ltd, a Cyprus company working across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. For the matters on this page, its role is to locate people lawfully and to record how the search was carried out, using lawful sources and trusted cross-border contacts.
Enquiries are accepted for a defined and legitimate purpose, assessed for lawful basis before they begin, and reported with legal use in mind. The aim is not simply to find a person, but to find them in a way that protects the matter and the people in it. Throughout, the firm works to my instruction and under my supervision, so the result reaches the court in a form it will accept.
The same firm also supports asset tracing, the analysis of ownership structures and enhanced due diligence. In one enforcement matter it located a debtor's interests held behind intermediary companies; in another, it carried out discreet international verification before a client committed to a transaction. Those areas have their own pages, and are noted here only to show the range behind the tracing work.
Sebastian Bakun
Founder & Chief Executive, Bakun Group Ltd
Sebastian Bakun has worked in intelligence and investigations internationally since 2012. His career began in Belgium and developed through Poland and assignments across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, before he moved the group's headquarters to Cyprus in 2024. His work spans tracing and locating, cross-border enquiries, due diligence and intelligence support, and, by the nature of the matters, it is conducted discreetly and without disclosing clients or details.
People tracing & locating
Locating missing spouses, heirs, beneficiaries, defendants, debtors and witnesses through lawful sources.
Forensic genealogy
Heir and kinship research, family-tree reconstruction and confirmation of entitlement.
Evidential reporting
Documented search trails and reports prepared to support affidavits, applications and insurance.
Selected matters
Matters Bakun Intelligence has handled
A few of the firm's own enquiries, anonymised so that no client or person can be identified. Past matters are not a guarantee of any future result.
An heir who could not be found abroad
A lawyer administering an estate could not identify or reach a beneficiary thought to be living outside Europe, across several jurisdictions and after years of silence. Bakun Intelligence traced the beneficiary through lawful sources and international enquiries and confirmed where they were, so the administration could proceed and the risk of later disputes was reduced.
A relative unheard from for years
A family had lost contact with a relative for years, with only fragments to work from and several countries possibly involved. Bakun Intelligence ran the enquiries across those jurisdictions, drew on local contacts, and verified what could be found. The family and their advisers were left with a far clearer account of where the relative was and how matters stood.
Locating a party who had moved abroad
A party to live proceedings had moved abroad and could no longer be reached by ordinary means. Bakun Intelligence carried out a structured trace through lawful sources and established the person's likely location and circumstances. The legal team then used that to weigh the options open to them in the relevant jurisdiction.
Trust, ethics & data protection
How the work stays lawful, and what it will never be
The most important thing a tracing service can tell you is what it refuses to do. These are the boundaries the enquiry is held to.
A recorded lawful basis
Tracing processes personal data, so every enquiry rests on a lawful basis under the GDPR and Cyprus data-protection law, most often a legitimate interest such as legal proceedings or estate administration, assessed and recorded before the work begins.
Proportionate and minimal
Only the information needed for the legal purpose is sought, kept securely, and used for that purpose alone. The enquiry is scoped to the matter, not open-ended.
Lawful sources only
Findings come from lawful sources and proper methods, so the evidence holds up rather than being excluded for how it was obtained.
Discretion as standard
Enquiries are handled confidentially, and a located address is disclosed only where appropriate, for example to the court or within the matter, not handed to a private requester.
The line we do not cross
This service is not used to harass, intimidate, monitor or pursue anyone, and it is not available to the public for tracing an ex-partner or family member out of curiosity. Such enquiries are accepted only through a lawyer, for a defined legal purpose. Where the law protects a person's wish not to be contacted, that wish is respected.
Provider and legal notice
Tracing and forensic-enquiry services are provided by Bakun Group Ltd (HE 462089), through its Bakun Intelligence division, instructed and supervised by my Law Office. This page is informational and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter. The availability of any remedy, including alternative service, distribution on protective terms, or a declaration of absence or presumed death, depends on the facts and the governing jurisdiction, and is confirmed in consultation. Every enquiry is accepted only for a defined and lawful purpose and is conducted in accordance with applicable data-protection law.
Where I can help
Cyprus-qualified, with international matters by referral
I am admitted in Cyprus and handle Cyprus matters directly. For matters governed by another legal system, I work alongside qualified local counsel and coordinate the tracing and evidence centrally.
Cyprus
Family Court dissolutions on absence, estate administration and heir location, service and enforcement.
England & Wales
Service questions, protective distribution orders and the statutory presumption-of-death route.
EU member states
Declaration of absence and presumption of death vary by country; coordinated with local counsel.
United States
Service by publication and presumption of death are matters of state law; handled with local attorneys.
Questions
Common questions
Can I divorce a spouse I cannot find?
Yes. Where a spouse cannot be located, the court can allow the petition to be served by an alternative method or by publication, provided you can show a genuine attempt to find them. A documented trace is what makes that possible, and where the absence is long, dissolution on the basis of absence or presumed death may be available.
Do I have to prove that I tried to find the person?
In almost every situation, yes. Courts and insurers want to see that a competent search was carried out before they grant alternative service, authorise distribution of an estate, or offer indemnity cover. The value of the trace is as much in the record of the search as in the result.
What happens to an inheritance if a beneficiary is missing?
The estate cannot safely be distributed until the beneficiary is found or the search is shown to be exhausted. At that point a court can permit distribution on protective terms, or missing-beneficiary indemnity insurance can protect the estate, so the administration can be completed.
When can a person be treated as presumed dead?
This depends on the jurisdiction. Some systems set a fixed period of unexplained absence, others require the court to be satisfied that death is the most likely explanation. I will advise on the right route for your facts rather than apply a single rule.
Is people tracing legal, and is it GDPR-compliant?
Tracing for a legitimate legal purpose, through lawful sources and on a recorded lawful basis, is lawful and compliant. What is not lawful is tracing for harassment or out of mere curiosity, which is why every enquiry here requires a defined legal purpose.
How long does a trace take?
It varies with the difficulty of the matter and the records available. Many enquiries resolve quickly; cross-border or genealogical work takes longer. I will give you a realistic view at the consultation rather than a promise.
Speak to me in confidence
Tell me who needs to be found, and why
A short, confidential consultation is enough for me to tell you whether a trace is the right step, what it would involve, and the legal outcome it could support. There is no obligation to proceed.