“Story Verification Services “– A lifeline for any newsroom

The company’s Lead investigator, Lawrence Olmstead said from his office in Los Angeles, “We have been working with the media for over 25 years helping them break news stories and we have seen a steady increase in people trying to get their name in the news by using deception as a means to gain attention”.

The most recent story Hollywood P.I. was retained to verify was that of a woman who claimed to give her eight year old daughter injections of Botox in preparation for competing in beauty pageants.  The woman later became known only as “Botox Mom”.  As the story grew, it gained worldwide attention and people were shocked by the photographs they saw and at the idea a mother would subject their child to such a procedure.  Most shocking was the fact the mother was the one administering the injections.

As the story grew, so did the public’s outrage, including that of Child Protective Services in California.  Once authorities started investigating the possibility of child abuse, “Botox Mom” risked losing her children and the truth started to emerge. 

As it would turn out, the woman known as “Botox Mom” told the world her name was Kerry Campbell from San Francisco.  Many mainstream media outlets picked up the story without doing a second of verification on it.  The race to break the story was on and many reporters, editors, and producers were determined to get the story out as fast as possible.  Some even paid large sums of money to “Botox Mom” and a woman named Alley Einstein in the United Kingdom who was essentially the broker of the story.  Einstein is a former news reporter in the U.K. who has turned her talents to the tabloids and has become known for her unbelievable stories. 

“Hollywood P.I.” learned that the numbers “Botox Mom” quoted as being paid were far less than what she was really paid for exclusives of her story.  Lawrence Olmstead reports she was paid more than $10,000.00 US, for rights to her story and for interviews and even payments on her cell phone bill for calls made to the United Kingdom.

At this point you may be asking yourself, how did Hollywood P.I. get all this information?  After a few large media outlets realized they were duped and the story could be a hoax, Olmstead was hired to find out who Campbell really was and to verify if the story was real or not.

“We generally prefer to verify a story before it’s released, so this was a unique opportunity for us to help our clients right a wrong that had been done to them”, Olmstead said when he started his investigation.  “All we were provided was the name of “Kerry Campbell” and a cell phone number that the media thought belonged to her”,  the investigator  stated. 

“It’s not uncommon for us to initiate a verification with very little information on the subject or people involved in a breaking story, it’s our job to track down the people and information to assist our clients in putting the facts together ”, Olmstead told us.

Within twenty-four hours Olmstead was able to learn that “Kerry Campbell” is actually a twenty-six year old woman named “Sheena Marie Upton”.  She also was not from San Francisco as reported; she is from Long Beach, California.  Hollywood P.I.’s investigators were also able to confirm Upton had a criminal record in California and one of the convictions included giving false information to a peace officer.  It seems probable that someone who lies to police would also be willing to participate in a fabricated story to defraud the media of thousands of dollars.  “Upton is also the mother of another child and now that her secret is out, I hope she doesn’t try to involve another one of her kids in a hoax to profit”, said Olmstead.  “I hope law enforcement takes a closer look at this case to see if they can prove a conspiracy took place between Alley Einstein and Upton to basically steal money from my clients”, emphasized the investigator now that his case is closed.

The Deception Prevention product is based on over twenty-five years of working closely with media clients to help them get the story.   Olmstead’s services and reports have been requested by many of the world’s most popular news agencies, worldwide. 

Lawrence Olmstead is a California Licensed Private Investigator and is also the President of The Missing Person Center.  Under the new Deception Prevention product, there are also services for the general public to use and legal community.  For more information on Deception Prevention or the Missing Person Center visit http://www.deceptionprevention.com