Couple Finds Missing People Living In Geodesic Dome Home
By Laura Paul
In The Loop, New Tampa/Wesley Chapel
October 16, 2002

Bob and Sherry Markee of Lutz find missing people. There are not with the homicide division of a police department and their lives are not as exciting as a television drama about missing people. In fact, most of their time is spent on the computer as certified information research specialists. Sherry Markee said the couple researches public records with specialties in the area of missing persons, pre-employment and tenants. She is a member of the Northeast Business and Professional Women’s Club and attends the monthly meetings at the Pebble Creek Golf and Country Club. “It’s like a game of Clue,” said Bob Markee, who likes searching for missing people. “We just have a name to go on sometimes. We search on name, birthday or approximate age, former address, a Social Security Number.”

The couple’s work is as unusual day-to-day as the home in which they live. In 1986 they built a geodesic dome home with 60 triangles that comprise a dome and a four-foot riser wall. They work out of their home, helping former spouses find deadbeat dads and attorneys find people who are heirs to wills. Once they helped a senior citizen that was trying to track down an old friend. Their client was able to find closure, even though they discovered her friend had passed away.

Sherry Markee said the couple does not do surveillance or find soft assets like bank account with their business, SML Services. They are not private investigators. She said former clients wanted them to track down their niece and nephews who were owed money in a family will.

After hours spent searching for the heirs, with only a few clues, Markee was able to narrow the search down to a few military installations where the nephew might be based. She called and explained who she was and what she wanted to an individual at a military base who said he was looking right at the individual. But he joked he would hand the phone over if his friend was going to receive an inheritance, but not if he owed money.

Originally from the Philadelphia area, Markee said the couple decided to start their own business after being laid off in the mid-1990’s. Sherry had worked for the Anheuser-Busch Tampa brewery, which closed its doors in 1995. They attended training with the NIA Academy of Public Records Research.

Their first client wanted them to do a credit report, Sherry Markee said. “We pulled the credit report and it was four pages of bad news---stuff like bad debt, collections,” she said. “We faxed it to the client. They were extremely upset because the person was all but hired.” She said the man was applying for a financial controller position and would have been able to sign checks up to a million dollars. Based on their experience, they highly recommend employers complete a background check before hiring new employees. They pointed out a search could protect a business from negligent hiring lawsuits since past misconduct of an employee could be a primary indicator of the employer's negligence.

The Markees are members of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce and are co-editors of the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce newsletter and directory.

For more information on SML Services, call 948-3765
www.findinfo.com