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You hear them at night at 2 a.m…..the wailing sound of a car alarm. Perhaps a car burglar chose the wrong car to burglarize.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, 1.3 million motor vehicles are stolen annually in the United States at a cost of more than $7 billion. To help prevent becoming a victim of this type of crime, it is best to use some sort of car alarm to help prevent the theft of your motor vehicle.

Many late-model vehicles come with their own integral security features which include power locks to GPS devices. If you are a newbie to car alarms, the following is a list of features you should consider when shopping for a car alarm:

• Keyless entry device. This device allows you to unlock your car doors and/or trunk using a handheld remote. Most keyless entry devices are part of a basic alarm system.
• Interior/exterior sensors. These are sensors that detect motion when somebody climbs into your vehicle.
• Dual-stage sensor. These are sensors that act as triggers that activate an alarm. They are normally connected to your doors, hood, and trunk. Some car alarms include sensors that detect a window-break. A dual-stage sensor activates a fast series of beeping noises if the vehicle is partially forcibly moved. However, the alarm will engage the full-stage siren sounds if the car is repeatedly jolted. This is the kind of sensor that helps avoid those false alarms that keep us up at night.
• Remote starting and stopping. These remote control devices will start your vehicle’s engine from more than 500 feet away. You can also buy them with an engine cutoff feature. By activating the engine-stopping feature, you cut off fuel flow to the engine, disengage the electrical circuit to the starter, or inactivate some other feature to prevent the vehicle’s engine from turning over.

Most of these options are available when you buy a new car. If you already have a car that does not have an alarm and would like to buy an after-market car alarm, it should cost you less than $300 including installation. These may be extra out-of-pocket expenses for your car, but it will save you the headache of having to deal with a stolen vehicle.

Suppose a person has been missing for quite some time and the boyfriend is the prime suspect as in the 1996 Cincinnati, Ohio case in which Vincent Doan was suspected of killing his girlfriend, Carrie Culberson. He committed the crime of murder and got rid of the body with no trace whatsoever. He must be thinking, “no body, no crime, right?”

In the case of a missing person, crime scene investigators (CSI’s) employ a few time-tested methods for discovering the location of a missing person.

When determining the location of a missing corpse, crime scene investigators utilize as much information as they can to eliminate the wide range of possibilities and target more pertinent information. For instance, a witness may have seen the suspect’s truck or found the victim’s handkerchief in a remote area, pointing the investigation in a particular direction.

Crime scene investigators use a slew of low- and high-tech methods when embarking on the search of a missing individual. They include the following:

• Looking downhill–Suppose that a body is believed to be interred near a remote stretch of road where the land falls away on either side. Investigators could begin their search downhill because physics dictates carrying a heavy object such as a body downhill is much easier on the offender’s shoulders than carrying it uphill.
• Noting variations in the terrain–Freshly disturbed dirt, trenches, and elevations or depressions in the terrain can be a good indication. Newly formed gravesites, in general, are elevated with respect to the surrounding area while older ones are indented due to the fact that as a corpse decomposes the skeletal remains will cave in from the weight of the dirt.
• Making use of tracking dogs–When dogs smell a sample of the victim’s clothing, they may be able to follow a scent trail to the burial site.
• Variations in vegetation–Offenders usually disturb the soil conditions in areas where the grave is located. This could cause plants to grow on gravesites where plants usually do not grow.
• Making an aerial reconnaissance–Using thermal imaging from the air, freshly turned dirt appears colder when scanned as compared to densely, compacted dirt. Conversely, a decaying corpse gives off heat which may show up on a thermal imager
• Checking for byproducts of decaying corpses–If a body is suspected to be in a particular location, special machinery can be used to detect the sources of heat and the presence of nitrogen, both of which are byproducts of the decaying process.
• Checking for electrical conductivity–A decaying body adds moisture to the soil thereby increasing the soil’s electrical conductivity. By inserting two metal electrodes into the soil and passing an electrical current between them, an increase in the current flow in this soil compared to soil in another location may indicate the presence of a decaying body.
• Making use of metal detectors–Using a metal detector can disclose the location of the victim’s jewelry or bracelet.

As one can see, taking advantage of these scientific principles can lead forensic scientists and criminal investigators to the location of a missing person and bring the families of the victim one step closer to finding closure in the case of a missing loved one.