Mike Kirkman is the owner and chief investigator of Las Vegas Detectives, LLC.
Mike began his investigative career as a Deputy with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department in 1969. Moving quickly through the ranks, he made detective and joined a crack burglary squad. “We averaged one arrest a day,” says Fred Ray, who remembers Kirkman as an aggressive and innovative cop.
For his last promotion, Kirkman was appointed head of the major crimes unit. He supervised the investigation of such cases as the murders of three UCSB coeds which drew nationwide attention. But he says the move into management frustrated him. “I get my thrills doing the work rather than supervising,” he says.
In 1978, he quit the sheriff’s office and set out on his own, founding Santa Barbara Detectives in California. Most of his cases are confidential. “I’m hired because I have a reputation of being discreet,” he explains.
Kirkman has had plenty of experience finding people, whether runaway teens, missing persons or deadbeat dads. “If you want somebody found, he’s the guy I’d go to,” says Santa Barbara Attorney Phil Marking.
“Not many times from the private sector do you get to work murder cases,” Kirkman says. “Finding the guy, who killed Rick Klaus was the ultimate challenge”, referring to a lengthy homicide case he investigated and solved years before his body was discovered in the wilderness back in July 1991.
In 1995 Kirkman moved to Las Vegas and opened Las Vegas Detectives where he continues to serve clients with their confidential surveillance and investigation needs.
