The World’s Best Bounty Hunter: How Michelle Gomez Finds People Who Vanish | The Hidden Third

Join The Hidden Third Patreon today!   / thehiddenthird   How do you find people who do not want to be found? In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with skip tracer and private investigator Michelle Gomez – described by Wired as “the world’s best bounty hunter” – to unpack how she tracks down people who have disappeared on purpose, from the fugitive Ryan Eugene Mullen to a fake “Prince of Dubai.” At 4'11" and just over 100 pounds, Michelle doesn’t look like the person you’d send after fugitives, stolen heavy equipment, or missing yachts – and that’s exactly why she’s so good at it. She leans into her unassuming appearance and uses quirky disguises, from Girl Scout getups to sex‑worker personas, wigs, and glasses, to get close to people who do not want to talk. Michelle grew up in Texas, the daughter of two IBM engineers, and her parents made her build a computer from scratch and solder her own motherboard before she was a teenager. That early crash course in how systems fit together became the blueprint for her career: today she applies the same mindset to people, combing through digital traces, financial records, and tiny “location blips” to build a profile and find the one thread that gives a target away. Over more than two decades, she’s hunted down fugitives, scammers, debt‑dodgers, and high‑risk skips that collection agencies, other investigators, and even law enforcement have failed to locate. In this conversation, she breaks down her use of open‑source intelligence (OSINT), social engineering, and psychological profiling – and what her biggest cases reveal about privacy, ghosting, and the fantasy of truly disappearing. If you’re into investigative journalism, true crime, OSINT, or the hidden world of skip tracing and bounty hunting, this episode is for you. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MARIANA at https://www.oneskin.co/MARIANA #oneskinpod Save 60% on Webroot when you go to http://webroot.com/MARIANA 0:00 Intro 1:33 How Mariana and Michelle first connected: the Prince of Dubai case 3:00 What is skip tracing, and how does it actually work 4:42 Growing up in Texas: IBM engineer parents and motherboards as toys 7:08 The relationship that ended in justice and changed her career path 13:26 Her first repossession case: the funeral and the van 21:19 Why being 4'11" and underestimated is her biggest asset 24:11 The disguises: Girl Scout getups, wigs, and a red dress in Florida 33:08 Building her own company and chasing fugitives across state lines 36:00 The twin who wasn't a twin: a case that taught her surveillance 38:45 The Ryan Eugene Mullen case: the yacht, the parrot, and the takedown 52:30 How Wired discovered her, and how her life changed overnight 53:13 The Prince of Dubai: Alex's web of scams and shell companies 55:54 The wife who didn't know she was "dying of cancer" 59:39 The ex-FBI agent who fell for the scammer 1:03:50 The final call before her death 1:05:30 How Alex was finally caught, and what comes next 🎙️ From Emmy and Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode, Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand - the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins, and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure, and the profound ways they impact us all. 🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday. THE HIDDEN THIRD: YouTube:    / @marianavanzeller   Instagram:   / thehiddenthirdpodcast   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3n1BBoj... MARIANA: TikTok:   / mariana_vanzeller   Instagram:   / marianavz