The experience laid a foundation for the skills that have made her so good at finding people. “I even had to do my own soldering,” she remembers. Gomez’s digital background stretches back to childhood, when her parents, both IBM engineers, insisted that the 10-year-old Michelle build a computer from scratch. Today much of that hunting is done digitally, and Gomez has made an art of combing through cyberspace and finding the status updates, financial records, and location blips that virtually everyone leaves behind in the modern age. The ruse worked: Eventually the wife told Gomez that the heavy equipment was on its way to a construction site in South America.įor Gomez, 43, skip tracing is as much about stalking and capturing elusive prey as it is about getting paid. To track down the fleet of Caterpillar wheel loaders taken by the Peruvians, Gomez reached out to the estranged wife of the family’s patriarch, telling the woman that she was pregnant with her husband’s child. Gomez specializes in “hard-to-locate recoveries”-she prefers cases others can’t solve.

A combination bill collector, bounty hunter, and private investigator, a skip tracer finds people and things that have disappeared on purpose. Gomez, the proprietor of a one-woman operation in Lockhart, Texas, called Unlimited Recoveries, is one of the best skip tracers in the world. But in the summer of 2013, that’s exactly what she was doing. It includes a hotel with 125 rooms and a 20-thousand-square-foot banquet and conference space.At 4'11' and just over 100 pounds, Michelle Gomez doesn't look like the sort of person you’d hire to retrieve earthmoving equipment stolen by a Peruvian crime family. 'The tribe has waited 27 years to have a great facility for them, and we had great hospitality with what we had to make due with but now we have a great place and everyone can be proud of it,' said Mingrone.Ĭonstruction for phase two of the casino is expected this year. Matthew Mingrone, the general manager of the casino, says every detail was carefully planned including the bar in the center, the restaurants, and special items highlighting the Tule River Tribe. Officials say hundreds of people have already come to check out the slots, table games, and food options.Ībout 1,000 employees are working at the new casino. The grand opening is next week, but the soft opening started on April 17. This is phase one of the project which is located near the Porterville airport, off Highway 65. (KFSN) - Action News got a first look inside the new Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville on Friday.

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