Higginsville police chief Cindy Schroer heard about the large number of Miracle Cars being sold in her town, and was very suspicious. Eventually, at the end of 2000, she wrote an incident report and sent it to Missouri's attorney general. The report eventually wound up in the office of Todd Graves, the U.S. Attorney for Missouri's Western District. In turn, he turned the case over to one of his assistants, Dan Stewart. An investigation was immediately launched, headed by U.S. Postal Inspector Steve Hamilton and IRS fraud expert Gary Marshall.