By Michael Copley
Staff writer

“Five years ago, it was mostly women hiring us to investigate their husbands for infidelity. Now it’s reversed…I don’t know what’s happened,” said Josh Livermon with a smirk.

Bob Livermon, Josh’s father, bought Central Virginia Investigations from Cecil Glunt in 2002. At the time, Josh, a Powhatan High School graduate, was working in Florida as a licensed private investigator, having completed that state’s mandatory two year internship program that Josh only half jokingly describes as a “legal slave trade.”

Josh split his time between Florida and his father’s Virginia based firm from 2002 until 2006, traveling back and forth to work cases. In 2006 he and his wife/ CVI coworker Gigi, moved back to Powhatan with their boys, and in 2007 company ownership transferred from father to son.

“You know the saying of the father teaching the son everything he knows? Well in this case, my son taught me everything I know,” said Bob Livermon grinning.

The majority of the company’s business comes from child custody cases, infidelity investigation, insurance fraud, and background checks.

In September of this year, CVI was instrumental in providing evidence that led to the conviction of Samuel Aaron Brabson, a Henrico man sentenced to one year in prison for fraud and attempted fraud. CVI investigators spent over a year on the case, photographing Brabson performing physically challenging activities while he fraudulently collected insurance benefits stemming from a 2001 accident.

“A case could take 10 hours or 10 months to investigate,” said Bob. “It all depends on the case.”

“It can be frustrating, you take every case personally,” said Josh. “You’ll go a few days and not find much, and then one day you get something good. It’s not like one thing breaks cases open, it’s a lot of pieces that have to be put together.”