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JEFFERSON CITY -- As of Friday night, Lisa Irwin has been missing for 11 days and so far it seems investigators have come up empty handed.

Earlier this week anonymous benefactors hired a private investigator in hopes of getting closer to finding the 11-month-old Kansas City baby.

The hiring of Bill Stanton prompted us to look into what PI's do and what it takes to be a licensed private investigator in Missouri.

There's nearly 300 licensed of them in the state, but Bill Stanton is not one of them.

However, earlier in the week at a press conference he said he was.

"My name is Bill Stanton and I am a private investigator,” Stanton said. “I have been asked to come out here and do an independent investigation."

Stanton's not listed with the Missouri Division of Professional Registration and if you check with New York’s Department of State Division of Licensing Services, he's not there either.

"To be a private investigator in Missouri you have to have a license," Missouri Division of Professional Registration’s spokesman Travis Ford said.

To get a license in the show-me state you must get a background check, pass a licensing exam, meet continuing education requirements and carry professional liability insurance.

We reached out to Ron Rugen, a licensed PI from Kansas Cy.

He  said people private investigators to get an extra pair of eye and ears on a case and said it's better than trying to investigate on your own.

"You get too emotional, you're too involved in the middle of your case," Rugen said.

Rugen said most of the time in cases like Irwin’s police know more than they're letting on in the media.

"They need to hold things to their vest so they can do their investigation without anything getting in the way of it," Rugen said.

But hiring a private investigator has its limitations, like police rarely granting them access to official reports and evidence.

Since Stanton’s title has come into question, he is now being called a New York-based security consultant for television networks