Housekeeper stole diamond earrings

Good morning. First  be very careful what you say and how you say it. Unless you have proof or exceptional  suspicion  then you have nothing. Do not count on anyone investigating  properly.

Do you know anyone in the police department who can assist you or  a  lawyer you trust?

Without proof it will be hard to do anything. You can try calling the police but they will likely not be helpful even if you could prove that she stole them.  We've had the same problems with housekeepers. They've even had the audacity to post pictures of themselves on social media wearing my wife cloths that they have stolen, and still won't admit they stole the items. We've given up on even finding a honest housekeeper.

Firstly, there is a process.  You must act quickly, there is a time restriction for the police to respond.  Go to the fiscal, make sure you have their cedula and a description of the lost jewelry.  Proof would be great but I am sure you have none.  A good fiscal, (I hope you have a Dominican friend or spouse with you otherwise you may as well forget it) will be able to tell right away whether the person is a problem or not.  If you meet the requirements, they will send someone to the persons house and most likely will do a search.  Probably they will find something albeit probably not your earrings...

Otherwise, bite the bullet and chock it up to your first experience dealing with help on your property.  There is a reason why workers have all of their personal belongings searched before leaving work...

Do sad but true . Property managers and housekeepers two areas you really really need to be careful hiring . I think it is a right of passage here tho.

So funny, we are definitely in the expat forum! 

Do you guys count on the police?

Of course, in some circumstances, but again, there is a process.  One than is not spoken about.  lol

This is an island.  Its all about who you know.

What psychology would you use on the housekeeper so that they fess up and return the earrings?

An imaginary reward..tell her the sentimental value makes it worth it and see how she reacts. Don't tell her how much and see if she shows any interest in finding out more, maybe she wants cash more than earrings!
Happened to me w pearls and didn't realize until after I moved from LT. No longer let anyone in the house unless w me at all times. Sad but sooo true in many countries.
Best wishes!

If you are the owner of the property, I recommend installing a good safe for your precious belongings.

Set up a camera (or 2) and tell her you lost the earrings to your matching necklace that is almost priceless and then tell her where you keep the necklace (discretely) and then give her the opportunity to steal it and catch her in the act...of course the necklace should be fake...

Also be sure you have the ability to safely detain her and call the police.

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

I do not recommend vigilante justice, or setting people up to commit crimes.

A camera might be helpful to repair trust. If you go this route, remember that seeing some tiny blurry blob on the video is not proof. You need to think about the picture which be in the frame and monitor it. The easiest way to setup a decent camera system is to get someone who knows what they are doing and have referrals of happy customers. If you have only a few places you care about, you might be able to get away with a self install using wyze cameras or similar.

By my way of thinking, cameras are not a replacement for security, they are there to help honest people stay honest, or prove you are not losing your mind, when items go missing. If I cannot trust people, I do not work with them.

If you invite someone in your house to do work, you must trust them and accept responsibility for what can go wrong or else watch them work. There are things which can help with trust such as referrals from people you know well, locking up your needlessly valuable items, so on.

One last bit to remember is that people are people. Nice does not mean honest, honest does not mean nice. If you can't count on the person to be honest, it might be close enough, if the person cares about you.

As annoying as it is to lose things through violation of trust, after some time of not getting your items back, I recommend you let it go and benefit from a happier future than to let it sour you until your last day.

Have a better day!

I would find out her living situation first.
Doing anything might make it worse. I would be angry.  But I would probably chalk it up to a learning experience. Don't hire anyone you can't fully vet. Are you in a gated community or one with some security? Perhaps they could help in a casual way without opening you up for more difficulties.