Crossword Genius

Family secure involvement of detective and free missing female (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

pedigree

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'family' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'secure involvement of detective and free missing female' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'detective' could be 'di' (Detective Inspector abbreviation) and 'di' is located in the answer.
'secure' could be 'peg' and 'peg' is present in the remaining letters.
The remaining letters 'ree' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pedigree that I've seen before include "Stock" , "Pure lineage" , "Ancestry - genealogy" , "Line of decent or ancestry" , "(Pure) ancestry" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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