I am writing to let you know of a great day Saber and I had on Wednesday 8/30/06. We were called out to an area for a missing man of 8 days. Police originally checked the area and were unable to locate the missing man. When I brought Saber to the area, he was pulling towards the wooded area behind the house where the man lived. I paced Saber, on lead, back in fourth through the backyard along the wood line for him to pick up the strongest scent path. TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK READ MORE IN LOWER CORNER
I released Saber and he ran in a close "zig-zag" pattern, down over the heavily wooded area to a steep cliff. Right at the edge of the cliff, Saber gave me his "low-tone" bark alert. I caught up to him and there he was, right at the missing mans side alerting for me, within 5 minutes of his release! The man had hung himself and was in a state of bloating decomposition with lots of "insect activity", in fact so bad, he was definitely unidentifiable. I called for our Office to respond with a wagon and the man was ID'ed through dental records.
While wrapping up that scene, County Detectives (also at this scene) received a call for a woman who found what appeared to be a human bone. This bone had a metal plate screwed into it with ID numbers on it. Detectives requested that Saber and I respond with them for the call. We left the fist scene and went right to the next. Detectives, local Police and the 2 responding Investigators from our Office arrived on location. This was along the river bank where the bone was found. We all walked the river bank (Saber still in the van) and were unable to locate anything else. Detectives, Police and our Investigators left the scene and I advised them that I will have Saber check the shore line. 25 minutes later, I was calling County Dispatch to have everyone respond back to the area, Saber had located skeletal remains under a large pile of debris and driftwood. The remains were buried under large logs and not viewable. We did walk this area earlier and would have never found the remains without Saber. The skull and rest of the remains were in the mans clothing, later identified as a fisherman who went down in his boat on April 22nd of this year approx. 20 miles up the river. The bone with the ID on it also belonged to this man. Thats 2 bodies in one afternoon!
Again, thanks to all the training we received from you, two families now have closure and cadaver dogs and their handlers, throughout the nation, can be utilized when all other attempts to locate deceased individuals have come up "empty handed". As my trainers in this area tell me..."Trust your dog" and "the nose knows" (Pat Moloney - NAPWDA)
Thanks again,
Joe Angotti and Saber
Allegheny County Medical Examiners Office
Pittsburgh Pa.
