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to search, additional infor-
mation can reveal itself. Canine Search Solutions
teams responded to a total
of 24 cases this year. This
included 20 new searches
and 4 older cases that were
revisited. Cases this year
took us to Wisconsin, Indi-
ana, Illinois, and South
Carolina. All Law Enforce-
ment handlers made the
long trek to Beaumont, TX
for their NNDDA certifica-
tion.
We are excited to have the
added tool of a scent spe-
cific trailing dog. K9 Talia
assisted on her first search
of a missing/suicidal per-
son. The track was four
days old and the informa-
tion K9 Talia provided was
accurate to where the per-
son was eventually located.
In addition to our ongoing
commitment to the miss-
ing, each year we make a
concerted effort to con-
tinue working cold or old
cases. We maintain the
belief that if we continue
2015 CSS Search Efforts
My little “Boda” was a
black and white Treeing
Walker Coonhound and
Lab mix that I was so
blessed to find at the Sioux
Falls Humane Society in
2006. At six months of age,
he was ready to work as
soon as I brought him
home. His love for people
was evident in his ever
present wagging tail that
shook his entire body,
along with his ability to
track people. He was truly
a special dog. I am deeply
thankful for the eight years
I had with Boda and the
utter privilege and honor it
was to walk fifteen steps
behind him on tracks.
One of his best known
tracks was on the first day
of college (SDSU) here in
Brookings, SD. An armed
thief had driven a stolen
car into a tree on campus
and taken off on foot. Boda
circled around the vehicle
before taking off strongly
in one direction, towards
an area where about
twenty police officers were
already on scene. It
seemed Boda was ap-
proaching the suspect’s
friend’s house. After more
LE discussion, they wanted
Boda to confirm that the
suspect was going to this
house. I put Boda back on
track and he took off
again, made a turn around
some bushes and up the
driveway. Turning up the
right driveway was confir-
mation enough for law en-
forcement. Boda received
lots of love and attention
from LE, DCI officers and
me. Boda had a blast with
the track and with all the
attention afterward.
I lost Boda to a terrible
accident last spring and I
still miss him every day.
My new Treeing Walker
Coonhound “Dooley” re-
minds me of Boda often.
Boda must have passed on
his tracking ability and
watches over Dooley when
we are tracking, because it
feels very comfortable and
familiar just as if I were
still walking fifteen steps
behind Boda.
Rest in peace, Boda.
Canine Search Solutions
Special points of
interest:
CANINE SEARCH
SOLUTIONS RE-SPONDED TO A TOTAL OF 24 CASES
CONGRATS TO ALL THE HANDLERS
AND K9 PARTNERS WHO RECEIVED THEIR CERTIFICA-TION THIS YEAR!
TWO NEW HANDLERS JOIN CSS!!
January 2016 Volume 4, Issue 1
Inside this issue:
New Tool to Use in
Searches
2
ARF Fundraiser 2
CSS and MPD
Mounted Unit Train
Together
3
New MPD
K9 Handler
3
Meet the newest
K9 Teams
4
K9 Gildon
Remembered
5
New Handlers
Join CSS
6
EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN HUMAN REMAINS DETECTION
Remembering Boda By Sandra Vernlund
BODA
learn both about how the
HRD dogs contributed to
that case, as well as to other
cases throughout Carren’s
career.
Afterwards, there was a meet
and greet with some CSS
K9s, which was well-received
by everyone. Feedback from
attendants was very
positive, and many
expressed that they
enjoyed learning about
the dogs as well as the
In February, Carren Corcoran,
Theresa Christ, Alyssa Palmer,
and Linda Zapata conducted a
presentation about the use of
HRD dogs during the heart-
wrenching Jeannette Zapata
case. Those who attended were
able to learn about the Zapata
case and hear it from Linda’s
perspective. It was clear that
everyone was touched by what
Linda had to endure throughout
her life regarding her own
mother’s homicide. This was a
very unique opportunity to
Zapata case.
All funds raised went to
support ARF, a German
Shepherd Rescue. Please
visit their web site to learn
more:
www.arfrescue.com
ARF FUNDRAISER
Page 2 Canine Search Solutions
To learn more
about Kevin
Kocher’s
tracking
method, visit his
web site:
www.inbti.com
trailing dogs can provide vital information of where a person may have trav-eled. Talia has been trained using Kevin Kocher’s method, and Carren Cor-coran has guided Wade and Talia through that process. Carren holds a special place for Talia because she is also the mother of her new HRD dog, Moxy. Talia is excelling at her job and has already been deployed on cases.
MEET TALIA Talia is the newest tool to be utilized by CSS, and she is not trained to find human remains! In fact, Talia is a scent specific trailing dog, handled by Wade Gummin of the Madison Police Dept. Over time, we have come to realize that some cases are quite fresh, meaning persons may only be pre-sumed dead for a short period of time. In those cases, scent specific
WLECHA Meritorious K9 Tracks of The Year
Left: K9 Falko and Officer Rose Mansavage Right: K9 Slim and Officer Carren Corcoran
Officer Carren Corcoran with her partner K9 Slim and Officer Rose Mansavage with K9 Falko each tracked sus-pects on separate robbery cases. However, both turned out to be related. The suspect, a former Wisconsin Badger football standout and his brother, robbed local busi-nesses on different days. Both businesses were located downtown where there is a high volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Both handlers used only the area where the suspect had stood for the specific scent. Both tracks ended in a different parking lot, with the dogs pro-viding a car pick up indication. Later on, video footage captured the suspect vehicle in each parking lot. This case highlights these amazing dogs’ capabilities when tracking people. Both K9s were awarded the WLECHA Meritorious Tracking Award. Way to go, K9 Slim and K9 Falko!!
In July of 2015, members of the Madison
Police Mounted Unit, Canine Search Solu-
tions cadaver dog handlers, and a scent spe-
cific trailing dog conducted a combined
training. As a result of the Nejay Redd case,
all wanted to improve working relationships
utilizing both the dogs and horses as tools
in searching for missing persons. The train-
ing consisted of desensitizing all the dogs to
working near the horses and introducing the
odor of human remains to the horses. A
track was done using the scent specific trail-
ing dog, with horses flanking the handler.
The track was followed by a small mock
search, where both dogs and horses worked
together to locate human remains.
Everyone benefited from the afternoon and
another training will be scheduled in 2016.
CSS and Madison Mounted Unit Training
MPD Recognizes Citizens and
Officers
CSS Handler Selected
for New MPD K9 Position
Please consider donating to the following organizations:
Capital K9’s
www.capitalk9s.org
American Belgian Malinois Rescue www.malinoisrescue.org
Madison Mounted Horse Patrol
www.madisonmounted.org
Congratulations to Jason Baumgart, who was selected to be the new Madison Police Department K9 Handler. In March 2016, Jason will be sent to Shallow Creek Kennels in Pennsylvania, where he will meet his new partner and begin their training. After 6 weeks of training, Jason will return and continue training with the MPD K9 Unit until they are ready to hit the streets. Jason is very excited about his new venture and is looking forward to being able to work two dogs. Check the CSS website for updates on Jason’s new partner.
Volume 4, Issue 1 Page 3
The Madison Police Department issued several recognition awards to the handlers who assisted in the Nejay Redd Case from 2014. This was ex-tremely important, as both civilians and officers were utilized to solve this missing person case. The following were all recipients of recognition: Theresa Christ, Shelley Rogers; Teri Clyse; Offi-cers Alyssa Palmer, Jason Baumgart, and Carren Corcoran. Thank you for all your hard work!
Interested in learning more about Madison Police Mounted Unit?
Check out their web site:
www.madisonmounted.org
Looking to Donate for a Good Cause?
K9 Training Log Books Available for Purchase
Sharolyn Sievert of Central Lakes Search and Rescue re-cently created, K-9 SAR Train-ing Log Book to document your K9 trainings. If interested in purchasing this tool or to see several other books she has au-thored, check them out on Ama-zon.com.
Eric Peterson of South Da-
kota retired his long-time
partner K9 Eve in 2015
and acquired a new part-
ner, K9 Ninja, a Dutch
Shepherd. Eric did a lot of
research and selected
Ninja from De Las Flores
Kennels and is excited to
have her as his new work-
ing partner. Ninja is doing
great and really enjoys
her new job. Eric and
Ninja plan to certify in
2016.
Sandy Vernlund has two new partners, K9 Dooley, a Tree-ing Walker Coonhound and K9 Jet, a Belgian Groenen-dael, which belongs to the Belgian Shepherd dog breeds. Dooley is being trained to be a trailing dog and Jet is specializing in Hu-
man Remains detection. Both dogs were res-cues and are ex-celling at their job!! Sandy hopes to certify both sometime in 2016.
after retirement, Chris
plans to continue work-
ing dogs. She continues
to instruct the Kevin Ko-
cher trailing method and
plans to continue in as-
sisting in Canine Search
Solutions trainings.
Thank you, Chris, for all
your dedication and ser-
vice!
After 24 years of service
in the Madison Police
Department, Sgt. Chris
Boyd retired in 2015.
Chris was instrumental
in molding the Madison
Police K9 Unit. Her skills
were often used in sev-
eral of Canine Search
Solutions searches as
well as trainings. Even
Chris is available to
consult with for a mul-
titude of dog trainings.
She does it all, from
obedience, SAR, to Pa-
trol K9’s.
Contact her at:
K9boyd@gmail.com
608.692.6261
Meet the New K9 Teams
Congratulations, Sgt. Chris Boyd
Page 4 Canine Search Solutions
Shelley Rogers, a long time CSS handler, has added an-other working partner, K9 Piper. Piper is a female Golden Retriever who was whelped out of Shelley’s other HRD dog, K9 Skyler. Shelley and K9 Piper certified in the fall of 2015 and look forward to searching together!
Teri Clyse and her Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees cross, K9 Oakley, also cer-tified in the fall of 2015. K9 Oakley joins Teri’s working team with her other HRD dog, K9 Fynn.
Sharolyn Sievert of Cen-tral Lakes Search and Rescue acquired a new partner that specializes in live finds. K9 Levia is a Rhodesian Ridgeback that loves her job and has already been used to find a person!
Congratulations everyone with new K9 Partners!!
We look forward to working with the new dogs!
Keep up the good work
K9 GILDON 2006-2015
K9 Gildon was an incredible tracking dog and a steady, quiet, work horse. K9 Gildon
served the Madison Police Department for 9 years alongside his partner, Sgt. Jeff Felt. K9 Gildon’s joy for the job will be greatly missed. May he rest in peace.
Search for Lincoln Hilt
K9 Rowdy, responded to the call to
assist. K9 Rowdy began working
the waterway, while K9 Eve
worked the shoreline. Both dogs
gave indications in the same area
and the information was conveyed
to the search leaders.
Due to inclement weather condi-
tions, divers were not able to be
utilized that day and responded
back on Monday. K9 Rowdy was
called to assist again in case
there had been a change in
area; however, he continued to
indicate in the same area. Based
on K9 Rowdy and K9 Eve’s indi-
cations, divers were able to lo-
cate Lincoln’s body later that
day.
A sad search, but thankful the
dogs could find Lincoln.
Six year old Lincoln Hilt went
fishing with his brand new fish-
ing pole on the Missouri River
in South Dakota on Easter Sun-
day. Lincoln was last seen at
approximately 7:25pm on the
dock over the river.
Brookings County SAR were
contacted to assist in locating
Lincoln. Eric Peterson, with K9
Eve, and Sandra Vernlund, with
Volume 4, Issue 1 Page 5
Page 6 Canine Search Solutions
Introducing New and Upcoming CSS Handlers
Kathleen Kelsey has been a search and rescue handler since 2003 and has worked both live find dogs and cadaver dogs. Kathleen has been a certified han-dler with FEMA Urban Search and Rescue in Missouri as well as Mclean County EMA. Kathleen brings years of experience having participated in approximately 23 searches all over the United States. Kath-leen’s partners are K9 Zach, a male Ger-man Shepherd, whelped in 2008 and cer-tified in Cadaver through several na-tional organizations. K9 Phavor is a male Labrador Retriever whelped in 2011 and certified in Disaster Live Find through FEMA. And lastly, Kathleen has a new partner in training, K9 Redden, a male Dutch Shepherd whelped in 2015. He will be trained in live finds focusing on disaster work.
Josh Bower has been with the Madi-son Police Department since 2013 and has been assisting with the K9 Unit. Josh has expressed lots of interest in working his own dog. Josh was able to attend a CSS training day, where eve-ryone was informed that Josh was there to see the dogs work and to get an idea of what breed he wanted as a partner!! Needless to say, he chose the “pointy-eared” type. Through the help of ARF Rescue, he was able to acquire Kyon, an 18-month-old, male German Shepherd. Kyon has shown great drive and Josh is looking forward to beginning Kyon’s training!
K9 Zach
K9 Phavor
K9 Redden
K9 Kyon
Canine Search Solutions in 2016
As we look forward to this new year, CSS would like to see all the new dogs get their national certification in order to provide more dogs to the cause.
We plan to revisit more old and cold cases of missing persons in the Midwest.
These cases will be challenging; however, we believe that if we continue to work them, we might be able to bring someone’s loved one home.
CSS will be conducting a fundraiser for the Law Enforcement United Madison
Police team in March 2016, check the web site for further information.
www.caninesearchsolutions.com
A huge thank you to all who have supported and continue to support Canine Search Solutions.
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