The HRD K9 team and I met up at Soda Fork Rd and US20 at 0700 and drove into the new search area. We geared up, readied a chainsaw in case I needed to cut more of a path down the road and we headed out. Thankfully, the path was open enough. As we were walking in, Kathy let me know that Trooper (K9) caught “odor of interest” when we were on the road above the area I wanted to search.
We rounded the turn to head east towards the end of the road, Trooper departed the road and went slightly north towards No-Name and Named Creek. His nose, to my eyes, definitely caught something and we followed him around that area for a bit. Kathy marked it on her GPS and I flagged roughly the center of the area he was interested in. We got to the End of the Road shortly thereafter. We walked the perimeter of the End of the Road, then dropped down the game trail towards the saddle and the hill opposite.
We were about 1/2 way down the hill from the End of the Road when Trooper again picked up “odor of interest” near a rock on the hillside. We GPS’d the location and flagged it. Trooper got back on the search and immediately went on his own to the south, towards the base of the hill that the road runs along. He moved with a purpose and without regard to how close Kathy and I were to him. He showed odor interest in a really compact area. Although he did not show his “trained final response” to locating a human remain, his behavior indicated that he was smelling human decomp. I lightly searched the immediate area where he sat down and started whining, but I found no bones or other items of interest.
Kathy and I went back up to the landing for a short break and some water. Once refreshed, we dropped back down the hill. Trooper again detected “odor of interest” in the same two spots, which was very encouraging. We led him around the beginning area of the Dry Drainage and about 150 yards down it. He showed no interest in the drainage. He also showed no interest in the north side of the hill, where Named Creek runs.
After that we hiked back up to the trucks. Trooper again demonstrated “odor of interest” when we were above the area he went to on the south side of the landing. When we got to the trucks, Kathy hid some human bone training specimens for Trooper to find so he could get a treat after working so hard. What I noticed while he was working to find the training specimens was that his behavior when he caught the specimen’s scent was the same that he demonstrated earlier that morning in the woods.
My go forward plan is to create a 100’ x 100’ grid with pin flags around the area where he showed the most interest. In the context of the terrain, that area fits all the descriptions and the terrain also supports being a major assault / murder site.
On the attached GPS screenshot, yesterday’s track is in red. The areas where Trooper detected “odor of interest” are the red dog icons. The white dog icons were pre-planned search areas for him that he showed either no interest or we didn’t go because he didn’t lead us there.
Ryan
The Search for Karen Jean Lee and Rodney L. Grissom 