Search and Rescue Part 2
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We had a meeting March 14, 2009 at a restaurant to lay out the groups plans for the spring. After hearing the plans, there was no mention of Brandon and I asked about the plans for him. One of the members asked we were going to be spending as much time down there as last year. I said I wasn’t suggesting that people who didn’t want to go had to go but that I wanted go even if it meant going by myself. The other member said that they were fine with that. John said that searching cuts in to training time. I don’t think I offered any other input at the meeting, I didn’t know what to say.
My cadaver evaluation that was scheduled for November 8, 2008 was canceled because the evaluator had a injured leg. There were 3 live evaluations in March and we added another certified live team for a total of 5 live teams but only 1 cadaver team that was certified. There were few live searches when I was there, they would either be found before we left or the police would wait too long before calling out the dogs and they were presumed to be dead. I went on a rare vacation to Washington State. to visit our daughter for a week. And when I got back I sent this email to John.
Hi
I was thinking about what was said about searching getting in the way of training and I agree that's a true statement. That could be said about alot of things. I think people could and should train on their own when there aren't regular scheduled training if their personal situation permits. In bringing up Brandon I didn't mean to suggest that anyone else should go if they couldn't. I know it’s a long shot but it is certainly possible that he made it outside of the radius that we have searched. I am compelled to help the family if I can. If there is another search on Brandon's web site and I can make it I will offer my assistance. If this would cause any problems for the group I would leave with no hard feelings. I didn't put this on the group email I don't want any baggage I have to influence what the group does.
Thanks Pete
This was the response
Pete -
Just got this e-mail - sorry for the delay. This is my work e-mail address - and I work and K-9 e-mails get sorted, moved offices and connections in the building, pain in the butt, blah - blah....
Anyway - Jane and I understand where you are coming from. We also believe that everyone should be training on their own. And we also believe that more should be done for Brandon.
Whether we take on searches as a team - the bigger picture is not going or not going. It is not even who goes. What should be important is HOW we make the decision.
Right now - we work for Sheriff Jack. I know that the family is in need, but I do not believe that the family believes that this could easily turn in to a criminal case. Those implications, and who is involved, and what could be dismissed in a court of law, are all vital.
I will be working with Jack in the very near future. If he feels that responding on our own is OK, I will let everyone know. But, based on our last visit - I have the feeling that he believes that there is something more to it.
Right now, the family's priority is finding Brandon. I completely understand that.
But, if it turns into a criminal case - their priority could easily turn to seeking justice - and if we get in the way of that - it becomes a professional relationship issue for all of us. In fact, what a handler does creates huge ripples for other handlers - not even in the same unit. We know of other SAR people no longer welcomed in entire counties, this would mean that future searches for other peoples missing loved ones could be jeopardized.
Thanks for sharing your concern and wishes, and I'll be in touch with Jack.
My response back:
John- Thanks for your email. I'm new at this but I don't see how this could become a criminal case without finding him. I don't know how the family would answer if I asked them "would you accept a lower POD in case there might have been foul play?” I will keep you informed. Please let me know what Jack says.
Thanks Pete
(The point I was trying to make is what would the family say if we told them that we are going to stop looking for Brandon because there is an outside chance this could be a criminal case?)
John’s response
Pete -
My hope is that all of us search with the highest degree of hope and confidence that the subject will be found. I don't believe that anyone goes out there just to "search". So, if everyone has the hope to find - the implications of the find need to be considered. In this case - the find could result in a criminal investigation.
I don't understand the question of a family accepting a lower POD in case of foul play. Foul play is not a factor in POD, in this case. If this was a case where information was provided that a body was concealed - THAT would affect POD.
In this case - we are still working this as a simple missing person. Our POD is determined by other factors:weather, length of time subject has been missing, terrain, foliage, water, experience and ability of the dog/handler team, etc.
If we were to get info that would have us looked for a concealed body - then those would become a factor: length of time, structure, possible depth of ground/grave, type of area and activity, etc.
Lastly - the family should never be a factor in the acceptance of POD. They are often biased in the belief of the missing subjects actions, and most probably have no experience in the methods used to search for the subject.
I believe that part of the reason that a few other folks being looked upon by the family, are being looked upon by the family - because it gives them the hope of an outcome to a scenario than they are accepting of. This is one case in point: dad is not willing to think that this is more than a simple accident. A few people are now filling his world with ideas of that he will be found in this scenario.
Next - we have a gal from Wisconsin, who has been banned from searching by authorities in Wisconsin. She has been recruited by a family out east, to use her bloodhound to find someone missing for 15 years. She is offering up a POD that is making the family ecstatic.
POD is not an exact science - but there are factors that need to be addressed. Putting forth a POD that is pleasing is not the route, we need accurate PODs.
I may have misunderstood your comment about asking the family a question. This is another reason why we really work to distance ourselves from family direct contact. Our info needs to be based on our experiences, and not be swayed by info / feelings of family members.
I think that we should talk some of these things through with the group - let's plan on this as a topic for Saturday.
Saturday rolled around, I had set up a cadaver problem for people to work a couple days earlier. At the start of the training there was the “talk”. There was a bunch of stuff about law enforcement, evidence and then he said that we have 2 cadaver certified dogs and again they will be the only dogs going on searches. John took most of the group and went to an area that he had setup for the live searchers. Jane the other cadaver team and I went to work the area that I had set up. Jane told us that her dog wasn’t certified and that John’s dog was the only one who is certified. This was something that everyone knew. Low and behold John got a call April 20, 2009 from Jack and the search manager; they had a couple of areas that they wanted checked. An email was sent out asking for a head count to go down. In the training before the search one of the techs posed the question, what would happen if one of his areas would need to be rechecked what would he do? Jane was injured and was not going on this search. He said he would take her dog down to recheck any areas.
A couple of weeks before I had called Brandon’s dad to ask about the names of the psychics he had been in contact with. I knew he had been digging in a spot in the Yellow Medicine River about a mile west of the LKP because of a reading he had. Crosby had searched the spot and showed no interest. He gave me her name and I sent her an email. When I found out we were going down again I called her and asked if I could see her before we searched. I went with just my wife because I was also going to ask her about Dave and there would have been too many bad vibes if the group owners were there.
Maureen said she was getting the same story she got from Brandon before. He walked right, left, left again, then right, passed a road closed sign, and ended in the river by a tree that was leaning over the river. I had drawn her a rough map of the river and car and she traced the route south first. She thought his car was facing east so if he went right (south), left (east), left again (north), right (east) and then if you went to the river you would end up where his dad was digging. I told Maureen that Brandon was coming across the field road and got stuck facing west. That would put him at the Bolton farm just a little upstream of the last place Crosby had interest last fall.
I told John that we had gone to the psychic and made CD’s of the reading. That pissed him off; there was no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes you were praised for taking the initiative other times you were reamed out for crossing the line that was constantly moving. I was able to leave on Friday earlier than others and John told me not to get out of my car when I was down there. That really pissed me off. I drove by the Bolton farm and looked at the driveway which would have been the last right turn of the psychic reading and there was a road closed sign halfway down the driveway.
Everyone got down the convent and we met with Jack and listened to the reading. Jack was open to anything that would help find Brandon. I told him about the road closed sign I saw and asked him if that was there the night he disappeared. He said that one wasn’t but there was an older one up across the drive with no sign on it. He had a great memory which might be a curse to him later in life if this remains unsolved.
There was this rumor going around that someone had buried someone by this house in Lynd and on Saturday morning we went down with Jack and met the Lyon County Sheriff and searched the back yard. I’m not sure if there was a warrant and I think we might have searched the dogs without there vests on but in a small town like that everyone probably knew. There was no interest there and we searched another area Jack wanted. It seemed that the alerts that the dogs were having would be less intense and fewer the further you got from a point a little west of LKP. There a few random points far away but those could be explained by farm use to dump garbage out back and that could contain blood from accidents or tampons.
Sunday before searching John called me into a room and closed the door. What wrong he said. I had been joking and talking with the other cops but had avoided conversations he was in and just searching where I was told to. Unfortunately, I took the bait and told him I was pissed about the 2 certified dogs comment. He made up something about what he meant was Jane’s last dog was certified with several finds and because her current dog was a offspring of that dog she was sort of grandfathered in? The great thing about closed door meetings with none of the other teams around it was my word against his. I asked him about the speech he made when lied about asked if anyone would volunteer to help the team finish her area in an earlier search. I asked who did you ask? Everyone? Me? Then he said it was childish of me not to let it go.
After the meeting we went up to the Bolton Farm I drove in from highway 68 as far as we could. John was starting up the river at the east boundary of the farm. As I got closer to the river Crosby started to alert he worked that area of the river hard. You can tell when he’s interested he starts snorting to get more air through his nose. I marked the spot on my GPS and headed up river. I wanted to get across the river but it was deep there and cold. When I got on the other side of the spot there was interest there but not as strong. I searched my way back to base.
When we got there Jack led us to an area that John’s dog had shown a lot of interest.
It was slightly down stream from the spot I had just marked. Crosby and the other team worked the same area with the same amount of interest. It was getting late, I hiked back to get my car and we all met back at the fire station. If this had been a normal group the correct thing to do would have been to put aside your differences and do a detailed search of the area either the next day or soon there after. Normally, we caravan back but they were going to take a shortcut on some back roads but I took the main highway to be alone.
April 27, 2009 I put this on the group email site:
I will be taking time off to see if this is something I still want to pursue thank you Pete
A little later there was an email from John saying that Jane’s dog wasn’t cadaver certified. He had said that we had 2 cadaver certified dogs. Later Jane told me and another that her dog was not certified and only John’s dog was certified. Later in the email he said that anyone who was confused should check the web site. Good idea for the confused.
Paranoia took hold. Someone from our group saw the post below about a search Saturday by one of the rival dog groups in a location north of our location on Sunday. I’m pretty sure that they thought it was me feeding information even though the information was totally different. I was later able to find the name of the single dog team on a blog by the Family’s’ new search manager.
April 25th Search:
A single canine team (four people) conducted several search missions on April 25th. The search plan was to cut for scent north and east of the previous areas of interest. The canine showed mild interest in a couple locations, but no remains were found. Rain prevented a search on April 26th.
John put this on the group email:
In a conversation with xxxxx this morning, he asked if I knew that info on our last efforts were posted on the Brandon Swanson web site. I told him that I had not, and he filled me in. I have never personally gone to this web site, but I know that some of you have and still do go there. So, upon returning home - xxxx read the info off to me. I found some interesting things to point out, in brief, and encourage you to go to the web site if you want more details on its content.
1. Our unit is not identified, just vaguely described.
2. It only describes our PARTIAL efforts on Saturday, April 25. This is incomplete.
3. It actually states that our plans to search on Sunday, April 26 were called off due to rain. We know that this is wrong.
4. It actually states that we had light interest in an area - surprisingly NOT the area we are recommending further efforts.
5. It states that we were "cutting for scent" - or something to that effect. Nothing about efforts due to tips or evidence. We know this to be wrong.
I do not know where this info came from, or how it got on the web site. Some of you may question communications - I have no answers for you. Those of us who were there know more about the situation. I do not know why more info was not shared regarding our efforts. What I DO know is that NO info was shared with Gary Peterson, either. Gary called me on Monday to ask how the efforts had gone, as Jack provided him no info at all. I also shared with you via e-mail that I mailed copies of our Sunday, April 26 report to Jack. I also e-mailed Jack - letting him know of the copies being mailed.
What I DO NOT know - is why the info shared for the web site is either incomplete or inaccurate. I have NOT heard from Jack at all. No calls, no return e-mails - nothing. Yes, this is odd, but I have no answers as to why not.
Odd, indeed - but we need to sit tight and trust Sheriff Jack - this is his operation. If I hear of anything - I will keep you all posted.
I returned to training with the group in mid May. There was this fundraiser for a handicap organization at a strip mall in Waconia. Unknown to me the organization had this kid drop his hat and walk about 30 yard into a group of people. Crosby was volunteered to find him, he had done a lot of different demos not many dog teams would offer to try this because you run the risk of failing in front of a large group. Crosby followed his trail right to him I was pleasantly surprised as the parking lot had hundreds of people walk over the area that morning.
I went to Iowa to train a couple of times after the evaluation. The first was a live training only. It was good to meet other handlers and dogs to see their search methods. One of the nights they gave me a scenario where a woman had been dropped on this gravel road. This was at a Reserve Army Training Camp. The girl who set up the problem wanted me to search heading west with the wind coming from the southeast. This was the least favorable condition as all searching the north side of that road the air born scent was blowing away from his nose. They wanted to see how many air scent dogs would find the trail. Cadaver work is air scenting. The source (body,blood.ect) doesn’t move by its self and the scent will go where ever the wind blows and will stick to whatever it hits. A trailing dog will start where the person was last and follow the scent trail where they walk. If they come across a trail from the side they only have to travel a few feet left or right to determine which way they are going. I asked someone about it and one theory is that the scent has a different pattern on the ground because the way your legs are moving, it’s really quite amazing. Any ways back to the missing woman, Crosby started west there was a fence on the left so he searched the road and in 20 yards to the right. It was small trees, brush and tall grass if I had followed him he would have searched deeper. A couple of time he found what looked like older trails you can gage by how excited he is. When he got to the fresh trail he went in about 30 yards and found her came back and indicated. We also did some building searches at the State Fair Grounds. The scent is contained in a building so it seemed to go quicker. I remember one problem where there were about 40 people in a 900 foot square building and a small girl was in a wastepaper container with another one upside down on top. I was working blind (not knowing where she was) I sent him in and told him to find he proceeded to go through the building checking everyone that was visible scent and then searched areas where people could be hiding. He came up to the wastepaper containers smelled it bumped it with his nose and then indicated. It is also important to train with people in plain sight so the dog knows the people aren’t always hiding.
The K-9 association that we had left awhile back had 2 dog groups and some independent handlers that were still actively searching at that time. They were the ones posting their searches on Brandon’s web site. At one of the training there were a bunch of us in a group talking and I remember Jane warning us not to talk with any of them about our area of interest in the river on April 26 because they would get some equipment and dig him out. I was a little surprised that no one reacted or questioned the statement. To be fair to our group, I’m pretty sure none of the other groups would have contacted us.
July 12 2009- There was a cadaver evaluation set up. I think there were 3 evaluations set up side by side. We were driving up to the cabin I took the first spot. The only problem was Crosby kept trying to leave his area and find the sources he smelled from the adjoining area. We had passed the test and left before the other tests were complete. When I got back home I checked the group email site and there was an email about Crosby passing but nothing about the others. This meant that they didn’t pass because you never document your mistakes. We were encouraged not to have search logs or if we did you would never keep a record of when your dog doesn’t find or “finds” something that’s not there. This was because this could be used against the dog in court. However one would never be able to get an accurate probability of detection without knowing what percent of the time you fail. Those who forget the past are destined to repeat it someone once said. My great uncle Cy Thomson was a controller for Hormel Meats in 1910 and almost bankrupted the company them though embezzlement and he used two sets of books maybe that would be the answer.
August 14 2009 We received an email from the John and Jane that Jack had contacted them. The DNR had come down to the place of interest by the river and used some sort of water cannon and had uncovered some bones. The first person that looked at them thought some of them were human but later it was determined that they were antelope.
There was an adult who was living in an assisted living home and was taken to the doctors office in Watertown MN. I think he was last seen 3:00 pm. We got to the doctors office at about 9:00 pm. The conditions were bad in was in the mid 80s, very humid and no wind. Some of the family was there and we got an article of clothing from them. I scented Crosby on it and with him on leash he started trialing west down the hill. Crosby kind of weaved back and forth down the hill. The man was delusional and heard voices and could be avoiding people. I took Crosby off the leash and he headed south and then looped to the north. We were out of the residential area and there was a rundown shack in a wooded patch and we were periodically calling out his name. Crosby worked the shed area hard and there was a lot of new looking beer cans. When Crosby would get too hot or tired he would lie down probably for about a minute but that is my clue to hold him down for at least 10 minutes with a water break. I noticed that he was twitching and then I saw the bees he had laid down on. I pulled him out of the wooded area took his vest off and brushed the bees off him. My experience with bees is that they can hold a grudge for quite a while. We gave Crosby some Benadryl and water and went to the next wooded area.
The State Patrol helicopter was flying overhead with a heat sensor but I heard that the ground temperature was so high that they couldn’t “see” through the trees. We searched the area for a while and met up with other members of our team. I searched an area north of the area we were just in. We went to a supermarket where some one thought they saw him. It was 2:00 am and Crosby was overdue for at least a 2 hour nap before he could go again so we headed home about a 15min drive.
We got back to the search area about 9:00 am. There was a search manager that was put in charge by the sheriff. It took awhile for them to hookup their computers and print maps and assign areas. We were given two areas one small park area in town which we finished quickly. The second area was south of the bees by about 1.5 miles. The map was marked with not only the area to search and but where to start and end. This would have us search with the wind at our back which would greatly reduce the POD (probability of detection) I started at the other end and started into the wind after about 10 minutes there was a call on the radio that I was suppose to come back for a scent article. I argued with him that I was doing a general search(looking for any and all humans in the area) and that since it was a wooded, grassy and swampy area that if there was anybody there I would want to find them and ask them if they had seen the missing man. After going back and forth on the radio for a while we continued to search my area. About 20 minutes later there was a call to come back he had been found.
When we got back to the fire station we found out that a sheriff horse group had stopped by the shack with the bees and had gotten off their horses and called out asking if he wanted to pet the horses and when they turned around he was standing right there. They interviewed him and he said that he herd people last night calling his name but he was afraid that he was in trouble and he stayed quiet. At the debriefing the question was asked by the sheriff how long the search should have continued without finding him. It takes me a while to think of what I’m going to say in public, I dreaded speech class in school and before I could answer they were on to the next question but my answer would have been:
11 months ago in Grantsburg WI there was an Autistic adult, similar weather and terrain who was found after 7 days, on the last day of the search, the last search of the day, naked lying on the ground, bug bit covered in ticks, dehydrated, hypothermic but alive so my answer would be no less than 8 days.
The first week of September, I sent a search proposal to John’s email. It was that a group should go down with probes and poke holes in banks, river bottom and the top of the bank. Doing this for at least 4 hours and then waiting a couple of hours to allow the scent to vent out. Run the dogs on the area to narrow down the area and then repeat poking holes in the narrowed down area and research. I had said in my email that this could be shared with anyone. It was a mistake by me not to send it to the other cadaver dog team because then at least it might have been discussed in the group. About 3 weeks later Jane informed me that there were no more searches planed for Brandon.
Mid-October there was a trailing and cadaver seminar in Iowa. Two dog teams from our group went down and took the trailing course. We started and broke up into groups of four. One of the guys was a policeman from a small town in Iowa. He was training his golden retriever to trail missing people and also used him in cadaver work. The other guy also a policeman had a Belgian Malinois police dog. We were talking while waiting our turn, there is a lot of waiting in search and rescue whether it’s waiting to be found in the woods while getting chewed up by mosquitoes’ or waiting for people to decide what’s happening next. I was asking him about using the dog to apprehend a fleeing suspect in the woods. Most of the time I was around his dog he was pretty aloof but I remember a couple of times he look at me as if he was hoping to get the attack command. I remember getting the same look at the wolf center in Ely, MN. I asked him what would happen if someone else besides the suspect was in the woods. He paused for a minute and said “they shouldn’t have been there” with a sheepish grin. He also used his dog for drug searches. He would take cotton balls and put them in the evidence room with the drugs for a few days. If he found a car that was broke down on the road he would take a cotton ball and stuff in a crack in the door. A couple of hours later he would come back and if the car was still there he would have his dog search the outside of the car. If the car was gone already all he was out was a cotton ball that would fall out when the door was opened, pretty ingenious.
We worked all kinds of trailing problems at the camp. One was they would have two people start out at the same time on the same trail one would turn right one left. The person who turned right would leave a scent article. Then you would scent your dog on the article and hopefully the dog would follow the trail to the right. They set a problem for me that had a lot of turns through it and the area that had a lot of other trails and people in it. He ran through the problem with only one time I had to ask for the turn we missed. The problem I had with trailing was that when Crosby lost the trail he worked so hard trying to find it was difficult to tell when he had lost it. They set up a 24 hour trail where they drove a person to the starting point they walked about ½ mile and then they would pick up the person in a car. 24 hours later they would drive the person to the end of the trail rather than making them wait there for a day so the dogs would find the person at the end of the trail. Crosby was able to follow the trail but he was about the 5th dog to do the problem. The true test would be to be the first dog to run the trail, the main thing you learn at these is how to train. The other dog from our group did a problem where the person got into a car and drove a couple hundred yards with one turn and the dog was able to make the turn. One of the teachers was a policeman with a bloodhound trailing dog. The dog wasn’t there but he told us of a problem that he setup. He had a guy go into a convenience store he handled something left it there and then drove 3 miles to the end of the problem. 24 hours later he went to the store scented the dog on the item and found the guy not knowing which way he drove. I have no reason to doubt him but I sure would have liked to have walked along. We were talking to another teacher about him and she said his police department had set up prison escape training. They had gone to great lengths to set up the problem with helicopters, swat teams and the whole 9 yards. He went into the cell scented his dog on an article and found the guy in less than 20 minutes. On the last day me and the other member from our group took a break from the trailing class and worked a couple of cadaver problems each. She was working an English Yellow Lab a very smart and independent dog. There was one scattered problem with at least 8 sources scattered in an area and I heard that her dog was the only dog to find all of the sources.
Jan 7, 2010 the group owners got a call from the group in Iowa that had set up the training seminar a couple of us had just attended. A 54 year old snowmobiler was last seen January 3 he told his girl friend to meet him a 5:00 pm but he never showed. The weather was very cold and windy. The group typically didn’t train in these conditions because it’s too cold. Ironic. The two of us that went to the seminar were committed to go. I had sent an email to the group asking if any of the logistics had been workout. Called the other cadaver team member and they said they were a maybe and they heard that the group owners had a wedding to go to. As I understood it we were never to contact Law Enforcement, give information to rival K9 groups but I never heard anything about not talking to friendly K9 groups. An email was sent down to Iowa group and this was the response.
Hey xxxxx,
I don't have a ton of info yet. By the time we got all the ducks in a row today it was past hours to talk to anyone involved at the Sheriff's office. The news link above probably gives us the best info for a starting point. If this information turns out to not apply to him then the search area becomes very large and may not be something we can tackle in a day or so. I will try to get a hold of the search commander in the morning and get a better handle on things. If you end up coming down, what is your time frame for leaving? I will call you in the morning. I appreciate your willingness to give a hand.
BTW, I hadn't heard that John and Jane weren't planning to come, hope everything is ok.
John sent this email to the group
Many of you have heard that a SAR unit from Iowa contacted me yesterday - and was looking for info and search strategy support for a missing snowmobiler. After a couple of short conversations - Laura asked if we would have anyone available to help, as they felt that they had no dogs ready for this type of search, and nobody who really has trained in this type of weather. An e-mail went out to those in the unit who would be "good to go" for this type of effort.
I just talked with xxxxx. We have agreed to put the search off - she will not even be contacting the searchers until Sunday at the soonest.
Here are reasons why:
1. She spoke to the Sheriff's Department - and they are done with their efforts.
2. There is a group continuing search efforts - Laura has 3 names of people to call but none of them are LE. The LE doesn't know exactly who is involved. It is believed that the family has rounded up volunteers - some may be from the fire / rescue service, but they are not in an official capacity either - or so LE believes.
3. The weather is really tough. Not expected to get above 20 until Monday, and it is somewhat hazardous to people and dogs.
For any questions or concerns - you can direct them to me. I am always available for SAR on my cell. I did have several meetings yesterday. All of them started out with me stating that I had a SAR event, and would not be putting my phone on silent - but may have to ex
John
Jane went berserk on the phone with the member who contacted the other group. This was the last straw she, I and a tech left the group. As I am writing this I have the Wizard of Oz song, “Were out of the woods” stuck in my head but I know that it is and was too optimistic. And this was the last email.
Hello
We feel that it would be best if we left the group. Thanks and good luck.
Pete, xxxxx & xxxxx
I continued to train with some of the old group members that lived by me. In February I sent Sheriff Jack an email proposing a search similar to what I had proposed to our group. I few days later I gave him a call and I got the response that I expected. He said that he would have no objection to that area being rechecked but first he had a river search that he wanted to do first. I offered to help with that search and he said he would get back with the details.
Received this email from Jack
Pete
I believe I mentioned when I talked to you a few days ago that BCA has come on board in the investigation of Brandon's disappearance. As a result, we have finally gotten everyone to agree to search further down stream and clear the river all the way to the Minnesota River. That search is planned for the weekend of the 24th and 25th of April. Will you and any of your associates be available to help with that search and if so how many teams of handlers and dogs can commit? Will they need support people? We are thinking of having firemen walk the banks as the dogs and handlers search. Please let me know by Wednesday morning because I have a meeting at noon with the other sheriffs and we need to have some idea of numbers so we can make plans for accommodations.
Thanks, Jack
The plan was the group I left and maybe some other dog were going to search the Yellow Medicine River from the furthest point downstream that was already searched to a point where our group was going to continue to where it enters the Minnesota River. There were 4 dog teams in our group and we were setting up our areas. The plan was to search the river and also run a dog in a boat. The 3 other dog team expressed reservation about going in the boat because they weren’t water certified. I didn’t tell them that to the best of knowledge only one of the dogs used upstream had any cadaver certification. I didn’t have any reservation because the river is so narrow if there was interest he would jump out the scent just like if he was on the bank he would jump in. We were in Hanley Falls, MN which was in the middle of our area. They started setting search areas moving out from where we were. I suggested that we start from the furthest point up river and work down in case we ran out of time. The further you move away from the LKP the less likely you are to find him. They agreed, wow that was easy, I love it when logic prevails. I had two firemen with me I gave them the radio and had them on the west side and Crosby and I was on the east side of the river working up stream. We had fairly large areas to cover and I had to encourage them to move. When you first do this type of search you naturally want to carefully examine every thing but there is a lot of stuff that ends up over the banks when the water recedes. At one point they found some bones I had waders on but the water was too deep to cross with out filling them. I had them call Crosby across the river and told them to tell him to check it, it was an interesting experiment as they we prodding him a little too much but he had no interest. They moved them by the river where they could easily be seen and called in the coordinates. It was tough going with steep banks where you had to fight to stay close to the river. At lunch time they brought us sandwiches to my side of the river I took one tied the plastic bag shut and tried unsuccessfully to throw it across. I had Crosby retrieve it from the river and gave him a ham sandwich for his effort. Found a rock put it in the bag and threw across. If the first guy would have taken two sandwiches the other guy would have been like Charlie Brown “I got a rock”.
In the early evening, I went in a boat with a girl that had come down with the search manager in charge of the southern section. We searched for a few hours until we got to Hanley Falls, it’s actually just some rapids. It is beautiful on the river, quiet with big trees but there was no interest in the river.
The next time out, I was in a duck boat with pusher sticks. We had gone quite a ways with no interest. As long as he saw that we were searching Crosby would be constantly be looking and scenting. When we were getting close to the road where we were to end Crosby started to alert nose in the air we moved to the west bank we got out went up the bank he was still nose up, got back went down stream a little checked the east bank same thing. Back in the boat and around the bend and there on the bridge was the source-- the deputy who had dropped us off before.
I found out one of the four teams from our group had been brought up to the Bolten Farm to check the area that I was interested in. I talked to her after and asked her how it went. She had started in a ways working up stream and her dog had indicated in the bank of the river. I later talked with a member of the group I was in and his dog had strong interest in the same area that weekend. When I had gotten back from my last search of the weekend almost everyone was gone except the search manager. I packed up and headed home.
That fall I went down there one time my own. The spot I was searching was a wildlife area where the farmers get a tax break by letting any one hunt on it. My wife was up at the cabin with friends and I didn’t tell her because she worries too much. The plan was I was going to be in contact with my daughter by phone and so she would know when I was done. I called her but the call wouldn’t go though. I went into town and called Verizon and found out that my phone had been shut off and there was nothing they could do unless I knew the business tax id number. She was expecting a call and the phone company could argue with me for 20 minutes but couldn’t call her and tell her that my phone was shut off. I went back to the south side of the river in a ways and started working. Crosby was limping on his right rear leg. He had interest in the area but I was fried at that point. We hiked back to the car I help him in. After the 2 hour drive home we wouldn’t put any weight on his leg.
Spring 2010 a couple of friends and I went down to search for Brandon with a canoe and we went in the river downstream of the Porter spillway. Crosby had interest in the first area in the wooded area west of the barn. The further we went down the less interest he had. The river was very curvy with a lot of branches. It was taking a long time and my friend was getting worried. He kept saying let me see that map. I assured him that every mile there is a road. This is a guy who would go into Glacier Park by himself camping and not tell anyone what area he was going and when he would be due back. We made it to the road and they waited while I walked back and got the truck.
I had decided to concentrate on the smaller area downstream from the spillway where the trailing dog had gone to the river. I went down with an old friend that I had lost contact with for a while. I rented a gas powered ½” drill and a 2 foot long 1” dia drill bit. We left early in the morning before light and parked west of the spillway. We tied up Crosby which he didn’t like; he didn’t ride here to watch. We took the drill and started drilling holes in the bank, river bottom and in a little ways. There were roots everywhere and every time you would hit one it would twist your arm off. We finished two areas in a couple of hours. The first area had set for about an hour and the idea was that the holes would vent the scent up. I work Crosby on the first area and this was the strongest scent area. There was one spot by this tree on the south side where he was digging and also looking up. These are both signs that he can’t get to the scent either because it buried or it is in the tree. I tied him up again and drilled the third section. We ate lunch and talked about things we had done when we were younger. I was beautiful there it was warm no bugs and big trees. I wouldn’t mind being buried there if people knew where I was. I worked the third section which was down stream from the other two. This area was kind of an old junk yard there were old appliances, a wheel chair, and other junk. Crosby had interest in this area but not as much as the first area. I drilled again in area 1 and ran Crosby again he had similar interest and digging. I was perplexed and we drove home and made it back to the hardware store before they closed to return the drill.
Ok, this is getting on my nerves. Time to stop pussy footing around and think like a man! What to try next. A bigger frickin drill! ……dah… and hell lets throw in a metal detector. My latest plan was to rent a post hole digger, 3 inch drill and two three foot extensions and turn that part of the river into Swiss cheese. And then have someone take the metal detector and have someone check the south side of the river’s edge where the trailing dog went to the river for Brandon’s cell phone. I assumed that his car keys were still in his pocket so then take the metal detector and check the river bottom and banks. Then run Crosby on the river, an ambitious plan.
I think it was fall 2011 four of us went down, Crosby, me, my sister and son in law. I had rented the metal detector already and had reserved the post hole digger in Marshall MN. We got down there right after they opened, filled out the paperwork and they went to get it. About a half hour later they came back and said they can’t find it. It turned out somebody rented it out last night and they said you will have to rent it another day. We went back and forth and they said they had another one but only one extension so we could only drill three feet deep. We took it and headed to the river. We had a wheel barrow and hauled everything down to the river. I staked out an area and had my sister look for the cell phone. This area must have been a garbage area once because the detector kept going off all the time so you would have to stop all the time and dig through the weed. If you would dig you would find a tin can or something metal. The post hole digger they called it a 2 man but it should have been call a 2 big man drill. It was awkward we were trying to drill sideways into the bank, into the river bottom and when you hit something it would really grab you. It didn’t have a reverse so you would get it stuck in some roots you would have to take the drill off and unscrew it out of the hole with a vise grips. I was in reasonable shape but my son-in-law was in his 20’s so I was the weak link. We did it like the last time we drilled 2 areas and then I rested while Crosby worked the first area. In retrospect it would take 5 people to make Swiss cheese. With 4 people drilling and one person resting and watching what’s coming out of the hole for clues. My sister took the metal detector and ran it under water. There was a surprising amount of metal in the river as the detector would go off and you would have to stop all the time and dig with a shovel which slowed you way down.
Crosby indicated in the sand where the trailing dog had gone to the river. If this had been a training the person walking with me would have known if that was the spot if he confirmed it I would have said a loud YES! And gave him his reward (a tug rope) and played tug of war with it. And if the tech had said that it wasn’t the spot I would continue to search nearby. However this time I didn’t know so I just praised him and took off his vest and ended the search. Normally you would use different dog to check the same area but I didn’t have that luxury. We filled in just enough of the holes so it looked like gophers had done it. Drove to Marshall returned the post hold digger and drove home.
My last time looking for Brandon as it turned out was a few weeks later. I went down there with my son-in-law and a couple of shovels. The plan was to run Crosby and dig with shovels any area of interest to see what we could find. When we got down there it had been a lot colder than I thought. The ground was frozen pretty hard and shoveling was out. I ran Crosby and he had interest in the area like he always did. I think we had only spent three hours at the site. This was my son-in-law’s third time looking for Brandon and I could tell that he was getting emotionally hooked because he started the what if scenario. That is what I did every time after coming up empty handed. Maybe I should try ____? Or do ____? Searching is like a roller coaster with ups and downs but you most always end at level ground.
In December 2011 I contacted one of the leaders of the dog groups. They were part of an association that my old group had split from. She was an evaluator on Crosby’s 40 acre night test and I had been a field tech for here on a search in Winona MN. I told her of my concern about the area and asked her if she had a dog that could double check the area. She said that her dog had retired and she would have to check with the current search manager. I told her that I had read in a blog where the current search manager had calculated that there was a .02% chance he was there based on the number of times that area was searched. I sent her a map of the area with the dog alerts and a paragraph explaining them. In early January 2012 she responded that she had talked with the assistant search manager and that they didn’t have any searches planed. She stated that her group couldn’t go down without the permission of Law enforcement and the Search manager. She stressed that they should contact me directly but I never heard anything.
I’m ok at math, in school I liked science better in school because there were fewer rules. If someone was covered up you could walk by him a thousand times or maybe more and never see him. That leaves the scent and if you were walking there are a lot of thing that could prevent you from smelling him and a short time range for human to detect him. Assuming each dog and handler were equally skilled each time a time an area was gone over under similar weather, conditions and amount of time searching the probability of him being there would go down. It would take a lot of searches to get to .02%. chance of Brandon being in that section of river.
There we a lot of different dogs down there of different abilities. There was a trailing dog that had him leaving the car and walking across the cornfield to town even thou he was on the phone telling his dad he is on the road. One trailing dog had him walking up and down all the street of Taunton MN, one handler was driving around with the dog in the back seat with the window open searching areas. The one dog who’s name I remember was Shania who had quite a following with the locals they named a spot in the river after her Shania’s point. I remember when I was at the Fire Station in Hanley Fall the Sheriffs of Lyon and Yellow Medicine Counties were talking to the local manager of our area joking about how they had gotten sheriff Jack all riled up before by telling him that a certain notorious dog (I forget the name) was going to show up. They quoted Jack as saying if “he (current search manager) shows up again with that dog again I’ll shoot him”. If he said it I’m pretty sure Jack was kidding and I’m not sure if he meant he’d shoot the dog or the search manager.
I also tried contacting the group in Iowa that we had gone to their seminars. When they had contacted my old group and asked for assistance during an extreme cold snap in January I was one of two dog teams that had committed to drive down and help. In retrospect I should have phoned instead of emailing to explain the events that surrounded my leaving the group and voiced my concerns about the river area. I received a short email back saying that she would check into it.
Crosby had slipped on the floor at home whenever he would hear something or the doorbell on the TV he would tear off like a madman. He injured his right rear knee our other dog had the same injury. When we took her in the surgery would have been $2000.00 and there was a 50% chance her other knee would go out during recovery. We opted for a brace that was sold on-line. She wore it for a few months and it allowed her knee to heal sort of. Her knee was never the same but she learned to compensate for it. We tried it on Crosby and it helped him how ever whenever he would work of play too hard it showed.
I had backed off on Crosby’s training but he loved it so much it was hard to stop. In October 2012 Crosby broke a tooth and his right front rotator cuff was bothering him. He probably broke it on a stick during a cadaver training if he couldn’t get to it he would grab all the branches and log and try to tear then off. We brought him to the vet for surgery the vet techs were raving about him how handsome and what personality he was. He knew how to work a crowd. They were going to put him out so we had them x-ray his right shoulder which was bothering him. It turned out it was not something surgery would help.
December 8 2012 It was reported on the news that Danielle Jelinek was missing from a male acquaintance’s house. He said he didn’t know where she went and he was arrested on unrelated drug charges. They had done a search of the area but found nothing. The house was on the way up to the cabin and in the back of my head as it warmed up I thought about stopping and running Crosby near the house.
Then Kira Steger was reported missing her house was searched and a large amount of blood was found. Her husband who she was divorcing was suspected of killing her. They were calling for volunteers every weekend. I started to feel guilty about doing nothing. Crosby wasn’t up to plowing though deep snow but I heard that the police said that a hole had been cut in Keller lake and bloody clothes were found nearby. I had heard that dogs had gone over the lake and had interest. One Sunday I went with Crosby and my sister to the lake. The lake was full of holes where searchers were looking at the bottom with cameras. I took a stick and broke the thin ice that formed on the holes. We took Crosby and started working him on the holes after about the fifth hole Crosby indicated on a hole that had a stick stuck in the middle of it. I was working the way the water flowed in the lake and the further I went his interest declined I turn west and went to the next row of holes. As I got even with the hole with the stick he became more animated. After searching the area we left the area we met someone in the parking lot who had been searching the lake. He called Kira’s cousin from Wisconsin and gave me the phone and I told that Crosby had indicated at the hole with the stick in it and he told me that is where he had found a roll of duct tape sitting on the bottom with no silt on it like it hadn’t been there very long just downstream from the hole the police found. He was coming back to the lake the next weekend end and I agreed to bring Crosby again.
There were about 20 people on the ice drilling holes and searching with fish cameras. Crosby worked the holes this time he didn’t indicate but the area of interest was the same. Downstream from the original hole in the ice but the strongest area was closer to the shore line. The weather was warming up and the ice was getting dangerous. I went back a couple of weeks later it was only about a 45 minute drive. Walked the shore to the area Crosby looked under the weather or in pain. There was a small channel of water between the shore and ice the way the ice always starts to go out on a lake. Crosby was just kind of walking along with us we got even with the hole with the stick and was going to turn back and all of a sudden he perked up. He caught a whiff of something and started working the shore line and out on the ice a ways. Working back the interest died down like earlier times. A week or so ago I had set up a problem in the creek in our yard. I took an ounce of human blood pour it on a rag put it in a porous container and tied it to a string and tossed it in. A day later Crosby found it in a 2 acre area in less than 5 minutes. My daughter brought dogs to our house to throw the ball for them. One of her dogs was a Shepard Greyhound mix when she let her loose, right away she went over where the blood was checked around the bank and then jumped in and started swimming around. She called me at work and asked if I put something in the creek, I asked her where and I told her it was blood. This made me wonder if a whole body was in the lake why the scent wouldn’t be stronger and more wide spread. My creek and the lake were probably close in temperature.
I was in contact with the cousin and he let me know when the ice went out. I borrowed a duck boat from someone I knew though work. There were about 15 people there some searching some just to show support. I worked Crosby in the boat and started up stream and worked with the current. When Crosby was over the previous area of interest he started barking like mad. I didn’t really train with lake searching. In most drowning’s the person will come up on their own. It is better for the family to have someone found sooner that later, but nothing could be worst than never finding them. So I concentrated my training where I thought Crosby could do the most good. My goal in search and rescue started out being to finding Dave but it morphed into helping others find their missing family members especially when others stopped. It is easy to tell if there is scent in the water the hard part for the dog is pinpointing the hot spot when someone else is steering the boat. Crosby does better when he is swimming, he jumped out of the boat once but the ice just went out so I only let him swim for a couple of minutes.
We went back to the parking lot and talked with the cousin and others. I suggested that we put two stakes at the edge of the interest area and run a string between them. Following the string as a reference line, take the boats and probe the bottom with sticks for objects in the lake. And then keep moving the line over and cover the interest area. The lake was only 5-9 feet deep in the area. The cousin didn’t want to stir up the water as he wanted to look with cameras again once the sun got low enough so there wasn’t a glare. I didn’t press the idea I knew that the Sheriff was going to go over the area with sonar latter.
I was planning to go back a few weeks later if nothing was found yet. The lake was shallow and the sun was getting strong and by then Crosby could stay in the water 10-15 minutes at a time and the warmer water would enhance the scent.
May 1, 2013 Mandy M. got into her ex-boyfriend’s car in the evening and never came home. The next morning the police contacted her ex and told him to come into the station. He came into the parking lot but shot and killed himself with out telling anyone where she was. There was her blood on his jacket and in his car. It was crazy there were 3 young women missing and 3 men, 2 that weren’t talking and the other was dead. The police had three areas that he had driven that night based on cell phone information. The 3 areas put together were a huge area and I actually lived in the smallest area.
May 8, 2013 Kira was found in the Mississippi River she had a broken finger, head wound, bruised lip and laceration to her liver. She also had duck tape on her. The best I can figure is that nobody would chop a 24” diameter hole through two feet of ice just to dump a role of duck tape. He must of tried to cleanup after dumping the body and there must been some bloody items that were put through the hole. I sent an email to the St. Paul police offering to go back to the lake and find the source of my dog’s interest if it would help the case. The husband was convicted of second degree unintentional murder.
May 10, 2013 Danielle J. body was found 300 yard from the house in a swampy area in an area that had been searched nearly a dozen times when it was covered with over a foot of snow. I believe it was snowing heavily the night she was at the house. Her body was spotted by a routine search by a State Patrol helicopter. The man in the case was indicted for third degree murder. Now there is one of the three left to find.
Mandy family was organizing a search about 5 miles from my house. They had a lot of ground pounders that they divided in to 4 groups. I had talked with one of the group leaders and told him that I had a cadaver dog and I went with his group. I started out on the flank of the group. My wife stayed with the group and I was in contact with her via walkie-talkie. I left the main group and headed up to a ridge to check what was in the air. There was one spot on a hill facing north where Crosby had interest on the ground I noted it on my GPS and I made our way back to the group that was finishing up. When we got back and talked with the organizers they gave us a couple more areas to check on our own. I went out a couple more times to check area adjacent to the area I had marked. The search area was large it would have taken 20 dog teams working non stop for 2 months to begin to cover that area. It was really leafing out which makes it much harder on the teams. Crosby was limping every time after searching and my wife put her foot down, rightfully so and Crosby went in to retirement. I was pessimistic about Mandy being found but in October 2013 a Boy Scout was at a Mississippi River Park near St Cloud MN and saw a small piece of fabric on the ground off a trail and tried to pick it up but it was part of a larger article she was wearing. This was a park that volunteers had searched before.
My cadaver evaluation that was scheduled for November 8, 2008 was canceled because the evaluator had a injured leg. There were 3 live evaluations in March and we added another certified live team for a total of 5 live teams but only 1 cadaver team that was certified. There were few live searches when I was there, they would either be found before we left or the police would wait too long before calling out the dogs and they were presumed to be dead. I went on a rare vacation to Washington State. to visit our daughter for a week. And when I got back I sent this email to John.
Hi
I was thinking about what was said about searching getting in the way of training and I agree that's a true statement. That could be said about alot of things. I think people could and should train on their own when there aren't regular scheduled training if their personal situation permits. In bringing up Brandon I didn't mean to suggest that anyone else should go if they couldn't. I know it’s a long shot but it is certainly possible that he made it outside of the radius that we have searched. I am compelled to help the family if I can. If there is another search on Brandon's web site and I can make it I will offer my assistance. If this would cause any problems for the group I would leave with no hard feelings. I didn't put this on the group email I don't want any baggage I have to influence what the group does.
Thanks Pete
This was the response
Pete -
Just got this e-mail - sorry for the delay. This is my work e-mail address - and I work and K-9 e-mails get sorted, moved offices and connections in the building, pain in the butt, blah - blah....
Anyway - Jane and I understand where you are coming from. We also believe that everyone should be training on their own. And we also believe that more should be done for Brandon.
Whether we take on searches as a team - the bigger picture is not going or not going. It is not even who goes. What should be important is HOW we make the decision.
Right now - we work for Sheriff Jack. I know that the family is in need, but I do not believe that the family believes that this could easily turn in to a criminal case. Those implications, and who is involved, and what could be dismissed in a court of law, are all vital.
I will be working with Jack in the very near future. If he feels that responding on our own is OK, I will let everyone know. But, based on our last visit - I have the feeling that he believes that there is something more to it.
Right now, the family's priority is finding Brandon. I completely understand that.
But, if it turns into a criminal case - their priority could easily turn to seeking justice - and if we get in the way of that - it becomes a professional relationship issue for all of us. In fact, what a handler does creates huge ripples for other handlers - not even in the same unit. We know of other SAR people no longer welcomed in entire counties, this would mean that future searches for other peoples missing loved ones could be jeopardized.
Thanks for sharing your concern and wishes, and I'll be in touch with Jack.
My response back:
John- Thanks for your email. I'm new at this but I don't see how this could become a criminal case without finding him. I don't know how the family would answer if I asked them "would you accept a lower POD in case there might have been foul play?” I will keep you informed. Please let me know what Jack says.
Thanks Pete
(The point I was trying to make is what would the family say if we told them that we are going to stop looking for Brandon because there is an outside chance this could be a criminal case?)
John’s response
Pete -
My hope is that all of us search with the highest degree of hope and confidence that the subject will be found. I don't believe that anyone goes out there just to "search". So, if everyone has the hope to find - the implications of the find need to be considered. In this case - the find could result in a criminal investigation.
I don't understand the question of a family accepting a lower POD in case of foul play. Foul play is not a factor in POD, in this case. If this was a case where information was provided that a body was concealed - THAT would affect POD.
In this case - we are still working this as a simple missing person. Our POD is determined by other factors:weather, length of time subject has been missing, terrain, foliage, water, experience and ability of the dog/handler team, etc.
If we were to get info that would have us looked for a concealed body - then those would become a factor: length of time, structure, possible depth of ground/grave, type of area and activity, etc.
Lastly - the family should never be a factor in the acceptance of POD. They are often biased in the belief of the missing subjects actions, and most probably have no experience in the methods used to search for the subject.
I believe that part of the reason that a few other folks being looked upon by the family, are being looked upon by the family - because it gives them the hope of an outcome to a scenario than they are accepting of. This is one case in point: dad is not willing to think that this is more than a simple accident. A few people are now filling his world with ideas of that he will be found in this scenario.
Next - we have a gal from Wisconsin, who has been banned from searching by authorities in Wisconsin. She has been recruited by a family out east, to use her bloodhound to find someone missing for 15 years. She is offering up a POD that is making the family ecstatic.
POD is not an exact science - but there are factors that need to be addressed. Putting forth a POD that is pleasing is not the route, we need accurate PODs.
I may have misunderstood your comment about asking the family a question. This is another reason why we really work to distance ourselves from family direct contact. Our info needs to be based on our experiences, and not be swayed by info / feelings of family members.
I think that we should talk some of these things through with the group - let's plan on this as a topic for Saturday.
Saturday rolled around, I had set up a cadaver problem for people to work a couple days earlier. At the start of the training there was the “talk”. There was a bunch of stuff about law enforcement, evidence and then he said that we have 2 cadaver certified dogs and again they will be the only dogs going on searches. John took most of the group and went to an area that he had setup for the live searchers. Jane the other cadaver team and I went to work the area that I had set up. Jane told us that her dog wasn’t certified and that John’s dog was the only one who is certified. This was something that everyone knew. Low and behold John got a call April 20, 2009 from Jack and the search manager; they had a couple of areas that they wanted checked. An email was sent out asking for a head count to go down. In the training before the search one of the techs posed the question, what would happen if one of his areas would need to be rechecked what would he do? Jane was injured and was not going on this search. He said he would take her dog down to recheck any areas.
A couple of weeks before I had called Brandon’s dad to ask about the names of the psychics he had been in contact with. I knew he had been digging in a spot in the Yellow Medicine River about a mile west of the LKP because of a reading he had. Crosby had searched the spot and showed no interest. He gave me her name and I sent her an email. When I found out we were going down again I called her and asked if I could see her before we searched. I went with just my wife because I was also going to ask her about Dave and there would have been too many bad vibes if the group owners were there.
Maureen said she was getting the same story she got from Brandon before. He walked right, left, left again, then right, passed a road closed sign, and ended in the river by a tree that was leaning over the river. I had drawn her a rough map of the river and car and she traced the route south first. She thought his car was facing east so if he went right (south), left (east), left again (north), right (east) and then if you went to the river you would end up where his dad was digging. I told Maureen that Brandon was coming across the field road and got stuck facing west. That would put him at the Bolton farm just a little upstream of the last place Crosby had interest last fall.
I told John that we had gone to the psychic and made CD’s of the reading. That pissed him off; there was no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes you were praised for taking the initiative other times you were reamed out for crossing the line that was constantly moving. I was able to leave on Friday earlier than others and John told me not to get out of my car when I was down there. That really pissed me off. I drove by the Bolton farm and looked at the driveway which would have been the last right turn of the psychic reading and there was a road closed sign halfway down the driveway.
Everyone got down the convent and we met with Jack and listened to the reading. Jack was open to anything that would help find Brandon. I told him about the road closed sign I saw and asked him if that was there the night he disappeared. He said that one wasn’t but there was an older one up across the drive with no sign on it. He had a great memory which might be a curse to him later in life if this remains unsolved.
There was this rumor going around that someone had buried someone by this house in Lynd and on Saturday morning we went down with Jack and met the Lyon County Sheriff and searched the back yard. I’m not sure if there was a warrant and I think we might have searched the dogs without there vests on but in a small town like that everyone probably knew. There was no interest there and we searched another area Jack wanted. It seemed that the alerts that the dogs were having would be less intense and fewer the further you got from a point a little west of LKP. There a few random points far away but those could be explained by farm use to dump garbage out back and that could contain blood from accidents or tampons.
Sunday before searching John called me into a room and closed the door. What wrong he said. I had been joking and talking with the other cops but had avoided conversations he was in and just searching where I was told to. Unfortunately, I took the bait and told him I was pissed about the 2 certified dogs comment. He made up something about what he meant was Jane’s last dog was certified with several finds and because her current dog was a offspring of that dog she was sort of grandfathered in? The great thing about closed door meetings with none of the other teams around it was my word against his. I asked him about the speech he made when lied about asked if anyone would volunteer to help the team finish her area in an earlier search. I asked who did you ask? Everyone? Me? Then he said it was childish of me not to let it go.
After the meeting we went up to the Bolton Farm I drove in from highway 68 as far as we could. John was starting up the river at the east boundary of the farm. As I got closer to the river Crosby started to alert he worked that area of the river hard. You can tell when he’s interested he starts snorting to get more air through his nose. I marked the spot on my GPS and headed up river. I wanted to get across the river but it was deep there and cold. When I got on the other side of the spot there was interest there but not as strong. I searched my way back to base.
When we got there Jack led us to an area that John’s dog had shown a lot of interest.
It was slightly down stream from the spot I had just marked. Crosby and the other team worked the same area with the same amount of interest. It was getting late, I hiked back to get my car and we all met back at the fire station. If this had been a normal group the correct thing to do would have been to put aside your differences and do a detailed search of the area either the next day or soon there after. Normally, we caravan back but they were going to take a shortcut on some back roads but I took the main highway to be alone.
April 27, 2009 I put this on the group email site:
I will be taking time off to see if this is something I still want to pursue thank you Pete
A little later there was an email from John saying that Jane’s dog wasn’t cadaver certified. He had said that we had 2 cadaver certified dogs. Later Jane told me and another that her dog was not certified and only John’s dog was certified. Later in the email he said that anyone who was confused should check the web site. Good idea for the confused.
Paranoia took hold. Someone from our group saw the post below about a search Saturday by one of the rival dog groups in a location north of our location on Sunday. I’m pretty sure that they thought it was me feeding information even though the information was totally different. I was later able to find the name of the single dog team on a blog by the Family’s’ new search manager.
April 25th Search:
A single canine team (four people) conducted several search missions on April 25th. The search plan was to cut for scent north and east of the previous areas of interest. The canine showed mild interest in a couple locations, but no remains were found. Rain prevented a search on April 26th.
John put this on the group email:
In a conversation with xxxxx this morning, he asked if I knew that info on our last efforts were posted on the Brandon Swanson web site. I told him that I had not, and he filled me in. I have never personally gone to this web site, but I know that some of you have and still do go there. So, upon returning home - xxxx read the info off to me. I found some interesting things to point out, in brief, and encourage you to go to the web site if you want more details on its content.
1. Our unit is not identified, just vaguely described.
2. It only describes our PARTIAL efforts on Saturday, April 25. This is incomplete.
3. It actually states that our plans to search on Sunday, April 26 were called off due to rain. We know that this is wrong.
4. It actually states that we had light interest in an area - surprisingly NOT the area we are recommending further efforts.
5. It states that we were "cutting for scent" - or something to that effect. Nothing about efforts due to tips or evidence. We know this to be wrong.
I do not know where this info came from, or how it got on the web site. Some of you may question communications - I have no answers for you. Those of us who were there know more about the situation. I do not know why more info was not shared regarding our efforts. What I DO know is that NO info was shared with Gary Peterson, either. Gary called me on Monday to ask how the efforts had gone, as Jack provided him no info at all. I also shared with you via e-mail that I mailed copies of our Sunday, April 26 report to Jack. I also e-mailed Jack - letting him know of the copies being mailed.
What I DO NOT know - is why the info shared for the web site is either incomplete or inaccurate. I have NOT heard from Jack at all. No calls, no return e-mails - nothing. Yes, this is odd, but I have no answers as to why not.
Odd, indeed - but we need to sit tight and trust Sheriff Jack - this is his operation. If I hear of anything - I will keep you all posted.
I returned to training with the group in mid May. There was this fundraiser for a handicap organization at a strip mall in Waconia. Unknown to me the organization had this kid drop his hat and walk about 30 yard into a group of people. Crosby was volunteered to find him, he had done a lot of different demos not many dog teams would offer to try this because you run the risk of failing in front of a large group. Crosby followed his trail right to him I was pleasantly surprised as the parking lot had hundreds of people walk over the area that morning.
I went to Iowa to train a couple of times after the evaluation. The first was a live training only. It was good to meet other handlers and dogs to see their search methods. One of the nights they gave me a scenario where a woman had been dropped on this gravel road. This was at a Reserve Army Training Camp. The girl who set up the problem wanted me to search heading west with the wind coming from the southeast. This was the least favorable condition as all searching the north side of that road the air born scent was blowing away from his nose. They wanted to see how many air scent dogs would find the trail. Cadaver work is air scenting. The source (body,blood.ect) doesn’t move by its self and the scent will go where ever the wind blows and will stick to whatever it hits. A trailing dog will start where the person was last and follow the scent trail where they walk. If they come across a trail from the side they only have to travel a few feet left or right to determine which way they are going. I asked someone about it and one theory is that the scent has a different pattern on the ground because the way your legs are moving, it’s really quite amazing. Any ways back to the missing woman, Crosby started west there was a fence on the left so he searched the road and in 20 yards to the right. It was small trees, brush and tall grass if I had followed him he would have searched deeper. A couple of time he found what looked like older trails you can gage by how excited he is. When he got to the fresh trail he went in about 30 yards and found her came back and indicated. We also did some building searches at the State Fair Grounds. The scent is contained in a building so it seemed to go quicker. I remember one problem where there were about 40 people in a 900 foot square building and a small girl was in a wastepaper container with another one upside down on top. I was working blind (not knowing where she was) I sent him in and told him to find he proceeded to go through the building checking everyone that was visible scent and then searched areas where people could be hiding. He came up to the wastepaper containers smelled it bumped it with his nose and then indicated. It is also important to train with people in plain sight so the dog knows the people aren’t always hiding.
The K-9 association that we had left awhile back had 2 dog groups and some independent handlers that were still actively searching at that time. They were the ones posting their searches on Brandon’s web site. At one of the training there were a bunch of us in a group talking and I remember Jane warning us not to talk with any of them about our area of interest in the river on April 26 because they would get some equipment and dig him out. I was a little surprised that no one reacted or questioned the statement. To be fair to our group, I’m pretty sure none of the other groups would have contacted us.
July 12 2009- There was a cadaver evaluation set up. I think there were 3 evaluations set up side by side. We were driving up to the cabin I took the first spot. The only problem was Crosby kept trying to leave his area and find the sources he smelled from the adjoining area. We had passed the test and left before the other tests were complete. When I got back home I checked the group email site and there was an email about Crosby passing but nothing about the others. This meant that they didn’t pass because you never document your mistakes. We were encouraged not to have search logs or if we did you would never keep a record of when your dog doesn’t find or “finds” something that’s not there. This was because this could be used against the dog in court. However one would never be able to get an accurate probability of detection without knowing what percent of the time you fail. Those who forget the past are destined to repeat it someone once said. My great uncle Cy Thomson was a controller for Hormel Meats in 1910 and almost bankrupted the company them though embezzlement and he used two sets of books maybe that would be the answer.
August 14 2009 We received an email from the John and Jane that Jack had contacted them. The DNR had come down to the place of interest by the river and used some sort of water cannon and had uncovered some bones. The first person that looked at them thought some of them were human but later it was determined that they were antelope.
There was an adult who was living in an assisted living home and was taken to the doctors office in Watertown MN. I think he was last seen 3:00 pm. We got to the doctors office at about 9:00 pm. The conditions were bad in was in the mid 80s, very humid and no wind. Some of the family was there and we got an article of clothing from them. I scented Crosby on it and with him on leash he started trialing west down the hill. Crosby kind of weaved back and forth down the hill. The man was delusional and heard voices and could be avoiding people. I took Crosby off the leash and he headed south and then looped to the north. We were out of the residential area and there was a rundown shack in a wooded patch and we were periodically calling out his name. Crosby worked the shed area hard and there was a lot of new looking beer cans. When Crosby would get too hot or tired he would lie down probably for about a minute but that is my clue to hold him down for at least 10 minutes with a water break. I noticed that he was twitching and then I saw the bees he had laid down on. I pulled him out of the wooded area took his vest off and brushed the bees off him. My experience with bees is that they can hold a grudge for quite a while. We gave Crosby some Benadryl and water and went to the next wooded area.
The State Patrol helicopter was flying overhead with a heat sensor but I heard that the ground temperature was so high that they couldn’t “see” through the trees. We searched the area for a while and met up with other members of our team. I searched an area north of the area we were just in. We went to a supermarket where some one thought they saw him. It was 2:00 am and Crosby was overdue for at least a 2 hour nap before he could go again so we headed home about a 15min drive.
We got back to the search area about 9:00 am. There was a search manager that was put in charge by the sheriff. It took awhile for them to hookup their computers and print maps and assign areas. We were given two areas one small park area in town which we finished quickly. The second area was south of the bees by about 1.5 miles. The map was marked with not only the area to search and but where to start and end. This would have us search with the wind at our back which would greatly reduce the POD (probability of detection) I started at the other end and started into the wind after about 10 minutes there was a call on the radio that I was suppose to come back for a scent article. I argued with him that I was doing a general search(looking for any and all humans in the area) and that since it was a wooded, grassy and swampy area that if there was anybody there I would want to find them and ask them if they had seen the missing man. After going back and forth on the radio for a while we continued to search my area. About 20 minutes later there was a call to come back he had been found.
When we got back to the fire station we found out that a sheriff horse group had stopped by the shack with the bees and had gotten off their horses and called out asking if he wanted to pet the horses and when they turned around he was standing right there. They interviewed him and he said that he herd people last night calling his name but he was afraid that he was in trouble and he stayed quiet. At the debriefing the question was asked by the sheriff how long the search should have continued without finding him. It takes me a while to think of what I’m going to say in public, I dreaded speech class in school and before I could answer they were on to the next question but my answer would have been:
11 months ago in Grantsburg WI there was an Autistic adult, similar weather and terrain who was found after 7 days, on the last day of the search, the last search of the day, naked lying on the ground, bug bit covered in ticks, dehydrated, hypothermic but alive so my answer would be no less than 8 days.
The first week of September, I sent a search proposal to John’s email. It was that a group should go down with probes and poke holes in banks, river bottom and the top of the bank. Doing this for at least 4 hours and then waiting a couple of hours to allow the scent to vent out. Run the dogs on the area to narrow down the area and then repeat poking holes in the narrowed down area and research. I had said in my email that this could be shared with anyone. It was a mistake by me not to send it to the other cadaver dog team because then at least it might have been discussed in the group. About 3 weeks later Jane informed me that there were no more searches planed for Brandon.
Mid-October there was a trailing and cadaver seminar in Iowa. Two dog teams from our group went down and took the trailing course. We started and broke up into groups of four. One of the guys was a policeman from a small town in Iowa. He was training his golden retriever to trail missing people and also used him in cadaver work. The other guy also a policeman had a Belgian Malinois police dog. We were talking while waiting our turn, there is a lot of waiting in search and rescue whether it’s waiting to be found in the woods while getting chewed up by mosquitoes’ or waiting for people to decide what’s happening next. I was asking him about using the dog to apprehend a fleeing suspect in the woods. Most of the time I was around his dog he was pretty aloof but I remember a couple of times he look at me as if he was hoping to get the attack command. I remember getting the same look at the wolf center in Ely, MN. I asked him what would happen if someone else besides the suspect was in the woods. He paused for a minute and said “they shouldn’t have been there” with a sheepish grin. He also used his dog for drug searches. He would take cotton balls and put them in the evidence room with the drugs for a few days. If he found a car that was broke down on the road he would take a cotton ball and stuff in a crack in the door. A couple of hours later he would come back and if the car was still there he would have his dog search the outside of the car. If the car was gone already all he was out was a cotton ball that would fall out when the door was opened, pretty ingenious.
We worked all kinds of trailing problems at the camp. One was they would have two people start out at the same time on the same trail one would turn right one left. The person who turned right would leave a scent article. Then you would scent your dog on the article and hopefully the dog would follow the trail to the right. They set a problem for me that had a lot of turns through it and the area that had a lot of other trails and people in it. He ran through the problem with only one time I had to ask for the turn we missed. The problem I had with trailing was that when Crosby lost the trail he worked so hard trying to find it was difficult to tell when he had lost it. They set up a 24 hour trail where they drove a person to the starting point they walked about ½ mile and then they would pick up the person in a car. 24 hours later they would drive the person to the end of the trail rather than making them wait there for a day so the dogs would find the person at the end of the trail. Crosby was able to follow the trail but he was about the 5th dog to do the problem. The true test would be to be the first dog to run the trail, the main thing you learn at these is how to train. The other dog from our group did a problem where the person got into a car and drove a couple hundred yards with one turn and the dog was able to make the turn. One of the teachers was a policeman with a bloodhound trailing dog. The dog wasn’t there but he told us of a problem that he setup. He had a guy go into a convenience store he handled something left it there and then drove 3 miles to the end of the problem. 24 hours later he went to the store scented the dog on the item and found the guy not knowing which way he drove. I have no reason to doubt him but I sure would have liked to have walked along. We were talking to another teacher about him and she said his police department had set up prison escape training. They had gone to great lengths to set up the problem with helicopters, swat teams and the whole 9 yards. He went into the cell scented his dog on an article and found the guy in less than 20 minutes. On the last day me and the other member from our group took a break from the trailing class and worked a couple of cadaver problems each. She was working an English Yellow Lab a very smart and independent dog. There was one scattered problem with at least 8 sources scattered in an area and I heard that her dog was the only dog to find all of the sources.
Jan 7, 2010 the group owners got a call from the group in Iowa that had set up the training seminar a couple of us had just attended. A 54 year old snowmobiler was last seen January 3 he told his girl friend to meet him a 5:00 pm but he never showed. The weather was very cold and windy. The group typically didn’t train in these conditions because it’s too cold. Ironic. The two of us that went to the seminar were committed to go. I had sent an email to the group asking if any of the logistics had been workout. Called the other cadaver team member and they said they were a maybe and they heard that the group owners had a wedding to go to. As I understood it we were never to contact Law Enforcement, give information to rival K9 groups but I never heard anything about not talking to friendly K9 groups. An email was sent down to Iowa group and this was the response.
Hey xxxxx,
I don't have a ton of info yet. By the time we got all the ducks in a row today it was past hours to talk to anyone involved at the Sheriff's office. The news link above probably gives us the best info for a starting point. If this information turns out to not apply to him then the search area becomes very large and may not be something we can tackle in a day or so. I will try to get a hold of the search commander in the morning and get a better handle on things. If you end up coming down, what is your time frame for leaving? I will call you in the morning. I appreciate your willingness to give a hand.
BTW, I hadn't heard that John and Jane weren't planning to come, hope everything is ok.
John sent this email to the group
Many of you have heard that a SAR unit from Iowa contacted me yesterday - and was looking for info and search strategy support for a missing snowmobiler. After a couple of short conversations - Laura asked if we would have anyone available to help, as they felt that they had no dogs ready for this type of search, and nobody who really has trained in this type of weather. An e-mail went out to those in the unit who would be "good to go" for this type of effort.
I just talked with xxxxx. We have agreed to put the search off - she will not even be contacting the searchers until Sunday at the soonest.
Here are reasons why:
1. She spoke to the Sheriff's Department - and they are done with their efforts.
2. There is a group continuing search efforts - Laura has 3 names of people to call but none of them are LE. The LE doesn't know exactly who is involved. It is believed that the family has rounded up volunteers - some may be from the fire / rescue service, but they are not in an official capacity either - or so LE believes.
3. The weather is really tough. Not expected to get above 20 until Monday, and it is somewhat hazardous to people and dogs.
For any questions or concerns - you can direct them to me. I am always available for SAR on my cell. I did have several meetings yesterday. All of them started out with me stating that I had a SAR event, and would not be putting my phone on silent - but may have to ex
John
Jane went berserk on the phone with the member who contacted the other group. This was the last straw she, I and a tech left the group. As I am writing this I have the Wizard of Oz song, “Were out of the woods” stuck in my head but I know that it is and was too optimistic. And this was the last email.
Hello
We feel that it would be best if we left the group. Thanks and good luck.
Pete, xxxxx & xxxxx
I continued to train with some of the old group members that lived by me. In February I sent Sheriff Jack an email proposing a search similar to what I had proposed to our group. I few days later I gave him a call and I got the response that I expected. He said that he would have no objection to that area being rechecked but first he had a river search that he wanted to do first. I offered to help with that search and he said he would get back with the details.
Received this email from Jack
Pete
I believe I mentioned when I talked to you a few days ago that BCA has come on board in the investigation of Brandon's disappearance. As a result, we have finally gotten everyone to agree to search further down stream and clear the river all the way to the Minnesota River. That search is planned for the weekend of the 24th and 25th of April. Will you and any of your associates be available to help with that search and if so how many teams of handlers and dogs can commit? Will they need support people? We are thinking of having firemen walk the banks as the dogs and handlers search. Please let me know by Wednesday morning because I have a meeting at noon with the other sheriffs and we need to have some idea of numbers so we can make plans for accommodations.
Thanks, Jack
The plan was the group I left and maybe some other dog were going to search the Yellow Medicine River from the furthest point downstream that was already searched to a point where our group was going to continue to where it enters the Minnesota River. There were 4 dog teams in our group and we were setting up our areas. The plan was to search the river and also run a dog in a boat. The 3 other dog team expressed reservation about going in the boat because they weren’t water certified. I didn’t tell them that to the best of knowledge only one of the dogs used upstream had any cadaver certification. I didn’t have any reservation because the river is so narrow if there was interest he would jump out the scent just like if he was on the bank he would jump in. We were in Hanley Falls, MN which was in the middle of our area. They started setting search areas moving out from where we were. I suggested that we start from the furthest point up river and work down in case we ran out of time. The further you move away from the LKP the less likely you are to find him. They agreed, wow that was easy, I love it when logic prevails. I had two firemen with me I gave them the radio and had them on the west side and Crosby and I was on the east side of the river working up stream. We had fairly large areas to cover and I had to encourage them to move. When you first do this type of search you naturally want to carefully examine every thing but there is a lot of stuff that ends up over the banks when the water recedes. At one point they found some bones I had waders on but the water was too deep to cross with out filling them. I had them call Crosby across the river and told them to tell him to check it, it was an interesting experiment as they we prodding him a little too much but he had no interest. They moved them by the river where they could easily be seen and called in the coordinates. It was tough going with steep banks where you had to fight to stay close to the river. At lunch time they brought us sandwiches to my side of the river I took one tied the plastic bag shut and tried unsuccessfully to throw it across. I had Crosby retrieve it from the river and gave him a ham sandwich for his effort. Found a rock put it in the bag and threw across. If the first guy would have taken two sandwiches the other guy would have been like Charlie Brown “I got a rock”.
In the early evening, I went in a boat with a girl that had come down with the search manager in charge of the southern section. We searched for a few hours until we got to Hanley Falls, it’s actually just some rapids. It is beautiful on the river, quiet with big trees but there was no interest in the river.
The next time out, I was in a duck boat with pusher sticks. We had gone quite a ways with no interest. As long as he saw that we were searching Crosby would be constantly be looking and scenting. When we were getting close to the road where we were to end Crosby started to alert nose in the air we moved to the west bank we got out went up the bank he was still nose up, got back went down stream a little checked the east bank same thing. Back in the boat and around the bend and there on the bridge was the source-- the deputy who had dropped us off before.
I found out one of the four teams from our group had been brought up to the Bolten Farm to check the area that I was interested in. I talked to her after and asked her how it went. She had started in a ways working up stream and her dog had indicated in the bank of the river. I later talked with a member of the group I was in and his dog had strong interest in the same area that weekend. When I had gotten back from my last search of the weekend almost everyone was gone except the search manager. I packed up and headed home.
That fall I went down there one time my own. The spot I was searching was a wildlife area where the farmers get a tax break by letting any one hunt on it. My wife was up at the cabin with friends and I didn’t tell her because she worries too much. The plan was I was going to be in contact with my daughter by phone and so she would know when I was done. I called her but the call wouldn’t go though. I went into town and called Verizon and found out that my phone had been shut off and there was nothing they could do unless I knew the business tax id number. She was expecting a call and the phone company could argue with me for 20 minutes but couldn’t call her and tell her that my phone was shut off. I went back to the south side of the river in a ways and started working. Crosby was limping on his right rear leg. He had interest in the area but I was fried at that point. We hiked back to the car I help him in. After the 2 hour drive home we wouldn’t put any weight on his leg.
Spring 2010 a couple of friends and I went down to search for Brandon with a canoe and we went in the river downstream of the Porter spillway. Crosby had interest in the first area in the wooded area west of the barn. The further we went down the less interest he had. The river was very curvy with a lot of branches. It was taking a long time and my friend was getting worried. He kept saying let me see that map. I assured him that every mile there is a road. This is a guy who would go into Glacier Park by himself camping and not tell anyone what area he was going and when he would be due back. We made it to the road and they waited while I walked back and got the truck.
I had decided to concentrate on the smaller area downstream from the spillway where the trailing dog had gone to the river. I went down with an old friend that I had lost contact with for a while. I rented a gas powered ½” drill and a 2 foot long 1” dia drill bit. We left early in the morning before light and parked west of the spillway. We tied up Crosby which he didn’t like; he didn’t ride here to watch. We took the drill and started drilling holes in the bank, river bottom and in a little ways. There were roots everywhere and every time you would hit one it would twist your arm off. We finished two areas in a couple of hours. The first area had set for about an hour and the idea was that the holes would vent the scent up. I work Crosby on the first area and this was the strongest scent area. There was one spot by this tree on the south side where he was digging and also looking up. These are both signs that he can’t get to the scent either because it buried or it is in the tree. I tied him up again and drilled the third section. We ate lunch and talked about things we had done when we were younger. I was beautiful there it was warm no bugs and big trees. I wouldn’t mind being buried there if people knew where I was. I worked the third section which was down stream from the other two. This area was kind of an old junk yard there were old appliances, a wheel chair, and other junk. Crosby had interest in this area but not as much as the first area. I drilled again in area 1 and ran Crosby again he had similar interest and digging. I was perplexed and we drove home and made it back to the hardware store before they closed to return the drill.
Ok, this is getting on my nerves. Time to stop pussy footing around and think like a man! What to try next. A bigger frickin drill! ……dah… and hell lets throw in a metal detector. My latest plan was to rent a post hole digger, 3 inch drill and two three foot extensions and turn that part of the river into Swiss cheese. And then have someone take the metal detector and have someone check the south side of the river’s edge where the trailing dog went to the river for Brandon’s cell phone. I assumed that his car keys were still in his pocket so then take the metal detector and check the river bottom and banks. Then run Crosby on the river, an ambitious plan.
I think it was fall 2011 four of us went down, Crosby, me, my sister and son in law. I had rented the metal detector already and had reserved the post hole digger in Marshall MN. We got down there right after they opened, filled out the paperwork and they went to get it. About a half hour later they came back and said they can’t find it. It turned out somebody rented it out last night and they said you will have to rent it another day. We went back and forth and they said they had another one but only one extension so we could only drill three feet deep. We took it and headed to the river. We had a wheel barrow and hauled everything down to the river. I staked out an area and had my sister look for the cell phone. This area must have been a garbage area once because the detector kept going off all the time so you would have to stop all the time and dig through the weed. If you would dig you would find a tin can or something metal. The post hole digger they called it a 2 man but it should have been call a 2 big man drill. It was awkward we were trying to drill sideways into the bank, into the river bottom and when you hit something it would really grab you. It didn’t have a reverse so you would get it stuck in some roots you would have to take the drill off and unscrew it out of the hole with a vise grips. I was in reasonable shape but my son-in-law was in his 20’s so I was the weak link. We did it like the last time we drilled 2 areas and then I rested while Crosby worked the first area. In retrospect it would take 5 people to make Swiss cheese. With 4 people drilling and one person resting and watching what’s coming out of the hole for clues. My sister took the metal detector and ran it under water. There was a surprising amount of metal in the river as the detector would go off and you would have to stop all the time and dig with a shovel which slowed you way down.
Crosby indicated in the sand where the trailing dog had gone to the river. If this had been a training the person walking with me would have known if that was the spot if he confirmed it I would have said a loud YES! And gave him his reward (a tug rope) and played tug of war with it. And if the tech had said that it wasn’t the spot I would continue to search nearby. However this time I didn’t know so I just praised him and took off his vest and ended the search. Normally you would use different dog to check the same area but I didn’t have that luxury. We filled in just enough of the holes so it looked like gophers had done it. Drove to Marshall returned the post hold digger and drove home.
My last time looking for Brandon as it turned out was a few weeks later. I went down there with my son-in-law and a couple of shovels. The plan was to run Crosby and dig with shovels any area of interest to see what we could find. When we got down there it had been a lot colder than I thought. The ground was frozen pretty hard and shoveling was out. I ran Crosby and he had interest in the area like he always did. I think we had only spent three hours at the site. This was my son-in-law’s third time looking for Brandon and I could tell that he was getting emotionally hooked because he started the what if scenario. That is what I did every time after coming up empty handed. Maybe I should try ____? Or do ____? Searching is like a roller coaster with ups and downs but you most always end at level ground.
In December 2011 I contacted one of the leaders of the dog groups. They were part of an association that my old group had split from. She was an evaluator on Crosby’s 40 acre night test and I had been a field tech for here on a search in Winona MN. I told her of my concern about the area and asked her if she had a dog that could double check the area. She said that her dog had retired and she would have to check with the current search manager. I told her that I had read in a blog where the current search manager had calculated that there was a .02% chance he was there based on the number of times that area was searched. I sent her a map of the area with the dog alerts and a paragraph explaining them. In early January 2012 she responded that she had talked with the assistant search manager and that they didn’t have any searches planed. She stated that her group couldn’t go down without the permission of Law enforcement and the Search manager. She stressed that they should contact me directly but I never heard anything.
I’m ok at math, in school I liked science better in school because there were fewer rules. If someone was covered up you could walk by him a thousand times or maybe more and never see him. That leaves the scent and if you were walking there are a lot of thing that could prevent you from smelling him and a short time range for human to detect him. Assuming each dog and handler were equally skilled each time a time an area was gone over under similar weather, conditions and amount of time searching the probability of him being there would go down. It would take a lot of searches to get to .02%. chance of Brandon being in that section of river.
There we a lot of different dogs down there of different abilities. There was a trailing dog that had him leaving the car and walking across the cornfield to town even thou he was on the phone telling his dad he is on the road. One trailing dog had him walking up and down all the street of Taunton MN, one handler was driving around with the dog in the back seat with the window open searching areas. The one dog who’s name I remember was Shania who had quite a following with the locals they named a spot in the river after her Shania’s point. I remember when I was at the Fire Station in Hanley Fall the Sheriffs of Lyon and Yellow Medicine Counties were talking to the local manager of our area joking about how they had gotten sheriff Jack all riled up before by telling him that a certain notorious dog (I forget the name) was going to show up. They quoted Jack as saying if “he (current search manager) shows up again with that dog again I’ll shoot him”. If he said it I’m pretty sure Jack was kidding and I’m not sure if he meant he’d shoot the dog or the search manager.
I also tried contacting the group in Iowa that we had gone to their seminars. When they had contacted my old group and asked for assistance during an extreme cold snap in January I was one of two dog teams that had committed to drive down and help. In retrospect I should have phoned instead of emailing to explain the events that surrounded my leaving the group and voiced my concerns about the river area. I received a short email back saying that she would check into it.
Crosby had slipped on the floor at home whenever he would hear something or the doorbell on the TV he would tear off like a madman. He injured his right rear knee our other dog had the same injury. When we took her in the surgery would have been $2000.00 and there was a 50% chance her other knee would go out during recovery. We opted for a brace that was sold on-line. She wore it for a few months and it allowed her knee to heal sort of. Her knee was never the same but she learned to compensate for it. We tried it on Crosby and it helped him how ever whenever he would work of play too hard it showed.
I had backed off on Crosby’s training but he loved it so much it was hard to stop. In October 2012 Crosby broke a tooth and his right front rotator cuff was bothering him. He probably broke it on a stick during a cadaver training if he couldn’t get to it he would grab all the branches and log and try to tear then off. We brought him to the vet for surgery the vet techs were raving about him how handsome and what personality he was. He knew how to work a crowd. They were going to put him out so we had them x-ray his right shoulder which was bothering him. It turned out it was not something surgery would help.
December 8 2012 It was reported on the news that Danielle Jelinek was missing from a male acquaintance’s house. He said he didn’t know where she went and he was arrested on unrelated drug charges. They had done a search of the area but found nothing. The house was on the way up to the cabin and in the back of my head as it warmed up I thought about stopping and running Crosby near the house.
Then Kira Steger was reported missing her house was searched and a large amount of blood was found. Her husband who she was divorcing was suspected of killing her. They were calling for volunteers every weekend. I started to feel guilty about doing nothing. Crosby wasn’t up to plowing though deep snow but I heard that the police said that a hole had been cut in Keller lake and bloody clothes were found nearby. I had heard that dogs had gone over the lake and had interest. One Sunday I went with Crosby and my sister to the lake. The lake was full of holes where searchers were looking at the bottom with cameras. I took a stick and broke the thin ice that formed on the holes. We took Crosby and started working him on the holes after about the fifth hole Crosby indicated on a hole that had a stick stuck in the middle of it. I was working the way the water flowed in the lake and the further I went his interest declined I turn west and went to the next row of holes. As I got even with the hole with the stick he became more animated. After searching the area we left the area we met someone in the parking lot who had been searching the lake. He called Kira’s cousin from Wisconsin and gave me the phone and I told that Crosby had indicated at the hole with the stick in it and he told me that is where he had found a roll of duct tape sitting on the bottom with no silt on it like it hadn’t been there very long just downstream from the hole the police found. He was coming back to the lake the next weekend end and I agreed to bring Crosby again.
There were about 20 people on the ice drilling holes and searching with fish cameras. Crosby worked the holes this time he didn’t indicate but the area of interest was the same. Downstream from the original hole in the ice but the strongest area was closer to the shore line. The weather was warming up and the ice was getting dangerous. I went back a couple of weeks later it was only about a 45 minute drive. Walked the shore to the area Crosby looked under the weather or in pain. There was a small channel of water between the shore and ice the way the ice always starts to go out on a lake. Crosby was just kind of walking along with us we got even with the hole with the stick and was going to turn back and all of a sudden he perked up. He caught a whiff of something and started working the shore line and out on the ice a ways. Working back the interest died down like earlier times. A week or so ago I had set up a problem in the creek in our yard. I took an ounce of human blood pour it on a rag put it in a porous container and tied it to a string and tossed it in. A day later Crosby found it in a 2 acre area in less than 5 minutes. My daughter brought dogs to our house to throw the ball for them. One of her dogs was a Shepard Greyhound mix when she let her loose, right away she went over where the blood was checked around the bank and then jumped in and started swimming around. She called me at work and asked if I put something in the creek, I asked her where and I told her it was blood. This made me wonder if a whole body was in the lake why the scent wouldn’t be stronger and more wide spread. My creek and the lake were probably close in temperature.
I was in contact with the cousin and he let me know when the ice went out. I borrowed a duck boat from someone I knew though work. There were about 15 people there some searching some just to show support. I worked Crosby in the boat and started up stream and worked with the current. When Crosby was over the previous area of interest he started barking like mad. I didn’t really train with lake searching. In most drowning’s the person will come up on their own. It is better for the family to have someone found sooner that later, but nothing could be worst than never finding them. So I concentrated my training where I thought Crosby could do the most good. My goal in search and rescue started out being to finding Dave but it morphed into helping others find their missing family members especially when others stopped. It is easy to tell if there is scent in the water the hard part for the dog is pinpointing the hot spot when someone else is steering the boat. Crosby does better when he is swimming, he jumped out of the boat once but the ice just went out so I only let him swim for a couple of minutes.
We went back to the parking lot and talked with the cousin and others. I suggested that we put two stakes at the edge of the interest area and run a string between them. Following the string as a reference line, take the boats and probe the bottom with sticks for objects in the lake. And then keep moving the line over and cover the interest area. The lake was only 5-9 feet deep in the area. The cousin didn’t want to stir up the water as he wanted to look with cameras again once the sun got low enough so there wasn’t a glare. I didn’t press the idea I knew that the Sheriff was going to go over the area with sonar latter.
I was planning to go back a few weeks later if nothing was found yet. The lake was shallow and the sun was getting strong and by then Crosby could stay in the water 10-15 minutes at a time and the warmer water would enhance the scent.
May 1, 2013 Mandy M. got into her ex-boyfriend’s car in the evening and never came home. The next morning the police contacted her ex and told him to come into the station. He came into the parking lot but shot and killed himself with out telling anyone where she was. There was her blood on his jacket and in his car. It was crazy there were 3 young women missing and 3 men, 2 that weren’t talking and the other was dead. The police had three areas that he had driven that night based on cell phone information. The 3 areas put together were a huge area and I actually lived in the smallest area.
May 8, 2013 Kira was found in the Mississippi River she had a broken finger, head wound, bruised lip and laceration to her liver. She also had duck tape on her. The best I can figure is that nobody would chop a 24” diameter hole through two feet of ice just to dump a role of duck tape. He must of tried to cleanup after dumping the body and there must been some bloody items that were put through the hole. I sent an email to the St. Paul police offering to go back to the lake and find the source of my dog’s interest if it would help the case. The husband was convicted of second degree unintentional murder.
May 10, 2013 Danielle J. body was found 300 yard from the house in a swampy area in an area that had been searched nearly a dozen times when it was covered with over a foot of snow. I believe it was snowing heavily the night she was at the house. Her body was spotted by a routine search by a State Patrol helicopter. The man in the case was indicted for third degree murder. Now there is one of the three left to find.
Mandy family was organizing a search about 5 miles from my house. They had a lot of ground pounders that they divided in to 4 groups. I had talked with one of the group leaders and told him that I had a cadaver dog and I went with his group. I started out on the flank of the group. My wife stayed with the group and I was in contact with her via walkie-talkie. I left the main group and headed up to a ridge to check what was in the air. There was one spot on a hill facing north where Crosby had interest on the ground I noted it on my GPS and I made our way back to the group that was finishing up. When we got back and talked with the organizers they gave us a couple more areas to check on our own. I went out a couple more times to check area adjacent to the area I had marked. The search area was large it would have taken 20 dog teams working non stop for 2 months to begin to cover that area. It was really leafing out which makes it much harder on the teams. Crosby was limping every time after searching and my wife put her foot down, rightfully so and Crosby went in to retirement. I was pessimistic about Mandy being found but in October 2013 a Boy Scout was at a Mississippi River Park near St Cloud MN and saw a small piece of fabric on the ground off a trail and tried to pick it up but it was part of a larger article she was wearing. This was a park that volunteers had searched before.
Crosby would go to work with us and surprise unsuspecting salesmen when they would come into the office. My wife would bring him home first and when I would come home he would be waiting starring at the cloth Frisbee on the washing machine. It was hard trying to keep him from running and playing. His heart would say yes and his body no. Although he wasn’t searching he would still go into service dog mode and would help my wife do the laundry. She would point to the basket and say get it and Crosby would pick up a piece shake it off and hand it to her. If you dropped anything he would always pick it up. That winter we had a lot of snow so basically he was confined to the trails he made in the snow for it was too much work for him to make new ones.
Our vet had suggested that maybe we could try acupuncture and the vet that did that wanted an x-ray of his back. When they did took it his shoulder look surprisingly good but his back was filled with arthritis. He went in and instead of poking him with needles they put little gold balls under his skin on his back which would provide stimulation. It funny as I’m writing this I remember that for a while his nick name was Golden Boy, he was always the center of attention. The treatment didn’t seemed to help him any and the vet suggested a second pain medication.
Crosby had been having a tough go of it at home, he was scared of slipping and would try to dig his claws into the wood floor with no avail. We had carpet paths going everywhere and he needed help getting up one step. I’m sure he was in pain but he would never let on. One morning, I think it was a Wednesday at work my wife was looking at Crosby and turned to me and said “What do you think?” and I said, “I think it’s time”. She said that she didn’t want to be the one to say it. I don’t cry as much as I should, but I did then and now. She called our vet. “They have an opening today,” and I said
“oh God, not today I need some time”. The appointment was made for Friday and she was with him, but I couldn’t bear to be there. Crosby spent his whole live serving people and the amazing thing is that he absolutely loved every minute
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Our vet had suggested that maybe we could try acupuncture and the vet that did that wanted an x-ray of his back. When they did took it his shoulder look surprisingly good but his back was filled with arthritis. He went in and instead of poking him with needles they put little gold balls under his skin on his back which would provide stimulation. It funny as I’m writing this I remember that for a while his nick name was Golden Boy, he was always the center of attention. The treatment didn’t seemed to help him any and the vet suggested a second pain medication.
Crosby had been having a tough go of it at home, he was scared of slipping and would try to dig his claws into the wood floor with no avail. We had carpet paths going everywhere and he needed help getting up one step. I’m sure he was in pain but he would never let on. One morning, I think it was a Wednesday at work my wife was looking at Crosby and turned to me and said “What do you think?” and I said, “I think it’s time”. She said that she didn’t want to be the one to say it. I don’t cry as much as I should, but I did then and now. She called our vet. “They have an opening today,” and I said
“oh God, not today I need some time”. The appointment was made for Friday and she was with him, but I couldn’t bear to be there. Crosby spent his whole live serving people and the amazing thing is that he absolutely loved every minute
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