Search and rescue
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Buffy Mari, Crosby
Shortly after hearing about the death bed confession I bought the book “Cadaver Dog Handbook” which covers all aspects of dog training. Generally, the dogs trained are German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, or mixes of the same. The most important trait is drive the dog should be ball crazy. They will drive you crazy wanting to play, be curious and fairly independent but not to the point that they won’t obey commands. At the time we had 3 dogs Buffy, Mari and Crosby.
Buffy: my daughters named her after the Buffy the Vampire slayer; she was a Shepherd Lab mix and was hell on wheels. We had this concrete bird bath in the yard and she would tear around 100 mph and jump full speed on to this 3 foot diameter bath. The bird bath would wobble around when she landed and she would rub her face in the water. Buffy was a patient and persistent hunter and would carefully stalk chipmunks in to a brush pile until Mari would see her and would jump on top of the pile and ruin all her hard work. She had every attribute needed for cadaver work except youth. She was around 7 years old at the time.
Mari: She was thought to be a flat coat retriever mix “shelter dog” with long jet black hair. A sweet dog if your face was anywhere near hers you would get a big kiss. She didn’t have much drive I remember that she would chase a squirrel up a tree and lay down at the base of the tree and wait for it to come back down. By the time she laid down the squirrel was already to the next tree and down.
Crosby: A 1.5 year old pure bred Yellow Labrador Retriever. He was very focused, intense and always looking to please. You could teach him to do anything and when he was happy he would smile, the back of both sides of his lips would rise up. He would drink all the water out of his bowl then pick it up and bring it to me to fill up. He was very smart, driven & focused but there was one slight problem he didn’t belong to us. We were puppy raisers for a service dog organization. Our job was to care for him, do basic training and take him to vet. He was taken to the pet store often and he was verbally corrected for showing interest in other animals but more importantly rewarded for leaving them alone. It took a while but eventually he would show no interest in any animal big or small in our yard. With a service dog you want them to be totally focused on a human. He was able to open the refrigerator (you put a rope on the handle), turn of light switches, and he could even pick up a dime off of tile with his teeth. Eventually, the day came for us to give him back. I’ve had dogs all my life but none with as much personality as Crosby, it was a very difficult day.
I was looking for a dog to train with the hopes of using him/her to look for my brother. In the mean time I started to train Buffy just to get the experience. You need to imprint the dog on the scent you want to find. In the Cadaver dog Handbook they described training with 8 cement blocks. I took an old tampon out of the garbage and put in one of the block hidden under some leafs. The idea is that you have 8 items in a circle that look identical but one of them smells different. I took Buffy and would get her jazzed up by using a high voice and acting excited then led here around the blocks pointing at each block and when her nose would reach the hot block I’d praise her right away and give her a piece of cat food. Then I would lead her away where see couldn’t see and move the tampon and block to a different spot and lead her through the blocks going the other way. I would do this 3 times in one training about 3 times a week. Then I changed it after she found the scent she would expect a treat then I would make her sit then I would give her the treat. The sitting down is what’s called an indication telling you she has found. At the airport if you see a dog go down a line of people and the dog does something different by one person or an article then they have probably found something. Buffy got to the point where she would find and indicate with out prompting.
My wife was at home and she got a call from the service dog group saying, “we have some bad news about Crosby”, her heart sank thinking he was run over by a car or something, “he is out of the program can you take him back for good?” After Crosby left us he was sent for training, pulling a wheel chair and was placed with a girl in an apartment. He was in the hall with her and her neighbor surprised him and he growled. That’s all it took, they have a zero tolerance policy. They label it career change and I hired Crosby right away.
There was a search group that my wife’s sister knew and we joined. The way the search groups worked was they had a rule that you had to become certified to find live people before you could start on cadaver. I learned in search and rescue, like life, all rules apply to some people but not to others. My high school hockey coach once told me that there was only one rule when playing goalie, the puck can’t go in the net. From the missing families prospective, only rule in search and rescue rule would be to find them. The only exception to the rule would be, live to search another day. The search group was owned by John and Jane (not their actual names).
We started live air scent training in which the dog goes out and sniffs the air searching for human scent. The first thing is runaways, which the person runs away from the dog and hides out of sight then you let the dog go with a command like ‘find em’. When he finds you make them indicate, praise and reward. Crosby’s indication was to jump on me and his reward was a tug toy. I tried food as a reward for a while but I could get him more excited by playing tug of war. Next, you stay back a ways and after he finds, he would look for his reward and come to me. I would make him indicate, then reward. The next step is the re-find where he has to go to the person and then he gets the tug toy. All of this is done because an independent dog will stay within eye range until they catch the scent and then they’re out of sight until they find the source. This has to be second nature because the nightmare scenario is that the dog will find the person and then go and look for something else.
When searching or training, just like when he was a service dog, Crosby would wear a vest. When he was young he could be as squirrely as could be and we would get to a restaurant put his vest on and he was on his best behavior. He would lie at your feet under the table and no one would notice. I remember one time a family walked by and a 3 year old girl’s eyes lit up because she was short enough to see him and loudly said, “There’s a dog”. Her mother said, “She needs him to see she’s blind.” In search and rescue, he had a different mindset. I would have a sock hidden outside, he would see me with his vest and he would go nuts. Barking, biting the vest as I’m trying to put it on him and would be in a frenzy until I had him smell the mating sock and tell him, “find it”. The socks would be from someone who wasn’t around at the time, we would tell people to wear socks for a couple of days and then put them in a plastic bag then we would train with them for a couple of days and then get items from a different person. Dogs need to learn to indicate no matter what, that they need find someone and tell you if it’s; raining, night, sunny, someone they don’t know, they’re inside a box, or most importantly if the dog needs to say, “They are right in front of you stupid”.
Crosby had trouble with his indication. He loved searching so much that he didn’t want it to end. He would find the person and then follow the scent trail back to find where they came from. I had to have the hider radio back when they were found so if Crosby didn’t head right back to me the game would end. We called it, ‘the game’ and the rule was Crosby would only get his toy if he showed me what he found. On real searches, he would search for 3 day straight with only verbal praise. If you have the right dog and keep it fun, they will keep searching longer than most handlers.
After the written exam, first aid, and other requirements it was time for Crosby’s first test. The evaluators would put 1 or 2 people in a 40 acre search area. The area would be less that ½ open area, with some hill after dark. The night of the test, I had one woman in a local park. My search area was inside of a circular trail. I came up to the trail the wind was coming from my left, I went to the right to get his nose into the wind. When I got 90 degrees counter clockwise around the circle Crosby started what is called a natural alert, this is what a dog does naturally when he smells something he is interested in. For airborne scent it might be his head turns in to the wind, his tail would change from waging to spinning, and other changes. He spent an equal amount of time about 75 yards on both sides of the trail. When he went to the right I assumed he wouldn’t go any further because the scent was getting weaker further away from the hider. In going to the left of the trail closer to the hider he would stop again. I assumed that she might be on the far side of the hill and the scent was driven airborne by the hill creating a void of scent on the ground before returning to nose level. I marked the spot on my GPS and continued counter clockwise around the circle. When we got ¾ around the circle Crosby found the trail she walked on and trailed her (nose on the ground) in to where she was hiding. It took about 20 minutes to find her if we had gone clockwise around the trail he probably would have picked up her trail right away and it might have taken only 5 minutes. When Crosby would pick up a scent trail on a path or road he would run nose down so fast he would miss where the person turn off and would realize the scent was gone, slam on the brakes like a cartoon dog, run back to find the turn.
The final exam was a 160 acre day test. There were four dog groups that made the search and rescue association. Two evaluators were used for each test; one evaluator must come from another dog group. Before I could get my evaluation scheduled there was an emergency association meeting. There was no real substance to the complaints it was mostly personal animosity between our group and two of the other groups. After the meeting our group left the association and this meant we had no outside evaluators.
We found a group in Iowa for me and another person in from our group test with. The area was a Campfire Girl Camp that was incredibly hilly. I had never trained in that type of terrain. There was a man and women to find so I headed to the downwind side of my search area and started up this big hill on a trail. By the time we got to the top of the ridge the evaluator from Iowa was breathing so hard I was getting concerned. Shortly there after on the ridge Crosby started to show interest with his nose in the air. We came to another ridge that projected out to the side. After a short ways down the ridge Crosby found the man hidden behind some branches. When you make a find you are supposed to radio in, interview the person, and document the location. While I was doing all this, I forgot to put Crosby in “park”, I looked up and him saw circle the area where the man was and go over and smell each of the 3 observers that were walking behind us. (a clue I missed) I remember asking him “what are you doing”. He headed about 50 yards down the ravine and started searching. I was reluctant to have the evaluator walk down the ridge after that last hill climb the evaluator was breathing so hard. After Crosby was down there a while I called him back up and continued along the trail. We continued to search the rest of the area. After about 2 hours I had circled around to the spot I found the man. I had searched the high areas and was going down to search the valleys. He showed interest in the same area he was before. I worked him up the valley and he found the woman buried in a pile of leaves where she was hiding for 2.5 hours. When the evaluators placed the man the woman was with him and then they took her down the ravine put her in the spot where Crosby first showed interest and then moved her up to a more comfortable spot. I later learned that when Crosby went over and smelled each of the observers, he had picked up a new scent and went over to make sure that the new scent he found wasn’t one of them. I had found the people in the allotted time but failed the test because I should have known she was there the first time. Another person from our group started but after about 10 minutes his dog chased a deer and ended up where we were staying. A third member from our group took over his spot on the test. I can’t remember what happened but she didn’t pass. It was a somber trip back to Minnesota.
After that I started working on both live and cadaver training. Someone in our group was a death investigator and there was this alcoholic woman who died in her bed and wasn’t found for 3 weeks in warm weather. The police and they let us go through the house after the body was gone. You didn’t need to be a dog to smell it, you could smell it before you entered the property. All the dogs that went in the house were very excited, it is important to expose your dog to various strengths, from extreme odor down to an old tooth. There was a dumpster outside the house that had the mattress in it. I volunteered to go in with a box cutter and Ziploc bags to get training material. You should have seen the look on the next door neighbor face when he saw me climb in the dumpster. We used that to train with for over a year. When you train you need to keep track of what you train with, teeth, blood, etc. For a while we were calling her mattress lady, that was a little harsh, so I named her Matrice.
I went on several searches as a field tech, your job is to look and basically assist. One search was in Winona, MN on and around the Mississippi River. The guy had been missing for about a year and this was at least the second attempt by dogs. We searched with multiple other groups searched for a weekend with no luck. What made this search different is that the missing person had family but they were indifferent to the search, it was just the sheriff that was pushing the search. It was sad in its own way but it made it easier to walk away empty handed.
There was a search near Saint Cloud, MN where a 20ish male went missing. He was despondent and guilt ridden over the drowning of his brother. He was fishing with his partially handicapped brother who drowned. I believe there was alcohol involved and he was blamed by family members. When we got there he had been missing for over 24 hours and a shotgun was also missing. Base had been setup at the house where he was last seen and that day the family was having a memorial at the house for the brother who had drown. Base should have been away from the point last seen to keep it as uncontaminated as possible for the dogs. We searched for 2 day, at one point I was watching a dog in a row boat searching the water. There were several people from the house watching and the girl came up to me and asked why they weren’t searching the other side of the lake. We were taught not to give out any information. She was grieving and if she had information about my brother I would want her to tell me. I told her that there wasn’t interest by the dog further out in the lake and you go where the dog leads you. The State Patrol helicopter with heat sensors was sent out but saw nothing in the lake. About 2 days later, he was found with a self inflicted gun shot about 100 yards from were base was. The house and lake were 150 yards away and lower elevation. The best I can figure that because it was mostly still and sunny the scent rose straight up and traveled over the lake and the cool water caused the scent to drop in to the lake where the dog was searching. The area where the body was found was searched by a dog but he was missed. It was definitely embarrassing event for all search and rescue groups involved.
Crosby’s cadaver training was going well, it was spring 2008 we were training at a park on the Mississippi river. The river was high moving fast and I had put 4 teeth about 1 foot deep in the water by the bank. I started Crosby about 40 yards down stream from the teeth. About half way up he started to alert he move quickly up stream until he had passed the scent turned back and located the spot where they were. I watched a couple more dogs run the problem and they all found the teeth but using different techniques. We had bought some stuff from a magic show that was closing in the 70’s. There were these two skeleton arms and hands and I had assumed that they were fake. I remember our girls use to play with them and they were in our garage for 30 years. After I was in search and rescue, I looked at them closely and realized that they were real. The bones were wired together and they were probably from some old science school room. They must have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected and who knows how old they were when we got them. I had someone hide the bones in a 2-3 acre area and Crosby was able to fine them quickly multiple times. The strongest scent would be anything damp or plants next to the bone. The bones were usually dry and what ever was coming off them would hit something damp and it would activate the scent. Crosby would find the strongest scent and then rummage around until he uncovered the tube the bones were in.
Buffy: my daughters named her after the Buffy the Vampire slayer; she was a Shepherd Lab mix and was hell on wheels. We had this concrete bird bath in the yard and she would tear around 100 mph and jump full speed on to this 3 foot diameter bath. The bird bath would wobble around when she landed and she would rub her face in the water. Buffy was a patient and persistent hunter and would carefully stalk chipmunks in to a brush pile until Mari would see her and would jump on top of the pile and ruin all her hard work. She had every attribute needed for cadaver work except youth. She was around 7 years old at the time.
Mari: She was thought to be a flat coat retriever mix “shelter dog” with long jet black hair. A sweet dog if your face was anywhere near hers you would get a big kiss. She didn’t have much drive I remember that she would chase a squirrel up a tree and lay down at the base of the tree and wait for it to come back down. By the time she laid down the squirrel was already to the next tree and down.
Crosby: A 1.5 year old pure bred Yellow Labrador Retriever. He was very focused, intense and always looking to please. You could teach him to do anything and when he was happy he would smile, the back of both sides of his lips would rise up. He would drink all the water out of his bowl then pick it up and bring it to me to fill up. He was very smart, driven & focused but there was one slight problem he didn’t belong to us. We were puppy raisers for a service dog organization. Our job was to care for him, do basic training and take him to vet. He was taken to the pet store often and he was verbally corrected for showing interest in other animals but more importantly rewarded for leaving them alone. It took a while but eventually he would show no interest in any animal big or small in our yard. With a service dog you want them to be totally focused on a human. He was able to open the refrigerator (you put a rope on the handle), turn of light switches, and he could even pick up a dime off of tile with his teeth. Eventually, the day came for us to give him back. I’ve had dogs all my life but none with as much personality as Crosby, it was a very difficult day.
I was looking for a dog to train with the hopes of using him/her to look for my brother. In the mean time I started to train Buffy just to get the experience. You need to imprint the dog on the scent you want to find. In the Cadaver dog Handbook they described training with 8 cement blocks. I took an old tampon out of the garbage and put in one of the block hidden under some leafs. The idea is that you have 8 items in a circle that look identical but one of them smells different. I took Buffy and would get her jazzed up by using a high voice and acting excited then led here around the blocks pointing at each block and when her nose would reach the hot block I’d praise her right away and give her a piece of cat food. Then I would lead her away where see couldn’t see and move the tampon and block to a different spot and lead her through the blocks going the other way. I would do this 3 times in one training about 3 times a week. Then I changed it after she found the scent she would expect a treat then I would make her sit then I would give her the treat. The sitting down is what’s called an indication telling you she has found. At the airport if you see a dog go down a line of people and the dog does something different by one person or an article then they have probably found something. Buffy got to the point where she would find and indicate with out prompting.
My wife was at home and she got a call from the service dog group saying, “we have some bad news about Crosby”, her heart sank thinking he was run over by a car or something, “he is out of the program can you take him back for good?” After Crosby left us he was sent for training, pulling a wheel chair and was placed with a girl in an apartment. He was in the hall with her and her neighbor surprised him and he growled. That’s all it took, they have a zero tolerance policy. They label it career change and I hired Crosby right away.
There was a search group that my wife’s sister knew and we joined. The way the search groups worked was they had a rule that you had to become certified to find live people before you could start on cadaver. I learned in search and rescue, like life, all rules apply to some people but not to others. My high school hockey coach once told me that there was only one rule when playing goalie, the puck can’t go in the net. From the missing families prospective, only rule in search and rescue rule would be to find them. The only exception to the rule would be, live to search another day. The search group was owned by John and Jane (not their actual names).
We started live air scent training in which the dog goes out and sniffs the air searching for human scent. The first thing is runaways, which the person runs away from the dog and hides out of sight then you let the dog go with a command like ‘find em’. When he finds you make them indicate, praise and reward. Crosby’s indication was to jump on me and his reward was a tug toy. I tried food as a reward for a while but I could get him more excited by playing tug of war. Next, you stay back a ways and after he finds, he would look for his reward and come to me. I would make him indicate, then reward. The next step is the re-find where he has to go to the person and then he gets the tug toy. All of this is done because an independent dog will stay within eye range until they catch the scent and then they’re out of sight until they find the source. This has to be second nature because the nightmare scenario is that the dog will find the person and then go and look for something else.
When searching or training, just like when he was a service dog, Crosby would wear a vest. When he was young he could be as squirrely as could be and we would get to a restaurant put his vest on and he was on his best behavior. He would lie at your feet under the table and no one would notice. I remember one time a family walked by and a 3 year old girl’s eyes lit up because she was short enough to see him and loudly said, “There’s a dog”. Her mother said, “She needs him to see she’s blind.” In search and rescue, he had a different mindset. I would have a sock hidden outside, he would see me with his vest and he would go nuts. Barking, biting the vest as I’m trying to put it on him and would be in a frenzy until I had him smell the mating sock and tell him, “find it”. The socks would be from someone who wasn’t around at the time, we would tell people to wear socks for a couple of days and then put them in a plastic bag then we would train with them for a couple of days and then get items from a different person. Dogs need to learn to indicate no matter what, that they need find someone and tell you if it’s; raining, night, sunny, someone they don’t know, they’re inside a box, or most importantly if the dog needs to say, “They are right in front of you stupid”.
Crosby had trouble with his indication. He loved searching so much that he didn’t want it to end. He would find the person and then follow the scent trail back to find where they came from. I had to have the hider radio back when they were found so if Crosby didn’t head right back to me the game would end. We called it, ‘the game’ and the rule was Crosby would only get his toy if he showed me what he found. On real searches, he would search for 3 day straight with only verbal praise. If you have the right dog and keep it fun, they will keep searching longer than most handlers.
After the written exam, first aid, and other requirements it was time for Crosby’s first test. The evaluators would put 1 or 2 people in a 40 acre search area. The area would be less that ½ open area, with some hill after dark. The night of the test, I had one woman in a local park. My search area was inside of a circular trail. I came up to the trail the wind was coming from my left, I went to the right to get his nose into the wind. When I got 90 degrees counter clockwise around the circle Crosby started what is called a natural alert, this is what a dog does naturally when he smells something he is interested in. For airborne scent it might be his head turns in to the wind, his tail would change from waging to spinning, and other changes. He spent an equal amount of time about 75 yards on both sides of the trail. When he went to the right I assumed he wouldn’t go any further because the scent was getting weaker further away from the hider. In going to the left of the trail closer to the hider he would stop again. I assumed that she might be on the far side of the hill and the scent was driven airborne by the hill creating a void of scent on the ground before returning to nose level. I marked the spot on my GPS and continued counter clockwise around the circle. When we got ¾ around the circle Crosby found the trail she walked on and trailed her (nose on the ground) in to where she was hiding. It took about 20 minutes to find her if we had gone clockwise around the trail he probably would have picked up her trail right away and it might have taken only 5 minutes. When Crosby would pick up a scent trail on a path or road he would run nose down so fast he would miss where the person turn off and would realize the scent was gone, slam on the brakes like a cartoon dog, run back to find the turn.
The final exam was a 160 acre day test. There were four dog groups that made the search and rescue association. Two evaluators were used for each test; one evaluator must come from another dog group. Before I could get my evaluation scheduled there was an emergency association meeting. There was no real substance to the complaints it was mostly personal animosity between our group and two of the other groups. After the meeting our group left the association and this meant we had no outside evaluators.
We found a group in Iowa for me and another person in from our group test with. The area was a Campfire Girl Camp that was incredibly hilly. I had never trained in that type of terrain. There was a man and women to find so I headed to the downwind side of my search area and started up this big hill on a trail. By the time we got to the top of the ridge the evaluator from Iowa was breathing so hard I was getting concerned. Shortly there after on the ridge Crosby started to show interest with his nose in the air. We came to another ridge that projected out to the side. After a short ways down the ridge Crosby found the man hidden behind some branches. When you make a find you are supposed to radio in, interview the person, and document the location. While I was doing all this, I forgot to put Crosby in “park”, I looked up and him saw circle the area where the man was and go over and smell each of the 3 observers that were walking behind us. (a clue I missed) I remember asking him “what are you doing”. He headed about 50 yards down the ravine and started searching. I was reluctant to have the evaluator walk down the ridge after that last hill climb the evaluator was breathing so hard. After Crosby was down there a while I called him back up and continued along the trail. We continued to search the rest of the area. After about 2 hours I had circled around to the spot I found the man. I had searched the high areas and was going down to search the valleys. He showed interest in the same area he was before. I worked him up the valley and he found the woman buried in a pile of leaves where she was hiding for 2.5 hours. When the evaluators placed the man the woman was with him and then they took her down the ravine put her in the spot where Crosby first showed interest and then moved her up to a more comfortable spot. I later learned that when Crosby went over and smelled each of the observers, he had picked up a new scent and went over to make sure that the new scent he found wasn’t one of them. I had found the people in the allotted time but failed the test because I should have known she was there the first time. Another person from our group started but after about 10 minutes his dog chased a deer and ended up where we were staying. A third member from our group took over his spot on the test. I can’t remember what happened but she didn’t pass. It was a somber trip back to Minnesota.
After that I started working on both live and cadaver training. Someone in our group was a death investigator and there was this alcoholic woman who died in her bed and wasn’t found for 3 weeks in warm weather. The police and they let us go through the house after the body was gone. You didn’t need to be a dog to smell it, you could smell it before you entered the property. All the dogs that went in the house were very excited, it is important to expose your dog to various strengths, from extreme odor down to an old tooth. There was a dumpster outside the house that had the mattress in it. I volunteered to go in with a box cutter and Ziploc bags to get training material. You should have seen the look on the next door neighbor face when he saw me climb in the dumpster. We used that to train with for over a year. When you train you need to keep track of what you train with, teeth, blood, etc. For a while we were calling her mattress lady, that was a little harsh, so I named her Matrice.
I went on several searches as a field tech, your job is to look and basically assist. One search was in Winona, MN on and around the Mississippi River. The guy had been missing for about a year and this was at least the second attempt by dogs. We searched with multiple other groups searched for a weekend with no luck. What made this search different is that the missing person had family but they were indifferent to the search, it was just the sheriff that was pushing the search. It was sad in its own way but it made it easier to walk away empty handed.
There was a search near Saint Cloud, MN where a 20ish male went missing. He was despondent and guilt ridden over the drowning of his brother. He was fishing with his partially handicapped brother who drowned. I believe there was alcohol involved and he was blamed by family members. When we got there he had been missing for over 24 hours and a shotgun was also missing. Base had been setup at the house where he was last seen and that day the family was having a memorial at the house for the brother who had drown. Base should have been away from the point last seen to keep it as uncontaminated as possible for the dogs. We searched for 2 day, at one point I was watching a dog in a row boat searching the water. There were several people from the house watching and the girl came up to me and asked why they weren’t searching the other side of the lake. We were taught not to give out any information. She was grieving and if she had information about my brother I would want her to tell me. I told her that there wasn’t interest by the dog further out in the lake and you go where the dog leads you. The State Patrol helicopter with heat sensors was sent out but saw nothing in the lake. About 2 days later, he was found with a self inflicted gun shot about 100 yards from were base was. The house and lake were 150 yards away and lower elevation. The best I can figure that because it was mostly still and sunny the scent rose straight up and traveled over the lake and the cool water caused the scent to drop in to the lake where the dog was searching. The area where the body was found was searched by a dog but he was missed. It was definitely embarrassing event for all search and rescue groups involved.
Crosby’s cadaver training was going well, it was spring 2008 we were training at a park on the Mississippi river. The river was high moving fast and I had put 4 teeth about 1 foot deep in the water by the bank. I started Crosby about 40 yards down stream from the teeth. About half way up he started to alert he move quickly up stream until he had passed the scent turned back and located the spot where they were. I watched a couple more dogs run the problem and they all found the teeth but using different techniques. We had bought some stuff from a magic show that was closing in the 70’s. There were these two skeleton arms and hands and I had assumed that they were fake. I remember our girls use to play with them and they were in our garage for 30 years. After I was in search and rescue, I looked at them closely and realized that they were real. The bones were wired together and they were probably from some old science school room. They must have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected and who knows how old they were when we got them. I had someone hide the bones in a 2-3 acre area and Crosby was able to fine them quickly multiple times. The strongest scent would be anything damp or plants next to the bone. The bones were usually dry and what ever was coming off them would hit something damp and it would activate the scent. Crosby would find the strongest scent and then rummage around until he uncovered the tube the bones were in.
On May 14, 2008 a college kid, Brandon Swanson, was driving home at night after visitng some friends, he was on back roads to avoid the police when he missed the turn and ended up on a farm field road. When he reached the county line he didn’t make it up the ditch. He thought he was close to home when he was 30 miles away. He talking on his phone with his mother, they argued. Later, his dad called him. He had driven to where Brandon thought he was. They were both flashing there lights but neither could see the other. Brandon was impatient and started out get out of this problem on his own. He started walking on the gravel road towards lights that he thought was another town while he was talking to his dad on the phone. He wanted to stay away from the main highway 68 and he left the gravel road. He told his dad he heard water (most likely Yellow Medicine River or possibly Mud Creek). He dad told him to stay away from the water. He said, “another damn fence” and then later, “oh shit”. That was the end of the phone call; I believe that he talked for 40 minutes while walking. His dad kept calling back but there was no answer. At day break, they called the police and they started looking in Lynd, where he thought Brandon was. The police got access to the cell phone tower data and found the car on the Lyon/Lincoln county line 1.5 miles north of Hyw 68. They called in trailing dogs from South Dakota. Before they found the car, the road grater had scraped the road. One of the dogs trailed from the spot the car was ½ mile south, 1 mile west, ½ mile north and then ½ mile west to the Yellow Medicine River. John from our group called the Sheriff, Jack and he thought the body was in the river and would take a couple of weeks to come up.
June 13 2008 our group went to Lincoln/Lyon County to search for Brandon with four dog teams. We stayed at the Ivanhoe Minnesota Fire Station and met Jack Vizecky the Lincoln County Sheriff. Other dog groups had been down there already but I don’t believe our group was communicating with the groups that had been down. Jack filled us in on what had been searched. We knew that he had walked for 40 minutes after he left his car but we couldn’t be sure he didn’t get turned around. So the area was divided into searchable lots starting at the car and working out from there. This was a farming area with most of the road divided into one mile squares. It is pretty flat with mostly corn and soybeans with tree wind breaks. There was a lot of drain tile in the fields that would drain in to the creeks. So after a lot of rain the Yellow Medicine River and Mud Creek would fill up quickly. The Yellow Medicine probably was an average of 15 feet wide and 1 to 12 feet deep in spots. The night Brandon went missing the river was high, fast and cold. The distance from the river to the field would vary from 10-1000 yards depending on what could be easily tilled.
My first search was south of Highway 68, east of Lyon/Lincoln road a mile and a half south of the car. At night you could faintly see the grain elevator of Taunton, MN which he might have mistaken for Lynd MN. Crosby searched a wet area that was knee deep water in tall grass. He showed no interest in the water. When we moved out of the water he showed interest in airborne scent. The wind was coming from the Northwest which was usually the case when we were down there. The sheriff’s wife was parked up wind and that could be what he was showing interest in. The next area was one mile west still south of highway 68. During both searches there was a dog team to the south of me. They started before me so that my scent would blow into an area that they had already finished. When you have a dual trained dog you have a different command for live and cadaver work. Crosby’s alert is something he would naturally do if he smelled either while searching. A classic alert is if suddenly his head would snap into the wind. It is beneficial to keep the area as clean as possible scent wise.
Crosby alerted a couple times to scent in the air that was coming from the Northwest still. He continued west and headed towards an opening around a big tree on the west side of the South branch of the Yellow Medicine River. He started working the ground hard around the tree and surrounding area. We searched south up the river, but there was no interest there. The dog team to the south had finished before we got the river and he called my field tech on the radio and told him to switch from channel 5 to 7. This was done so I would not hear what he was saying. He told him to watch what Crosby would do by the tree. When he got near the river his dog left his search area and headed to the same tree and worked the ground. This might suggest that the source is upwind (to the Northwest) and when the scent passed over the cool area (river) it dropped to the ground. We searched again on Sunday but Crosby showed no interest in the areas.
I got back to work Monday; I own a small machine shop and it is always busy when I don’t work weekends. I saw on the internet that an autistic man had walked away from a camp Sunday night. It was near Grantsburg WI, a town that is the half way point on our drive up to the cabin. The John and Jane gave us permission to contact the sheriff’s office. They said that they didn’t know of any areas that hadn’t been searched but if we wanted to come up we could. I had some work I needed to do first thing in the morning but we got up there about 1:00 pm. When we arrived at the base we had to park about a mile away because there were approximately 200 locals searching. Luckily, a man saw Crosby with his vest on and gave the three of us a ride to the command center. There was a big RV and we went inside. I probably shouldn’t write this, but the first thing I thought of was Boss Hog of the Dukes of Hazard. There was no physical resemblance but the sheriff was in this luxurious RV behind a desk with 3 or 4 deputies around him. They assigned us an area pretty far from the camp where the man had been staying. The guy could only say about a dozen words and was skittish but they said we could lure him with food. He was past the time to take twice daily medications for anti-rejection of his new organ. They sent us about 5 miles from the camp where he was last seen. It would have been highly unlikely for him to make it that far. It was a general air search meaning Crosby was looking for any live human. A specific search we would have been given an article of clothing that he wore and I would have Crosby smell it and I would tell him “find em”. There was a trail that led into an opening where Crosby had interest but we didn’t see anyone. We drove back to base and it was about 4pm. We asked where they would want us to search next as there was about 5 hours of day light left. They told us they were done for the day and they might be moving somewhere else. Sounded like a brush off, but I told them if we could help to give us a call. If I were going to offer advice to someone a couple of rungs up the command latter I could proceed several different ways. The direct approach.
Knowing what I know now I would have told them:
This is probably someone who is afraid and could be avoiding people and with all these volunteers you need to contain him. Set parameters a 2 mile radius from the camp put people in chairs on the road and trails far enough apart so they can still see the next person and keep people from going in or out without interviewing them. Have someone drive around and check on them and replace any that need to go. Divide the parameter in to searchable sections and station people to keep him from moving from section to section. If you have dog teams, have them search the sections first and then you could use the remaining volunteers guided by deputies to line search the sections close enough together so they can always see the person next to them. This direct approach has almost no chance of being implemented.
The indirect approach has worked for me sometimes with the higher ups. You put your deer in the headlights look on your face and guide them with questions until they come up with a workable plan that’s their own idea, “I wonder if he’s afraid?” “What would he do if a strangers were coming towards him?” Then you have to throw in some wild suggestions to keep them from getting wise, “What about getting a bunch of helicopters to watch from the sky?” and then you praise them when they come up with the plan. I am sorry to say that I tried neither approach and drove home.
Four day later June 20, 2008 we went down to Lyon/Lincoln County with 4 dog teams and 6 field techs to search for Brandon Swanson. Crosby searched an area 4 miles due south of the car. The weather was sunny and 80 with a light wind. Crosby had one light alert when he started but nothing after that. Later that day we searched 1 mile North and West of the previous search. This time we were using three dog teams to search a big square heading west. I was the southern most dog with the wind from the Northwest so I started first. When we were almost half way he started heading northwest out of our area into the middle area smelling the crop leaves. He changed to the West and had alerts in the air.
Saturday 10am we started a search about 2 miles southeast of his car on the Yellow Medicine River. Searching the river area was challenging, trees and branches were everywhere, it was muddy and anywhere there was enough light getting though the grass was growing tall. The river provided Crosby the ability to cool off. The only area where Crosby alerted was 20-40 feet into the soybeans and openings in the vegetation where the wind could blow through. This suggested to me that the source could be northwest of us and was blown in. We crossed the river at Lyon/Lincoln road and went back on the north side of the river to meet up with the dog team on the other side to double check an area of interest that she had. Crosby had mild interest in that area. On Sunday, I searched two areas about 2.5 south of the car Crosby and no interest in those areas. We ended searching a 6:00PM and it was about a 2 hour drive home. After I got home found out from the news that the man from Grantsburg was found alive 7 days after he went missing by Firefighters. He was naked lying on the ground covered with ticks and mosquito bites but surprisingly in pretty good condition.
Thursday evening July 17, 2008 we drove down to Ivanhoe MN to continue the search for Brandon Swanson and stayed in an empty convent. I was pretty nice there were showers but no beds we slept on air matresses. I started searching area N at 9:15am July 18. A large map was put up with the car being the center and the search area labeled A-?? the further away from the car the letters would get bigger. Area N was 2 miles NNE of the car. Crosby showed no interest in this area and we finished at 11:15am.
1:00pm I drove north to Mud Creek 1.5 miles from the car. We searched the south side of the creek Crosby had an alert, the wind was coming from an open area to the east. He had another alert on the edge of a cornfield in soft moist dirt. We couldn’t easily cross the creek and ended at 2:15pm, we came back on Saturday evening to finish the other side of the creek. The sun was brutal, I believe it was in the 80’s and humid. Your big concern is the dogs as they are working 3 times as hard as you. When you would finish your area you would call base to get a ride back give the dogs plenty of water and leave them in the vehicle with the air blasting.
7:00 to 9:00 pm drove to the NW corner of area -U- 2 miles northeast of the car. Walked east on a field road along a bean field to a wooded area before the farmyard. Searched the wooded area and headed to the wind row, headed west back to the truck and drove back to base.
Saturday morning, got up a 7:00 ate some cereal and got ready to head out. Our group had switched map software and laptops. They were having trouble getting the maps printed out and it seemed to be taking forever. I was pissed because we were missing the best time to search before it got too hot and you would have to shorten up the searches for the dog. We had hard boundaries roads, streams, field lines so it was easy to search with GPS and no maps. So the problem could have been fixed over a long lunch during the hottest part of the day. I didn’t say anything because that would have triggered a long lecture so I went outside to wait outside in the shade.
We got to our search area at 9:10 am it was the north side of Mud Creek 3 miles NE of the car. Crosby alerted in soybeans and went into the creek and pawed the water. No other area of interest in this area. We finished at 10.20am and went back to base. 11: 00 am we went to area –S- 3 miles NW of the car. We did a hasty search of the farm sight and barn, Crosby had interest in the west side of a ridge. We finished in a half hour and broke for lunch.
Next we went to area –LL- 3 miles SW of the car. It was partly cloudy with winds from the SW. At 1:30pm we started by some farm machinery then headed east along a tree line to the eastern boundary then we proceeded southwest along pasture along the farm yard and finished at 3:00 pm.
Sunday 9:50am went to area -DD- 3 miles northwest of the car. The northern part of the search area was mostly corn with some beans. By this time the crops were pretty high and we were under the assumption that if he was in the field in mid May the farmer would have seen him when they worked the fields. So we concentrated on the wooded areas. Crosby had no interest in this area.
My last search of the trip was in area –OO- 3 miles WSW of the car searching the south side of the Yellow Medicine River, we found a large piece of grey fabric but Crosby had no interest in the area. I didn’t know it at the time but earlier one of the handlers and two of the tech’s had a run in with one of the owners. It was hot everyone was tired and frustrated over finding nothing. One of the handlers had brought a dog in-training and kept him tied up at base. This used to be against the rules; another handler had paid to have her dog kenneled during the search. Jane was mad that people were peeing in the woods and cornfields instead of using the camper that was just given to them. It was also brought up that some of the techs hadn’t finished all their tests although only one of the John and Jane’s dogs were certified for cadaver. My test had not been scheduled yet and I never heard Jane talk about taking the test. We had had a meeting before the search some people were concerned about how late we were staying and it was agreed that no new searches would begin after 2:30pm but searches under way would finish. I had finished my area at 2:15 and was sitting under a canopy tent next to Jane in the shade writing my search report. The other dog team called in on the radio her area was taking longer than she thought and asked for help from another team to come from the other way and help her finish. I had just finished searching and I knew that the two other dogs had been resting longer I turned to Jane to see if she was going to volunteer, otherwise, I was going to but before I could she told the radio operator that the search was over and told everyone to come back to base. We packed up and headed home.
There were no trainings that the search group owners attended for a while. We were training amongst ourselves and I was concentrating mostly on cadaver. We have a small creek that runs though our yard and I was trying a lot of different problems in the water and the bank. The hardest to recover was the stuff that was in the black fine muck. That seemed to block the scent and it would escape some distance from the source. After the last search there were many curt comments back and forth by email. John fabricated this story how when the call for assistance came in he came over and made a speech about how the agreed time to end was 2:00 and how he approached the available dog groups (me and Jane under the tent) and asked if anyone would go to assist but no one offered. Everyone at base and in the field with a radio knew this was a lie because there was only a 5 second delay between the call and the response to end the search. It was puzzling to me why a fairly smart person would make up a story that everyone knew was a lie unless it was some sort of blind loyalty test.
September 2, 2008 John got a call from Jack Visecky. He wanted to search further down stream on the Yellow Medicine River. John informed us that only his dog was going down because his dog was cadaver water certified. The search that weekend was on Brandon’s Missing Person website and they were calling for what we called ground pounders. This is where you walk with people on both sides of you looking for him or clues. I sent an email to John saying; If I wasn’t needed as a dog team I would go down and volunteer to ground pound in order to help the family. Searching with or without a dog would be like the difference between a person searching during the day and a person searching at night on crutches. I knew that this would put John in a predicament. He would have to tell the group that I couldn’t go down and volunteer to help the family or risk Sheriff Jack seeing me and asking why Crosby wasn’t there. Shortly thereafter he changed allowing other dogs to search, but he must have been pissed. After that I was just serving my time in the group with the hope that Brandon could be found or I could find a different group.
October 22, 2008 I took the in-unit cadaver evaluation, a pretest for the group. The search area is about 1.5 acres with 2-3 scent sources with one of them being buried 10” deep and loosely covered with leaves mixed with dirt. It is usually left for at least 48 hours. The test can be made easier or harder by the strength of the sources at the discretion of the person setting up the test. My actual evaluation is scheduled for November 15, 2008.
We drove down to Friday to search for Branson and stayed at the convent. The first area was the south branch of the Yellow Medicine River from Highway 68 south to the next bridge. This is an area that I think was already been searched by a dog and pounders have also walked it. There was no interest in this area.
We didn’t have a base this time and after I finished this man from the search came up and said they needed a dog to check some bones along the road 1 mile west of the Brandon’s car. I parked about 100 yards from where every one was standing and walked up and looked at the bones. I walked back and got Crosby and started working him away from the bones. The guy that was with me said, “Hey they’re this way”. When Crosby first starts to work he is way too excited to think. He’s like Cramer on Seinfeld when he won all the free coffee he could drink in a law suit. Once he settled down I turned around and he went down the road checking the scattered bones and then kept going I went down some and turned around and worked my way back to the and gave him another chance. He checked one of the bones on the way back but kept going. I told the guy, “Nope not human” he said, “Are you sure?” everyone was hoping that something would be found and I said “pretty sure but they could be double checked”. The John had his dog check them too. I think after closer visual exam there was a hoof on one of them.
Halloween night we drove down to the convent we had 4 dog teams and 4 tech’s. This was a big search with a lot of volunteers. They were prepared to find Brandon they had the coroner on standby and they had special code words to use over the radio. We were told what we could and couldn’t say to reporters. There was no reason that I could see why this would be the time we would find him, other than that-- when you find something it is always in the last place you’d think to look.
9:22am Started near the “car” at 110th Ave. and Lincoln/Lyon Road headed south along the slew. Crosby had mild interest at the SE corner of the area and headed to the NW corner of area and then followed Congers Marsh south back to base at 11:20.
1:24pm Searched Area –FFF- a few miles east of the “car” this area was mostly open crop land and there was no interest in this area.
3:30pm Searched Area –ZZ- about 4 miles SW of “car” searched the south branch of the Yellow Medicine River on the west side. Most of the area was cropland that was harvested. There was very little interest in areas south of 68 unless the wind was from the NW. Finished searching at 4:40pm
We were back at the convent that night and I remember that John had said that the current search manager had lied to him about where he had parked his RV the night before. It didn’t seem to me something someone would lie about but could have been mistaken about, but who cares? Anyway he went into this long thing about trust and with him you don’t get a second chance for his trust. I looked for reaction from the others but it didn’t seem to strike them as odd or they weren’t listening. I felt like saying “isn’t that a tad hypocritical?” But then I remembered what I learned in an adolescent parenting class, chose your battles. Our daughter used to hate it when we went to those things. I remember this one time she was arguing with her mother and she kept raising here voice and they told us to talk in a calm and even voice. This made her madder and madder and they were both standing next to a bench so she got on the bench eye to eye and shouted, “Why aren’t you yelling?”
Sunday November 2, 2008 7:30am Area –III- it was sunny and winds 5-10mph from the SW. Started on the north side of the Yellow Medicine River 2 miles west of the “car” heading west. About half way through our area there was a beaver damn that Crosby had interest in. Any obstruction in the river will trap some of the scent traveling down the river.
2:30pm Started on the Yellow Medicine River 1.25 miles SW of the “car” and headed east until we met another dog team coming from the other direction. Crosby showed no interest in this part of the river. This was my last search of the weekend and we headed back home.
I think it was 3 weeks later that 3 dog teams went down Crosby and John and Jane’s dogs. We started 1 mile SSE of the “car” where the South Branch enters the Yellow Medicine River. I think Brandon’s dad, Brian was at base with us. He had spent time at base a couple times before and as you would come back from each search you would the hope fade from his expression. I know what that look feels like. I took the west side and the John took the east and we went down to Hwy 68, there was mild interest in one of the bends. The Jane took her dog and headed up stream from the drive way and when I got back she had a spot that she wanted me to double check. It was about half way between the driveway bridge and 390th street. There was a puddle in the river where the water had dropped around it and it had frozen. Crosby got to the area and he started the deep snorts he made when he wanted to get a lot of volume through his nose. He got to the puddle and broke the ice with his paw and started a whiney cry. He will do this because he wants to indicate (bark) because the scent is there but I assume that he knows from trial and error during training that the source is not there. I assume that there must be some math involved and pattern recognition but only the dog would know. This is a point where the handler could easily get the dog to indicate falsely with the slightest encouragement. We went down to Lynd with Brandon’s dad to check where Brandon thought he was that night. To us it looked nothing like the last known point(LKP). We searched around the spot there was no interest. There was a spot under the ice of a pond where someone saw some bones. Someone chopped a hole and pulled them up with a rake but I was animal bones. Brandon’s dad seemed down as he talked to the John, Jane and Sheriff Jack about the search. As we were about to leave the area John put his arm around the Dad and assured him although we were leaving now that we would be back.
June 13 2008 our group went to Lincoln/Lyon County to search for Brandon with four dog teams. We stayed at the Ivanhoe Minnesota Fire Station and met Jack Vizecky the Lincoln County Sheriff. Other dog groups had been down there already but I don’t believe our group was communicating with the groups that had been down. Jack filled us in on what had been searched. We knew that he had walked for 40 minutes after he left his car but we couldn’t be sure he didn’t get turned around. So the area was divided into searchable lots starting at the car and working out from there. This was a farming area with most of the road divided into one mile squares. It is pretty flat with mostly corn and soybeans with tree wind breaks. There was a lot of drain tile in the fields that would drain in to the creeks. So after a lot of rain the Yellow Medicine River and Mud Creek would fill up quickly. The Yellow Medicine probably was an average of 15 feet wide and 1 to 12 feet deep in spots. The night Brandon went missing the river was high, fast and cold. The distance from the river to the field would vary from 10-1000 yards depending on what could be easily tilled.
My first search was south of Highway 68, east of Lyon/Lincoln road a mile and a half south of the car. At night you could faintly see the grain elevator of Taunton, MN which he might have mistaken for Lynd MN. Crosby searched a wet area that was knee deep water in tall grass. He showed no interest in the water. When we moved out of the water he showed interest in airborne scent. The wind was coming from the Northwest which was usually the case when we were down there. The sheriff’s wife was parked up wind and that could be what he was showing interest in. The next area was one mile west still south of highway 68. During both searches there was a dog team to the south of me. They started before me so that my scent would blow into an area that they had already finished. When you have a dual trained dog you have a different command for live and cadaver work. Crosby’s alert is something he would naturally do if he smelled either while searching. A classic alert is if suddenly his head would snap into the wind. It is beneficial to keep the area as clean as possible scent wise.
Crosby alerted a couple times to scent in the air that was coming from the Northwest still. He continued west and headed towards an opening around a big tree on the west side of the South branch of the Yellow Medicine River. He started working the ground hard around the tree and surrounding area. We searched south up the river, but there was no interest there. The dog team to the south had finished before we got the river and he called my field tech on the radio and told him to switch from channel 5 to 7. This was done so I would not hear what he was saying. He told him to watch what Crosby would do by the tree. When he got near the river his dog left his search area and headed to the same tree and worked the ground. This might suggest that the source is upwind (to the Northwest) and when the scent passed over the cool area (river) it dropped to the ground. We searched again on Sunday but Crosby showed no interest in the areas.
I got back to work Monday; I own a small machine shop and it is always busy when I don’t work weekends. I saw on the internet that an autistic man had walked away from a camp Sunday night. It was near Grantsburg WI, a town that is the half way point on our drive up to the cabin. The John and Jane gave us permission to contact the sheriff’s office. They said that they didn’t know of any areas that hadn’t been searched but if we wanted to come up we could. I had some work I needed to do first thing in the morning but we got up there about 1:00 pm. When we arrived at the base we had to park about a mile away because there were approximately 200 locals searching. Luckily, a man saw Crosby with his vest on and gave the three of us a ride to the command center. There was a big RV and we went inside. I probably shouldn’t write this, but the first thing I thought of was Boss Hog of the Dukes of Hazard. There was no physical resemblance but the sheriff was in this luxurious RV behind a desk with 3 or 4 deputies around him. They assigned us an area pretty far from the camp where the man had been staying. The guy could only say about a dozen words and was skittish but they said we could lure him with food. He was past the time to take twice daily medications for anti-rejection of his new organ. They sent us about 5 miles from the camp where he was last seen. It would have been highly unlikely for him to make it that far. It was a general air search meaning Crosby was looking for any live human. A specific search we would have been given an article of clothing that he wore and I would have Crosby smell it and I would tell him “find em”. There was a trail that led into an opening where Crosby had interest but we didn’t see anyone. We drove back to base and it was about 4pm. We asked where they would want us to search next as there was about 5 hours of day light left. They told us they were done for the day and they might be moving somewhere else. Sounded like a brush off, but I told them if we could help to give us a call. If I were going to offer advice to someone a couple of rungs up the command latter I could proceed several different ways. The direct approach.
Knowing what I know now I would have told them:
This is probably someone who is afraid and could be avoiding people and with all these volunteers you need to contain him. Set parameters a 2 mile radius from the camp put people in chairs on the road and trails far enough apart so they can still see the next person and keep people from going in or out without interviewing them. Have someone drive around and check on them and replace any that need to go. Divide the parameter in to searchable sections and station people to keep him from moving from section to section. If you have dog teams, have them search the sections first and then you could use the remaining volunteers guided by deputies to line search the sections close enough together so they can always see the person next to them. This direct approach has almost no chance of being implemented.
The indirect approach has worked for me sometimes with the higher ups. You put your deer in the headlights look on your face and guide them with questions until they come up with a workable plan that’s their own idea, “I wonder if he’s afraid?” “What would he do if a strangers were coming towards him?” Then you have to throw in some wild suggestions to keep them from getting wise, “What about getting a bunch of helicopters to watch from the sky?” and then you praise them when they come up with the plan. I am sorry to say that I tried neither approach and drove home.
Four day later June 20, 2008 we went down to Lyon/Lincoln County with 4 dog teams and 6 field techs to search for Brandon Swanson. Crosby searched an area 4 miles due south of the car. The weather was sunny and 80 with a light wind. Crosby had one light alert when he started but nothing after that. Later that day we searched 1 mile North and West of the previous search. This time we were using three dog teams to search a big square heading west. I was the southern most dog with the wind from the Northwest so I started first. When we were almost half way he started heading northwest out of our area into the middle area smelling the crop leaves. He changed to the West and had alerts in the air.
Saturday 10am we started a search about 2 miles southeast of his car on the Yellow Medicine River. Searching the river area was challenging, trees and branches were everywhere, it was muddy and anywhere there was enough light getting though the grass was growing tall. The river provided Crosby the ability to cool off. The only area where Crosby alerted was 20-40 feet into the soybeans and openings in the vegetation where the wind could blow through. This suggested to me that the source could be northwest of us and was blown in. We crossed the river at Lyon/Lincoln road and went back on the north side of the river to meet up with the dog team on the other side to double check an area of interest that she had. Crosby had mild interest in that area. On Sunday, I searched two areas about 2.5 south of the car Crosby and no interest in those areas. We ended searching a 6:00PM and it was about a 2 hour drive home. After I got home found out from the news that the man from Grantsburg was found alive 7 days after he went missing by Firefighters. He was naked lying on the ground covered with ticks and mosquito bites but surprisingly in pretty good condition.
Thursday evening July 17, 2008 we drove down to Ivanhoe MN to continue the search for Brandon Swanson and stayed in an empty convent. I was pretty nice there were showers but no beds we slept on air matresses. I started searching area N at 9:15am July 18. A large map was put up with the car being the center and the search area labeled A-?? the further away from the car the letters would get bigger. Area N was 2 miles NNE of the car. Crosby showed no interest in this area and we finished at 11:15am.
1:00pm I drove north to Mud Creek 1.5 miles from the car. We searched the south side of the creek Crosby had an alert, the wind was coming from an open area to the east. He had another alert on the edge of a cornfield in soft moist dirt. We couldn’t easily cross the creek and ended at 2:15pm, we came back on Saturday evening to finish the other side of the creek. The sun was brutal, I believe it was in the 80’s and humid. Your big concern is the dogs as they are working 3 times as hard as you. When you would finish your area you would call base to get a ride back give the dogs plenty of water and leave them in the vehicle with the air blasting.
7:00 to 9:00 pm drove to the NW corner of area -U- 2 miles northeast of the car. Walked east on a field road along a bean field to a wooded area before the farmyard. Searched the wooded area and headed to the wind row, headed west back to the truck and drove back to base.
Saturday morning, got up a 7:00 ate some cereal and got ready to head out. Our group had switched map software and laptops. They were having trouble getting the maps printed out and it seemed to be taking forever. I was pissed because we were missing the best time to search before it got too hot and you would have to shorten up the searches for the dog. We had hard boundaries roads, streams, field lines so it was easy to search with GPS and no maps. So the problem could have been fixed over a long lunch during the hottest part of the day. I didn’t say anything because that would have triggered a long lecture so I went outside to wait outside in the shade.
We got to our search area at 9:10 am it was the north side of Mud Creek 3 miles NE of the car. Crosby alerted in soybeans and went into the creek and pawed the water. No other area of interest in this area. We finished at 10.20am and went back to base. 11: 00 am we went to area –S- 3 miles NW of the car. We did a hasty search of the farm sight and barn, Crosby had interest in the west side of a ridge. We finished in a half hour and broke for lunch.
Next we went to area –LL- 3 miles SW of the car. It was partly cloudy with winds from the SW. At 1:30pm we started by some farm machinery then headed east along a tree line to the eastern boundary then we proceeded southwest along pasture along the farm yard and finished at 3:00 pm.
Sunday 9:50am went to area -DD- 3 miles northwest of the car. The northern part of the search area was mostly corn with some beans. By this time the crops were pretty high and we were under the assumption that if he was in the field in mid May the farmer would have seen him when they worked the fields. So we concentrated on the wooded areas. Crosby had no interest in this area.
My last search of the trip was in area –OO- 3 miles WSW of the car searching the south side of the Yellow Medicine River, we found a large piece of grey fabric but Crosby had no interest in the area. I didn’t know it at the time but earlier one of the handlers and two of the tech’s had a run in with one of the owners. It was hot everyone was tired and frustrated over finding nothing. One of the handlers had brought a dog in-training and kept him tied up at base. This used to be against the rules; another handler had paid to have her dog kenneled during the search. Jane was mad that people were peeing in the woods and cornfields instead of using the camper that was just given to them. It was also brought up that some of the techs hadn’t finished all their tests although only one of the John and Jane’s dogs were certified for cadaver. My test had not been scheduled yet and I never heard Jane talk about taking the test. We had had a meeting before the search some people were concerned about how late we were staying and it was agreed that no new searches would begin after 2:30pm but searches under way would finish. I had finished my area at 2:15 and was sitting under a canopy tent next to Jane in the shade writing my search report. The other dog team called in on the radio her area was taking longer than she thought and asked for help from another team to come from the other way and help her finish. I had just finished searching and I knew that the two other dogs had been resting longer I turned to Jane to see if she was going to volunteer, otherwise, I was going to but before I could she told the radio operator that the search was over and told everyone to come back to base. We packed up and headed home.
There were no trainings that the search group owners attended for a while. We were training amongst ourselves and I was concentrating mostly on cadaver. We have a small creek that runs though our yard and I was trying a lot of different problems in the water and the bank. The hardest to recover was the stuff that was in the black fine muck. That seemed to block the scent and it would escape some distance from the source. After the last search there were many curt comments back and forth by email. John fabricated this story how when the call for assistance came in he came over and made a speech about how the agreed time to end was 2:00 and how he approached the available dog groups (me and Jane under the tent) and asked if anyone would go to assist but no one offered. Everyone at base and in the field with a radio knew this was a lie because there was only a 5 second delay between the call and the response to end the search. It was puzzling to me why a fairly smart person would make up a story that everyone knew was a lie unless it was some sort of blind loyalty test.
September 2, 2008 John got a call from Jack Visecky. He wanted to search further down stream on the Yellow Medicine River. John informed us that only his dog was going down because his dog was cadaver water certified. The search that weekend was on Brandon’s Missing Person website and they were calling for what we called ground pounders. This is where you walk with people on both sides of you looking for him or clues. I sent an email to John saying; If I wasn’t needed as a dog team I would go down and volunteer to ground pound in order to help the family. Searching with or without a dog would be like the difference between a person searching during the day and a person searching at night on crutches. I knew that this would put John in a predicament. He would have to tell the group that I couldn’t go down and volunteer to help the family or risk Sheriff Jack seeing me and asking why Crosby wasn’t there. Shortly thereafter he changed allowing other dogs to search, but he must have been pissed. After that I was just serving my time in the group with the hope that Brandon could be found or I could find a different group.
October 22, 2008 I took the in-unit cadaver evaluation, a pretest for the group. The search area is about 1.5 acres with 2-3 scent sources with one of them being buried 10” deep and loosely covered with leaves mixed with dirt. It is usually left for at least 48 hours. The test can be made easier or harder by the strength of the sources at the discretion of the person setting up the test. My actual evaluation is scheduled for November 15, 2008.
We drove down to Friday to search for Branson and stayed at the convent. The first area was the south branch of the Yellow Medicine River from Highway 68 south to the next bridge. This is an area that I think was already been searched by a dog and pounders have also walked it. There was no interest in this area.
We didn’t have a base this time and after I finished this man from the search came up and said they needed a dog to check some bones along the road 1 mile west of the Brandon’s car. I parked about 100 yards from where every one was standing and walked up and looked at the bones. I walked back and got Crosby and started working him away from the bones. The guy that was with me said, “Hey they’re this way”. When Crosby first starts to work he is way too excited to think. He’s like Cramer on Seinfeld when he won all the free coffee he could drink in a law suit. Once he settled down I turned around and he went down the road checking the scattered bones and then kept going I went down some and turned around and worked my way back to the and gave him another chance. He checked one of the bones on the way back but kept going. I told the guy, “Nope not human” he said, “Are you sure?” everyone was hoping that something would be found and I said “pretty sure but they could be double checked”. The John had his dog check them too. I think after closer visual exam there was a hoof on one of them.
Halloween night we drove down to the convent we had 4 dog teams and 4 tech’s. This was a big search with a lot of volunteers. They were prepared to find Brandon they had the coroner on standby and they had special code words to use over the radio. We were told what we could and couldn’t say to reporters. There was no reason that I could see why this would be the time we would find him, other than that-- when you find something it is always in the last place you’d think to look.
9:22am Started near the “car” at 110th Ave. and Lincoln/Lyon Road headed south along the slew. Crosby had mild interest at the SE corner of the area and headed to the NW corner of area and then followed Congers Marsh south back to base at 11:20.
1:24pm Searched Area –FFF- a few miles east of the “car” this area was mostly open crop land and there was no interest in this area.
3:30pm Searched Area –ZZ- about 4 miles SW of “car” searched the south branch of the Yellow Medicine River on the west side. Most of the area was cropland that was harvested. There was very little interest in areas south of 68 unless the wind was from the NW. Finished searching at 4:40pm
We were back at the convent that night and I remember that John had said that the current search manager had lied to him about where he had parked his RV the night before. It didn’t seem to me something someone would lie about but could have been mistaken about, but who cares? Anyway he went into this long thing about trust and with him you don’t get a second chance for his trust. I looked for reaction from the others but it didn’t seem to strike them as odd or they weren’t listening. I felt like saying “isn’t that a tad hypocritical?” But then I remembered what I learned in an adolescent parenting class, chose your battles. Our daughter used to hate it when we went to those things. I remember this one time she was arguing with her mother and she kept raising here voice and they told us to talk in a calm and even voice. This made her madder and madder and they were both standing next to a bench so she got on the bench eye to eye and shouted, “Why aren’t you yelling?”
Sunday November 2, 2008 7:30am Area –III- it was sunny and winds 5-10mph from the SW. Started on the north side of the Yellow Medicine River 2 miles west of the “car” heading west. About half way through our area there was a beaver damn that Crosby had interest in. Any obstruction in the river will trap some of the scent traveling down the river.
2:30pm Started on the Yellow Medicine River 1.25 miles SW of the “car” and headed east until we met another dog team coming from the other direction. Crosby showed no interest in this part of the river. This was my last search of the weekend and we headed back home.
I think it was 3 weeks later that 3 dog teams went down Crosby and John and Jane’s dogs. We started 1 mile SSE of the “car” where the South Branch enters the Yellow Medicine River. I think Brandon’s dad, Brian was at base with us. He had spent time at base a couple times before and as you would come back from each search you would the hope fade from his expression. I know what that look feels like. I took the west side and the John took the east and we went down to Hwy 68, there was mild interest in one of the bends. The Jane took her dog and headed up stream from the drive way and when I got back she had a spot that she wanted me to double check. It was about half way between the driveway bridge and 390th street. There was a puddle in the river where the water had dropped around it and it had frozen. Crosby got to the area and he started the deep snorts he made when he wanted to get a lot of volume through his nose. He got to the puddle and broke the ice with his paw and started a whiney cry. He will do this because he wants to indicate (bark) because the scent is there but I assume that he knows from trial and error during training that the source is not there. I assume that there must be some math involved and pattern recognition but only the dog would know. This is a point where the handler could easily get the dog to indicate falsely with the slightest encouragement. We went down to Lynd with Brandon’s dad to check where Brandon thought he was that night. To us it looked nothing like the last known point(LKP). We searched around the spot there was no interest. There was a spot under the ice of a pond where someone saw some bones. Someone chopped a hole and pulled them up with a rake but I was animal bones. Brandon’s dad seemed down as he talked to the John, Jane and Sheriff Jack about the search. As we were about to leave the area John put his arm around the Dad and assured him although we were leaving now that we would be back.
We went with Sheriff Jack up to the Bolton Farm about 2 miles west of the LKP on the Yellow Medicine River. We searched the farm areas and the building that we could access. It was getting late. There was one short section of the river about ½ mile south east that hadn’t been searched. I drove to a wooden bridge on 390th St. and right away Crosby went to bridge and started alerting on the gaps in the wood. We moved down to the river and it was an area where the river widened out some and he starting alerting again, not so much in the water but where the water had been when the river had been about a foot higher. We continued up stream to County Road 7 Bridge but this area the banks were steep and the river narrowed and there was little interest. We came back on the other side with little interest until we got by the 390th St Bridge where the river widened. I made a note of the alerts on my report.
Everyone was at my truck when we finished. The area of interest was about 50 yards away and I asked if anyone would check the area. John took his dog with Jane as the tech, I walked along, his dog was working the area pretty hard and came up to John looked at him and barked (that was his indication) he told the dog “show me” and the dog went back to working the area hard. I went back to the truck and they finished about 15 minutes later. We briefly talked about the area and I remember him asking Jane, “What was with that?” talking about the bark. I hated writing reports it reminded me of school homework. I had the least detailed reports of our group but I tried to put down where Crosby had interest in and used the GPS track map to show where I searched. John’s reports were very detailed direction of travel, weather etc. However, when I read his report on the area that he had double checked he put “no alerts or interest” without mentioning that he dog had given his indication of a find. We headed back home.
About a week later we had a meeting which among other things we talked about previous Brandon searches and thoughts on future searches. One thought I had was that he could be in the river bank above the level the river was on our last search and further up stream from where Crosby had interest in by the 390th St Bridge. Others had some areas that they wanted to check. John suggested that we might go to a psychic to see what they say. We trained during the winter but there were fewer trainings. It’s hard to find people willing to sit in a snow bank and wait to be found and you can’t bury cadaver in frozen ground. There was a tour at a medical examiner’s office we didn’t see any corpses but we got to see how they did autopsies
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