Maine Warden Service K-9 Teams Win Regional and National Awards

Warden Jeff Spencer and K-9 Bridger won one of two Region 9 Kennedy Scent Awards for 2006:

On 7/16/05 at 04:30, Warden Jeff Spencer and K-9 Bridger were requested to respond to a lost man in Conner Plantation. A 76-year-old man had left the day before on his ATV to inspect his property and not returned. His wife reported him missing about 02:00.

At about 04:00, the warden responding to the incident located the subject’s ATV, which was stuck on a log. At 06:00, Warden Spencer was able to start Bridger on an uncontaminated track that was estimated to be 16 hours old. The K-9 team tracked the man down the grown up trail for several hundred yards until the trail hit a T intersection. K-9 Bridger tracked down the left side of the intersection, then backtracked to take the right turn.

Warden Spencer stopped and rested Bridger several times because the temperature was in the 80’s and 90’s. They continued tracking for over a ½ mile on this trail and Bridger did not pull hard, but showed a great deal of interest in raspberry bushes that were broken down near the trail. The trail crossed a stream and the team took a water break because Bridger was becoming very hot and tired.

Because the dog seemed interested in the woods near the trail and was not pulling very hard on the tracking lead, after a few minutes rest Warden Spencer switched Bridger from the tracking harness to his orange vest and bell. He turned Bridger off lead to work air scent. Suddenly Bridger took off down the path they were tracking on and ran out of sight. Warden Spencer followed and Bridger came back into sight on the road coming down the trail, very excited. When Warden Spencer reached the dog again, Bridger took off again, running into the woods. He did this one more time until Warden Spencer got close, when he began his bark alert near an elderly man who was sitting in the bushes at the side of the trail. The man was OK, but had fallen and could not get up. The team worked about one and a quarter hours and traveled one and a quarter miles.

The lost man said that he took the left turn at the intersection and then got lost in the woods, wandering most of the night. He was not sure how he got back to the trail. He said he was really glad to see the big Chesapeake dog because he knew “a game warden would not be very far behind.”

Warden Wayde Carter and K-9 Buddy, Sgt. Roger Guay and K-9 Radar of the Maine Warden Service win United States Police Canine Association Award

Region 9 Detector Case of the Quarter

Jan.-Mar. 2006

On March 5 th, 2006 at approximately 1430 hours, Warden Wayde Carter, Sgt. Roger Guay and their cadaver detection K-9s were doing recovery searches in New Orleans. They had been asked to search a residence in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. This was a built up area near the lake and it was near one of the levees that had failed. The residence they were taken to was on Fluere Des Les and was pretty much intact. When they arrived at the home, there were FOR SALE signs on the lawn and it appeared to have been cleaned up a bit. Their first thought was that this one was not a good prospect.

The handlers were advised that the residence had been searched twice already, but not by dog teams. One of the search teams had just recently searched the residence just two days prior to their arrival. Warden Carter stood at the front doorway looking inside getting ready to give Buddy the LOCATE command and noticed Buddy was tossing his head in the air as if he had a whiff of something. When Buddy was given the command, he entered the residence, bouncing all around with his head high. Buddy’s tail was wagging and he was jumping up trying to get the scent from up high. Buddy went through the kitchen tossing his head high and then into the hallway. He sat down under the attic doorway and indicated that the scent was coming from the attic area. Warden Carter made a quick look into the attic and observed a blanket and a pet carrier, but no body. Buddy was still adamant that there was the odor of remains coming from the attic area. The K-9 team left the residence and Sgt. Roger Guay and K-9 Radar searched the residence. Radar acted in the same way. The men from the NOFD USAR team were not satisfied as they knew that Buddy and Rader did not false indicate. Two of the team members decided to search further in the attic. They found the body in the attic just as the K-9’s had indicated. Searchers had to crawl over the air conditioning duct work to see the body. The body was lying up against the duct work and had mummified. This was the body of a man that had not shown up for work since the hurricane and no one had had any contact with him. His friends had reported him missing.

Warden Mark Merrifield and K-9 Aspen won a Quarterly Case Award from Region 9 of the USPCA in 2005:

On May 16, 2005, Warden Mark Merrifield and K-9 Aspen were requested by neighboring wardens to assist in a case where a subject jumped out of a vehicle, shot at a turkey too close to a residence and then jumped back in the vehicle and left. The complainant was able to provide a plate number for the car.
Warden Merrifield arrived two hours after the incident happened. He worked K-9 Aspen in the area. Within 15 minutes, K-9 Aspen indicated on a 3 inch red shotgun wadding near the edge of the woods near the road. After locating the wadding, it was easy for the wardens to locate the shot pattern in the trees and determine where the subject was standing when he shot.

Warden Merrifield and the requesting warden drove to the house of the registered owner of the vehicle. There a subject told the wardens that he shot at the turkey but was in the woods when he fired. He also gave them the name of another man who was with him. Warden Merrifield asked to see the gun and shells that were used and the subject produced a shotgun and 2 ¾” shells. Warden Merrifield could tell that the wad Aspen had found was not from this shotgun. The wardens issued the subject a summons for shooting too close to a residence and left.

Later Warden Merrifield contacted the second subject that the first subject implicated and found that the second subject wasn’t even there. Warden Merrifield contacted the first subject again and obtained the name of a third subject who was the actual person with him at the time of the shooting. Warden Merrifield also found out that this subject had already killed and registered a turkey before the incident by the residence. The annual bag limit on turkeys in Maine is one.
At this second interview, the first subject insisted that he was the one that shot, but the wadding did not fit the story. Warden Merrifield visited the residence of the third subject where that subject’s father showed him the shotgun and shells that were used that day. These did fit the wad at the scene. The third subject was interviewed and was evasive in his answers. This subject was summonsed for shooting too close to a residence and for hunting turkey after having killed one, both violations that carry mandatory hunting license revocations.

January 2004

Maine Warden Service K-9 Teams were recently given Regional and National Awards for locating missing persons while assisting other law enforcement agencies. Warden Wayde Carter and K-9 Buddy won the United States Police Canine Association National Detector Case of the Quarter for locating a missing man during January of 2004. This incident was picked from hundreds of K-9 uses submitted nationally to the USPCA for the first quarter of 2004.

Warden Brian Tripp and K-9 Marley won one of two USPCA Region 9 Kennedy Scent Awards presented annually for the two top scent related cases submitted to Region 9 of the USPCA, representing Maine, maritime Canada and parts of southern New Hampshire. Warden Tripp and Marley previously won a USPCA National Case of the Quarter award during 2003 for the same incident. The incidents are summarized below:

Warden Wayde Carter and K-9 Buddy

On January 3, 2004 at approximately 2000 hours, Warden Carter and Sgt. Roger Guay and their K-9s participated in a search for a subject that had been missing since 12/01/03. It was suspect the subject had committed suicide. His vehicle had been located a month after he was reported missing in a heavily wooded area in Burlington.

Sgt. Guay and Warden Carter divided up the area near the car while other volunteer dog teams and ground searchers worked the adjoining road systems. After searching for two hours, K-9 Buddy began to indicate the presence of scent. There was about 12" of snow on the ground and during the search it was snowing. Buddy moved slowly up the ridge in thick undergrowth, casting back and forth. Buddy worked this way for about 150 yards and then suddenly lay down as an indication that he had something.

Warden Carter approached and found Buddy clearing the snow away from a leather holster that appeared to be frozen in the ice and snow. He praised Buddy and called on his radio for help, knowing the subject could not be far away. While he was doing this, Buddy continued digging into the ice and snow below the holster and uncovered a boot. Buddy then moved above the holster and uncovered a face. It was then that Warden Carter realized that the holster was still attached to the waist of the subject who was completely covered by snow and solidly frozen in a pool of ice. The subject appeared to have taken his own life.

Warden Brian Tripp and K-9 Marley

On Tuesday, September 2nd at 12:00 p.m., Warden Brian Tripp and K-9 Marley were called to assist Lewiston P.D. with a search for a missing suicidal woman. The woman was last seen at 11:00 p.m. on September 1st when she was contacted while sitting in her vehicle by a Lewiston police officer.

On the morning of September 2nd, the woman's car was located. The car was hidden in a large construction area a short distance from where the officer contacted her the night before. Police called a local patrol K-9 to track from the abandoned vehicle. After several attempts in the heavily contaminated area the patrol K-9 exhausted and the team secured.

At 1:00 p.m. Warden Tripp and his K-9 Marley arrived at the scene. Upon their arrival Warden Tripp and Marley began a "hasty search." The hasty search is a non-aggressive area search allows the team to cover areas off lead and is especially useful in finding passive or unconscious victims. When conducting a hasty search the dog wears a bell so the handler can keep track of the dog.

A short time after deploying in the heavily contaminated scene, a search and rescue airplane began low altitude sweeps over the area. Other wardens also began searching the area on foot. The scene was very busy and confusing for Marley, however Marley continued to sort out the various scents that were flooding the search area. For a time, Warden Tripp lost contact with Marley because the noise of the airplane covered the sound of Marley's bell. Warden Tripp asked surrounding road units to shut down a portion of a busy street near the area so that a car would not hit Marley.

At 1:25 p.m. Marley located the victim. The woman was laying face down among heavy brush wearing dark colored pants and long sleeve shirt. These clothes blended in with the surroundings so well that the low flying aircraft could not detect her position and another Game Warden passed within 15 feet of her. Warden Tripp radioed to other officers that the victim had been located. There were several empty bottles of pills surrounding the victim, and due to the position and coloration of the victim Warden Tripp believed the woman had expired. K-9 Marley began nudging the victim with his nose trying to get her to play with him. At this time the victim made a groaning noise and it became obvious that she was alive!

The woman was laying face down barely breathing and unconscious for over 14 hours. Her life was saved thanks to K-9 Marley and Warden Tripp and their training in off lead hasty searches.