Pearl was the first dog trained to locate deceased humans - helping law enforcement and providing closure to grieving families.
 |
| Cadaver Dog |
Dogs have been known to find deceased bodies long before employing trained cadaver dogs. The first record of a dog helping in the detection of human remains was in the early 1800s in Germany. Two women went missing in 1807 and 1808, and the main suspect was Andreas Bichel, who became known as the Bavarian Ripper. The police searched his home and found the women's clothes, but could find no signs of the women until a court clerk took his dog to the suspect's house. The dog dragged his owner to Bichel's woodshed, sniffed the ground and pawed at the door. The police assumed the dog was reacting to the scent of another animal, but when the dog wouldn't give up, they decided to take a look. They dug inside and recovered the mutilated bodies of the two women. Bichel was arrested, convicted and beheaded in 1809.
Although dogs have this natural instinct, cadaver dogs undergo roughly 1,000 hours of training before they can go out into the field. Pearl, a yellow Labrador Retriever, was the first dog trained for human remains detection at the Military Research Facility in San Antonio, Texas by handler Jim Suffolk of the New York State Police. She started her career in 1974, and within her first year, found the remains of Karen Levy, a Syracuse College student who went missing in 1972 - her body was buried four feet underground.
Studies have found that cadaver dogs are 95% accurate at their job. They can smell remains up to 15 feet underground and almost up to 100 feet underwater. They can differentiate between the scent of animal and human remains, and because of their incredible sense of smell, they can pick up tiny traces of odor, including residual scents.
Besides helping the police locate deceased remains, cadaver dogs also work with anthropologists to find burial sites.
