Cadaver dogs from U.S. fail to find Miramichi man with Alzheimer's, missing for 6 weeks
CBC
An exhaustive search in Miramichi by cadaver dog teams from the U.S. has failed to locate 76-year-old Brian Ahern, a man with Alzheimer's who went missing six weeks ago.
The three-day search was called off around 6 p.m. Friday.
His family is "disappointed and heartbroken," said son Cory Ahern.
"We really thought that this would be it and we could finally have some closure," he said Saturday morning.
"The only good thing I can say is that we now know where he isn't so we can turn our focus on a different area and we will continue to search."
The Miramichi Police Force brought in five members of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and three from the Massachusetts Canine Response Team to search for Brian Ahern, who disappeared on the afternoon of April 29. He had been visiting a neighbour.
The dogs are trained in wilderness air scent search, tracking, water search, and human remains detection.
"Their ability to smell allows us to search areas that we cannot see into, like thick brush or vegetation and including underwater," said Deb Palman, founder of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and the team leader.
The dogs can smell a person or body up to 450 feet (137 metres) "if the wind is steady and conditions are good," said Palman, who has been a dog handler since 1979, first as a Maine game warden, and for the past 15 years as a private volunteer "as a way to give back and help others."
Without steady winds, there's less scent available downwind and the teams have to search in tighter patterns, she said.
The dogs, which work off-lead, are trained to find the source of the scent, return to their handler and take the handler back.
They searched Wednesday through Friday, with assistance from Miramichi Ground Search and Rescue and police, said Deputy Chief Brian Cummings.
The volunteer teams covered more than 2,000 acres, or about 810 hectares — much of it dense woods with ponds, swamps and bogs, said Cummings. He and a detective used their personal side-by-sides to transport the teams to their assigned search areas.
"It's pretty hard slogging in places," said Cummings, noting there are floating bogs where someone could become submerged.
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