Search dog locates runaway girl

[Daryl]

Search dog locates runaway girl retrieved from http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x695084615/Search-dog-locates-runaway-girl

Taz, a Belgian Tervuren, is one of the search dogs with North Pocono Search Rescue & Recovery. Their web site address is http://www.northpocono.org

Two teens camping in a storage shed outside The Home Depot, Texas Township, were awakened early Tuesday, by State Police. The boy was taken into custody but the girl escaped into the dark and foggy night, prompting a multiple agency search. She was found by a search dog, hurt and incoherent, laying in a rock-lined drainage channel.

Trooper Chad Cunningham was on patrol and was passing through the Home Depot parking lot between 3 and 4 a.m. Police noticed that the door to one of the storage sheds set up to be sold, was ajar.

Although a police report was not available by press time, representatives of responding rescue agencies provided information from their perspectives.

The teens had run away from Family Foundation School near Hancock, NY, the evening before.

Pa. State Police requested Honesdale Borough Police to assist in the search, as well as Wayne County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and personnel from White Mills Fire Department and Honesdale Fire Department.

Stan Pratt, Chief of the Honesdale Fire Department, described the environment of the search area as “dark, heavily vegetated, rocky, and very foggy.” He said it was a terrible place to conduct a search or to be injured and lost.

The fleeing girl had climbed over a guide rail and climbed down a rocky embankment between Home Depot and Wal-Mart, Peter Hooker, EMA Deputy Coordinator, reported. White Mills Fire Chief Ken Batzel said that firefighters were fanned out in the parking lot watching in case the girl reappeared. Wal-Mart staff were looking in the store, which is open 24 hours, next to Home Depot.

About 15 firefighters from each department were on scene.

Pratt stated that the Honesdale Fire Department was requested to bring thermal imaging cameras, which he said could have found the girl save for the quick action of a search dog named Taz who located her first.

Taz was brought in by Jeff Finlay and his wife Dawn Finlay, the latter being the dog’s handler. They are with North Pocono Search Rescue & Recovery, a nonprofit search team based in Honesdale founded by the Finlays in 2006. (Jeff is also with Honesdale Fire Department.)

Unlike other dogs that they use trained to trace a scent from an article of clothing or other item, Taz is trained to seek out the scent of any human being where he is pointed. In this case, they had no scent article to use. This sort of search is also different because the victim was not looking to be found, he said.

Finlay advised letting the dog run where the girl was seen fleeing. “Within 10 minutes the dog had her,” said Finlay. He said they get called out once or twice a month, but rarely is a search over so quickly.

The teenager had apparently hurt her ankle and was semi-conscious. Rescue personnel brought her out in a Stoke basket, to meet the waiting White Mills Fire Department Ambulance. An ALS unit from Honesdale also assisted. The girl was taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital. Finlay said the girl was fortunate in that she was found shortly before a heavy rain fell.

Finlay praised the excellent team effort of the agencies involved, and the coordination of the State Police.

By coincidence, Finlay said that his wife knew both of the teens. She teaches part of the time at their school. She had received an e-mail of the teens’ disappearance, and their suspicions that these were the teenagers were confirmed when they were on scene. He said the teens likely had hitchhiked from the school, 34 miles away.

More about Taz

Taz is an eight year old Belgian Tervuren, trained since he was a puppy.

Taz was also credited with finding an 82 year old hunter in freezing conditions, at Tobyhanna State Park. The search team has been deployed in nine counties of northeast Pennsylvania, and two in New York.