Winnebago County Bloodhound Team Finds Suspect

The Winnebago County Bloodhound Team of Dep. Jason Rossi and K9 Nancy Drew located a shooting suspect that had fled on foot after a vehicle pursuit. The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office was called to assist in the trail of the suspect after he fled from officers where a shooting had occurred. The suspect initially fled in a vehicle before stopping in a ditch and running into a large cornfield.

Dep. Rossi reported:

I observed a pair of shoes laying just outside the open driver’s side door of the suspect’s vehicle and removed the sole of the right shoe and placed it into an evidence-grade jar along with a sterile gauze pad.  The glass jar/gauze pad became a scent article after the odor was allowed to expand inside of the jar and absorbed by the pad. My K-9 partner, Nancy Drew, is a human scent discriminate trained bloodhound. A scent discriminate K-9, such as Nancy Drew, is trained to follow the human scent which is presented to it as a scent article to the exclusion of all other human scent.

I removed Nancy Drew from the squad car. She was allowed to break and was given the command to “check.” Nancy Drew was placed into the sit position and the trailing harness was placed on her. I opened the jar containing the gauze pad/shoe sole (scent article), that had been previously prepared, and placed it in front of Nancy Drew’s nose. Nancy Drew reached her head towards the scent article and exhibited behavior consistent with her taking in a breath through her nose. Nancy Drew has been trained to use the jar/gauze pad as a scent article, and to locate the suspect/odor (by trailing or tracking) whose scent is presented to her in this specific manner. This is known as the pre-trail sequence.

The pre-trail sequence was completed at the rear of the suspect’s vehicle where I gave Nancy Drew the command to trail. Nancy Drew immediately trailed westbound into the cornfield for approximately two cornrows where she traveled over the suspect’s cell phone and other evidence. Nancy Drew trailed west for approximately 6-7 cornrows where she turned to the south. Nancy Drew began to trail at this point (nose to the ground) due to the limited amount of airflow in the corn. Nancy Drew tracked south for approximately 15 yards where she appeared to be out of odor. She came to a stop, changed direction back to the north, and began to pull on the lead very hard as she was tracking northbound. Nancy Drew was pulling hard, and her rear legs/tail were in a rigid manner which is consistent with her being “in odor.” Nancy Drew had to be stopped during the trail on three occasions to allow the assisting officer to catch up. It shall be noted there was a very limited distance that one could see through the corn. Nancy Drew continued to track northbound where she weaved through 2-3 rows of corn, to the east, while still tracking north.

While waiting on assisting officers who were re-grouping behind me I gave a verbal announcement of my presence with a K-9. All officers on the trail heard a male subject saying he was giving up. The subject was located approximately 5-6 cornrows directly to the east of our location. The suspect was taken into custody by the officers who assisted with the trail. The suspect was located not wearing shoes, due to him leaving them behind at the vehicle.

I praised Nancy Drew for her actions. I walked Nancy Drew back to our squad car where she was placed into her kennel.

The Winnebago County Bloodhound Team trailed over grass, vegetation, dirt, sand, and gravel through the cornfield for 550 yards in 9 min before successfully locating the suspect.

Deputy Jason Rossi and K9 Nancy Drew both received their human scent discriminate and scent collection technique trailing from Scent Evidence K9. Dep. Rossi is Nancy Drew’s third handler. K9 Nancy Drew has located multiple suspects for the WCSO and had several life-saving missing person finds including the recovery of a MISSING 69-YEAR-OLD MAN in 2019. That search was assisted by Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley, who provided operational assistance and missing person response consultation from Tallahassee. To learn more about Scent Discriminate Bloodhounds CLICK HERE.

Help responders find your loved ones fast if they go missing. Protect them with the Family Value Scent Kit 2-Pak. Pre-collecting an uncontaminated scent article gives K9 responders a head start in searching for those you love and care for so they can Find Them Fast and Bring Them Home Safe! Learn more HERE.