Bloodhound Stella Wins Top AKC Award

Scent Evidence K9 Bloodhound Stella Wins Top AKC Award K9 in the Uniformed Services Division!  K9 Stella was honored for solving cases and finding missing persons during the 2020 AKC Heroes Awards for Canine Excellence. The ACE Awards show was broadcast on AKC.TV on Wed. Dec. 2. Stella was among 3 finalists featured in the broadcast and finished first out of hundreds of applicants for the award.

Stella and her handler/owner, Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley, have worked many cases for Florida state and local law enforcement agencies including a search that led to the capture of a serial killer in Tallahassee. Stella’s successful search deployments were instrumental in solving the case and contributed to The Tallahassee Police Department receiving the 2020 IACP/Thomson Reuters Excellence in Criminal Investigations Award. Read the AKC Article HERE…

Bloodhound Stella Wins Top AKC Award

Human scent discriminate trailing AKC bloodhound, Stella, has been working cases for the Tallahassee Police Department Special Victims Unit and several federal, state, and local agencies for the past 2 years. Stella has also traveled across Florida to teach kids, seniors, families, and caregivers how her nose can help responders bring them home if they wander, get lost, or go missing.

Stella has exceptional drive and excels on hard-surface, urban deployments. In the past six months Stella and handler, Paul Coley, a former FBI Forensic Canine Operations Specialist, have worked multiple missing person cases involving Alzheimer’s or dementia wandering including a man who wandered from a Tallahassee hospital and was located by Stella and returned to his family. Stella has a stellar record of confirmed trails leading to the recovery of missing persons in the Florida panhandle.

Stella is an essential resource for the Tallahassee Police Department Special Victims Unit and has confirmed trails leading to the apprehension of 2 double homicide suspects in July 2020 alone. The most recent being a 4-mile search that included a car trail that identified where the suspects were picked up after the homicides were committed. Stella was trained by Coley, the CEO of Scent Evidence K9, to follow an individual’s unique scent. Earlier in 2020, Stella assisted area law enforcement in locating a man who had been missing for 15 days. Stella has also trailed over 12 miles to find her target.

When Stella is not busy finding missing persons and bringing them home safe to their families, she travels with her handler, Paul Coley, to educate Florida families and caregiver groups on how to protect people with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) who are at high risk of wandering. Stella loves showing how she uses Scent Kits to find a missing person quickly and bring them home safe. Stella recently participated in Coley’s The Trail For The Cure fundraiser campaign for the Alzheimer’s Association – The Longest Day event to end Alzheimer’s. Stella helped lead K9 trailing teams across the U.S. and Europe as participating K9 teams joined to raise missing person awareness and donations to end the disease that affects millions around the world. Thanks to Stella and her K9 friends, On The Trail For The Cure raised enough money to achieve Solstice Champion status.

Stella has an important role in her community as a family safety ambassador. Her incredible scent discriminate trailing abilities help to create wandering awareness for caregivers of autistic children who are at high risk of going missing. Because Stella is trained for passive alert, she is non-threatening to a frightened child or a confused adult. She simply sits when she has located the missing person, bringing comfort to an otherwise traumatic event.

Watch the ACE Awards broadcast HERE

Stella has a lot of work left to do and in 2020 will continue her mission to create safer communities as part of the Bringing The Lost Home Project, a bill that was recently passed by Florida legislators to enhance missing person response capabilities in law enforcement, particularly with Florida’s large elderly population with Alzheimer’s.

View WCTV News coverage of Stella’s BIG WIN!

Tallahassee Police K9 and handler win AKC Heroes Award

Having a Scent Kit prepared can help K9 responders find a missing person fast and bring them home safe. To learn how Scent Kits can protect your family before they go missing CLICK HERE.

Looking for a Trained Bloodhound like Stella for your Law Enforcement of SAR K9 Team?

Visit our Trained K9 page HERE.