Scent Kits Help K9 Responders Bring The Lost Home
Scent Kits help K9 responders in 2 Florida Counties find the missing fast and bring the lost home safe. Dep. Steven Sella from Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and Dep. Amante Gabriel A. Bacolor from St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office each had life-saving missing person recoveries using the Scent Evidence K9 Scent Preservation Kit provided by the Bringing The Lost Home Project and The Florida Department of Elder Affairs. The BTLH and FDOEA initiatives provide thousands of Scent Preservation Kits® to families with loved ones living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia and autism. Scent Evidence K9 and Bringing The Lost Home Project partner, The Alzheimer’s Project, are working to create awareness for people who are at high risk of wandering and going missing. Scent Kits give families and caregivers a way to pre-collect a person’s unique scent and store it for up to 10 years. Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley stated, “If a person with Alzheimer’s Disease or autism wanders, having a Scent Kit prepared gives K9 responders the best scent article to search with.” The benefits of being prepared with a Scent Kit are faster start times, more accurate trailing results, and faster recoveries when every minute counts.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Sella and K9 Copper, a scent discriminate bloodhound, successfully trailed a woman who had been missing for over 24 hours using a Scent Evidence K9 Scent Kit that the woman had prepared only 2 weeks earlier. The missing woman was located clinging to a life preserver in the water. Dep. Sella and K9 Copper recently participated in Scent Discriminate K9 Training with Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley. The K9 training is a key component in the Bringing The Lost Home Project. Dep. Sella and K9 Copper attended the training held at Lee County Sheriff’s Office along with K9 teams from neighboring DeSoto County. The networking and best practices exchange is having incredible results in the missing person response and suspect location capabilities for the K9 Teams in all 3 counties. Read about recent Lee County recoveries HERE and DeSoto County HERE.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Deputy, Amante Gabriel A. Bacolor, and K9 Oakley located a missing juvenile with autism on March 8, 2021, using a Scent Evidence K9 Scent Kit that had been prepared in advance. The Scent Kit program was implemented a few months prior as part of the Bringing The Lost Home Project.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is one of the select agencies participating in the successful Scent Evidence K9 Training program that has now seen all 3 of its Bloodhound teams and teams in neighboring Putnam County have multiple confirmed suspect trails and lifesaving missing person recoveries. Rep. Scott Plakon, the project’s sponsor, recently attended a huge press conference to kick off Bringing The Lost Home in St. Johns County. Learn more about the Bringing The Lost Home Project HERE.
Here are the search details. The missing juvenile had wandered into the woods behind his residence. He became disoriented and was unable to find his way back to his residence so he called 911.Dep. Bacolor and K9 Oakley, arrived on the scene and the juvenile’s grandfather had the Scent Kit ready. Bacolor brought K9 Oakley to the backyard near the wood line and applied her harness. He presented the scent kit to K9 Oakley and she cast around the area before entering the woods. Once she entered the woods she quickly located the juvenile, who crossed a small creek, approximately 200 yards behind the residence.
Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley, stated, “Bringing The Lost Home was designed to give families a way to prepare their loved ones before they go missing and to provide high-level scent discriminate K9 training to enhance agency missing person response. The family was prepared, Dep Bacolor and K9 Oakley were well trained, and another person has been returned home safely because training and Scent Kits help K9 responders find them.”
GREAT JOB Dep. Bacolor and K9 Oakley and Dep. Sella and K9 Copper for TRAINING TO WIN and BRINGING THE LOST HOME! To learn more about Scent Kits and how they can protect your family CLICK HERE
