Scent Evidence K9 Partners Reach 900 Find Milestone!
Scent Evidence K9 Partners Reach 900 Find Milestone! 2 Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office K9 Teams located 4 boating incident subjects to help our partner agencies surpass the 900th scent discriminate K9 find achievement. On 5/23/25 Cpl. Steven Sella and K9 Maverick located 2 subjects who entered the water and swam to shore after crashing their 24-foot boat into a ferry. The subjects then fled on foot through nearby residential properties. Cpl. Sella used a life preserver as the scent article and deployed K9 Maverick, a patrol dog that has also been trained using the Scent Evidence K9 scent discriminate trailing program. K9 Maverick trailed through several residential yards and then began pulling toward dense palmetto bushes near the ferry entrance sign. Sella used a verbal K9 announcement, and the 2 subjects emerged from concealment. They were detained without incident.
One-week later CCSO Cpl. Mills and K9 Rico responded to help locate 2 boat theft suspects. The suspects had removed a boat from the dock, floated away with it, then bailed out and fled on foot. Cpl. Mills used a Scent Evidence K9 Scent Kit to collect a scent article from a life vest that one of the suspects had worn and left behind. Mills presented the scent jar to K9 Rico and began trailing from the place where the suspects were last seen. Rico quickly determined the suspect’s direction of travel and continued through multiple yards to a residence. Cpl. Mills requested units to check and see if the suspects were inside. The units responded and located the suspects.
“Cpl. Sella and Cpl. Mills both used their advanced scent discriminate trailing skills to find subjects using their patrol K9 partners. We are very impressed by the scent discriminate trailing performance of our dual-purpose K9 handlers,” stated Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley. Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office is a longtime Bringing The Lost Home Program partner agency in Florida and has trained with Coley for several years. To date 904 missing persons and suspects locations have been reported by our partner agencies and organizations using Scent Evidence K9 scent discriminate K9s, K9 handler and response training, and scent collection techniques and technology.
The jump from #800 to #900 happened quickly thanks to the dedication and work ethic of our agency partners across the country. Here are a few highlights from the last month by our top performing agency K9 handlers.
K9 Keva Finds 2 Missing Elderly Persons in 2 Days!
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dep. Gabe Jasso and K9 Keva, a Scent Evidence K9 alumnus, responded to help locate an 81-year-old critical missing person on 5/28/25 with onset dementia. The person had been missing for 3.5 hours when the California Bloodhound Team arrived on scene. The caretaker had last seen the missing man in the courtyard of the care facility. Dep. Jasso collected a scent article from the man’s clothing and presented it to K9 Keva who picked up the trail quickly. Keva trailed .25 miles to a nearby 7-11 indicating that the scent had been inside the building. As they were getting ready to redeploy, the missing man came around the corner and asked if they were looking for him.
2 days later they were called to assist in locating an 85-year-old missing critical person in Redlands. The temp throughout the day was topping 103 degrees. At the time of deployment, the temp was 96 degrees, and the man had been missing for 3 hours. He had gone for his daily walk that usually takes under an hour to do and never returned home. Keva trailed the missing person’s scent for .5 miles to a ravine that the man had fallen into and couldn’t get back up. After a quick medical check, he was reunited with his family.
This is Find #44 and #45 for the superstar California Bloodhound Team and their 3rd in less than a week. Earlier in the week, Keva and Jasso located a missing 5-year-old on National Missing Children’s Day. K9 Keva has been locating missing persons and suspects since completing her scent discriminate trailing training at our Tallahassee headquarters in 2022. K9 Keva got another find a day later for #46. Read more HERE.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office Bloodhound Team Locates 3 People in 1 Day!
Dep. Angela Keller and K9 Wyatt responded to a call regarding 2 missing hikers on 6-6-25. The hikers had gone for a walk in the woods at a Florida State Park and couldn’t find their way back to the trail. Dep. Keller and K9 Wyatt, a Scent Evidence K9 alumnus, began their search at the nearest trailhead and continued into the woods. Keller soon noticed a change in Wyatt’s behavior and asked the dispatcher who was speaking to one of the hikers if they could blow a whistle that they were carrying. The hiker blew the whistle and sure enough, Dep. Keller and K9 Wyatt were 20 ft. away from them. Wyatt gave a positive alert when he reached the hikers. The OCSO Bloodhound Team trailed .5 miles in 40 minutes for the find.
A few hours later, Dep. Keller and K9 Wyatt responded to help locate a suspect with drug paraphernalia after a foot pursuit with Deputies. Wyatt began trailing from a house where the suspect was last seen running away. They trailed along a fence line that backed up to an empty overgrown lot and continued to an area where there was a downed fence. Once past the fence K9 Wyatt began pacing back and forth in front of a duplex. Keller advised Deputies to contact the occupants. Keller was then advised that neighbors had seen the suspect running around the duplex trying to get in. Deputies made contact at the door with a female who confirmed the suspect was inside. He was secured and arrested.
K9 Galli Uses Nose to Find 2 Missing Runaway Youths and 1 Suspect!
Rockland County Sheriff’s Ofc. Brian Neary and K9 Galli, a Scent Evidence K9 Bloodhound alumnus, recently located double missing runaways and 1 suspect.
The New York Bloodhound Team responded to an apartment complex where the missing juveniles were last seen. They were reported to be in an upstairs apartment while they were charging their iPad. When the juveniles saw the police, they ran out of the apartment and down the hallway to the other side of the building. Officers checked the complex and grounds with negative results. The lead detective stated that the youth’s iPad was still connected to the apartment’s Wi-Fi, showing a 50-meter radius around the building. Ofc. Neary collected a scent article from the couch they were sitting on using a Scent Kit and the absorption method. K9 Galli trailed the scent down the stairs, checked both first floor exterior doors, then continued to the basement. Neary and Galli began working back and forth between 2 sets of storage containers in the basement. K9 Galli shoved her nose under a door and began sniffing the door jamb of one of the units. K9 Galli then alerted on the door and the 2 juveniles exited. K9 Galli then alerted on the second youth. The trail was 4 hours old and all indoors.
K9 Galli also located a suspect who crashed, jumped out of the vehicle, and ran after a failure to comply. On arrival at the scene Ofc. Neary collected a scent article using a Scent Kit and the absorption method from the driver’s seat. K9 Galli trailed just over a mile through urban and wooded areas towards a major roadway. 100 yards from the road, the Rockland County Bloodhound Team was advised that the suspect had exited the woods. K9 Galli continued trailing to the suspect and alerted for the ID. The trail took 1 hour and 32 minutes.
Superstar St. Johns County Bloodhound Helps Florida Highway Patrol Locate 2 Suspects!
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Cooper and K9 Star, a scent discriminate Bloodhound, responded on 5/28/25 to assist the FHP in locating 2 suspects who bailed out of a vehicle after a traffic stop. Dep. Cooper presented a scent article to K9 Star and deployed from the suspect’s vehicle. K9 Star entered the woods and trailed the suspects through a mile of thick swamp. The Superstar Florida Bloodhound located both suspects hiding in the woods.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Bloodhound Team Locates 2 Suspects After Vehicle Bailout!
On 5-6-25, Dep. Melanie Merritt and K9 Daisy Mae, a Scent Discriminate Bloodhound, responded to help locate 2 suspects who fled from Deputies and bailed out after they crashed their vehicle on the railroad tracks. The suspects were last seen running into the woods. Dep. Merritt used a Scent Evidence K9 Scent Kit to collect a scent article from the driver’s side seat of the suspect’s vehicle and presented the Scent Jar to K9 Daisy Mae. Daisy immediately trailed into the woods turning north on a dirt trail. Dep. Shrock and K9 Jr. followed behind during the tandem track. Dep. Merritt located a hat worn by one of the suspects and observed footprints along the dirt trail. K9 Daisy Mae continued trailing into a thicker wooded area and located a shoe belonging to one of the suspects. The Florida Bloodhound Team continued trailing for 30 yards and the 2 suspects were located just ahead of them. The trail distance was 2 miles and the duration was 45 minutes.
North Carolina K9 Team Gets 2 Finds In 1 Week!
Dep. Andrew Nichter and K9 Taro of the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office used their scent discriminate trailing skills to locate 2 suspects in separate cases on May 3 and May 10, 2025. The K9 Team responded on May 3rd to assist Leland PD in locating a suspect who fled on a bike after an attempted break in. K9 Taro quickly trailed past the abandoned bike and gave a proximity alert near the wood line. Dep. Richter gave a K9 call out and the suspect responded from the woods. Officers detained the suspect. The trail duration was 2 minutes!
A few days later on May 10, Richter and Taro responded to a wreck where the suspect had fled the vehicle. They deployed from the place where the suspect was last seen and K9 Taro tracked through mud to a gated facility showing muddy footprints going through locked gate that had been forced apart. K9 Taro tracked through the facility to the edge of woods and alerted on an army jacket. The suspect was described as wearing an army jacket. As Taro trailed from the jacket, he snapped his head to the right and began pulling hard into the woods. K9 Taro gave an immediate proximity alert and began working the area to find the suspect. K9 Taro began pulling so hard that he was walking on his 2 rear paws at one point and entered a thick wooded area. Dep. Nichter shined his light in front of K9 Taro and found the suspect laying down on his back. Commands were given to show his hands. The suspect began to snore and was not responding. The back up officer placed the suspect in handcuffs. K9 Taro was rewarded with his toy. The trail was 29 min. in duration and 1 mile in length.
K9 Buster Locates Missing Endangered Person!
Escambia County Sheriff’s Deputy Katie Touchstone and K9 Buster, a scent discriminate Beagle, responded to help locate a missing person on 5/20/25. The endangered person had been missing for 7 hours and was last seen on camera in a Walmart parking lot. Dep. Touchstone collected a scent article and K9 Buster trailed the scent to a wood line behind the store where they located the missing person lying down in the woods safe.
Scent discriminate K9 teams from Florida to California have located hundreds of missing endangered missing persons and the need for these specialized K9 search skills grows daily. People with Alzheimer’s Disease and children with autism are among the highest at-risk groups for wandering. “60% of people with dementia or 3 in 5 will go missing and the number is almost as high for children with autism. Our mission is for communities to have a well-trained scent discriminate K9 team ready to respond and bring them home safe to their families and caregivers,” stated Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley.
THANK YOU to our incredible K9s and handlers for the work you do every day to keep your community safe. To see more of their stories visit and follow our Facebook or Instagram pages.
