Cadaver Dogs and Other Clever Canines

A couple of times a week I have the opportunity to go walking with my lovely canine friend, a beautiful long-haired German Shepherd dog called Flora. Flora lives with two people who obviously love animals as they have four rescued cats as well as Flora, who came from a dog rescue centre. As a puppy, Flora was thrown from a car window by people who couldn't be bothered to find a proper new home for her. She has grown into a lovely, gentle, intelligent doggie, often sharing her big doggie bed with the cats.

Out walking, Flora will constantly look at my feet to make sure she is keeping pace with me. When we reach the park and her lead comes off, then she knows that I will throw the ball for her. Flora will fetch the ball and bring it back, but she won't drop it right away. She will wait, then drop it and as soon as I go to pick it up, she will grab it. She will also run behind me, darting left and right and showing me the ball, darting away when I reach for it. Such a clever dog. Flora would possibly have made a good sniffer dog as one of the qualities looked for is playfulness:   Flora invents games and loves interacting with people.

I'm convinced that Flora also senses things about other dogs. Mostly, she ignores them in the park or walking through the streets. There is a little Westie we often meet on our travels, with whom Flora gets on really well and the two dogs greet each other in a happy canine way with waggy tails and sniffy noses. However, occasionally Flora will bark at another dog. Coming out of the carpet shop the other day, where Flora had insisted on going in to see the man she knows, she suddenly started into her big bark. And Fora's big bark is very big! She was barking at a rather large brown dog that looked like a Staffie cross. The odd thing was that, to my eyes anyway, the other dog wasn't showing any signs of aggression. My guess is that Flora sensed something about that dog and that dogs like Flora can sense things that we humans cannot observe with our ordinary senses.

Dogs in criminal investigation

Dogs have been used for a very long time now in criminal investigation. They are trained and used, successfully, to detect drugs, explosives, contraband at airports, as well as missing people and dead bodies in disaster zones and in cases of suspected murder.

The newest area of work undertaken by dogs in criminal investigation is that of the "cadaver dog," also referred to as an Enhanced Victim Recovery Dog. These dogs undergo rigorous training by organisations like the FBI and many are trained in the USA at the place known as "The Body Farm."

This is from Illinois Search and Rescue Dogs 

Like all search dogs, cadaver dogs go through extensive training before they can become certified and operational. Cadaver dogs are first trained to recognize a wide spectrum of odors associated with human remains, depending on their specific use. Cadaver dogs for use in a disaster situation focus on more recent decomposition odors, while cadaver dogs that work with law enforcement are also trained to recognize older decomposition odors and smaller odor sources. Only actual human remains are used to train the dogs, no pseudo scent is used in the training process. 
All K-9s are first taught to give a trained final response or indication upon detection of the odor. They are taught to only give this response when they locate the strongest source of the odor. A large amount of time is spent on making sure that the indication is solid before the K-9 is ever taught to actually search for the odor in a scenario-based problem. Cadaver dogs that are trained in water recovery are taught to give this final indication while working from a boat on a body of water.

And yet, Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine McCann has stated on several occasions that cadaver dogs are unreliable.

In this video, Kate and Gerry are being interviewed by Sandra Felgueiras. At 4.50 Sandra asks about the sniffer dogs, Eddie and Keela and their alerts. Kate McCann launches into a spiel about people being helpful, but Sandra brings them back to the subject of the dogs. Gerry states that evidence shows that the dogs are unreliable, that when they are scientifically tested....

Now, does Gerry seriously think that the FBI does not train or test these dogs scientifically? Or South Yorkshire police? Eddie, cadaver dog, was trained by Martin Grime of SYP and also completed training at "The Body Farm." in the USA. They don't train or test scientifically at "The Body Farm."?

Elsewhere, as in the following video, which doesn't want to embed, at 0.50, Gerry McCann states "..when the dogs came that was actually something that happened at our request."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXenTtj26E 

Well, no actually, it wasn't. When the British investigator Mark Harrison arrived in Praia da Luz, he made extensive searches of the local area, read through all the files and concluded that the police should be looking for a body. He then recommended bringing in Eddie and Keela and showed the PJ a video of the dogs at work. (See Chapter 16 of Gonçalo Amaral's book on this site)

The book "Death Scent," is a work of fiction by S.V. Wolf, based on the work of her own dog, Titan.

The real Titan, Wolf said, was responsible for the recovery of a 12-year-old who had been abducted and murdered, an Austin man who had committed suicide and had been missing for two years, a baby who had been buried for more than 30 years, and a murdered woman who had been buried in her own backyard for seven years, just to name a few.

A baby who had been buried for more than 30 years! Well, that puts paid to another of Gerry McCann's utterances, that cadaver odour is only detectable for up to 30 days! You see, those dogs are unreliable!

When Gerry was searching for ways to discredit the findings of the two dogs in  the holiday apartment and various other places and on items only related to himself and the missus, the McCanns' lawyers attempted to use the case of Eugene Zapata, as an example of someone wrongly incriminated by cadaver dog evidence. Unfortunately Zapata confessed and admitted that the dogs had alerted in the right places. 

Until Eddie and Keela went to Praia da Luz, it was said that Eddie had never given a false positive alert. In Praia da Luz, Eddie and Keela only alerted to places and items related to the McCanns apartment, their rented car and their possessions.

Video by HiDeHo4 on her YouTube channel.

And finally, now that Jimmy Savile is being seriously investigated for sexually abusing children, it may be time for there the investigation into abuse at the Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey to be re-opened. Jimmy Savile had denied ever visiting the home, but not only has a photo been produced of Savile at the property, but at least two adults, who spent time there as children, have come forward alleging abuse by Savile. 

Watch this video and remember that Eddie dog had never given a false positive alert prior to these two cases, Madeleine McCann and Haut de la Garenne.

Haut de la Garenne may have closed its doors many years ago, but we know from other cases, such as that where cadaver dog Titan (mentioned above) found the remains of a baby who had been buried for 30 years, that cadaver dogs can detect the smell of death many years after the event. 

Cadaver dogs are trained to detect the odour, which indicates that a dead human body has been in that place at some time. The odour lingers long after the body has been moved from that site. When an odour is detected it means that particles of the substance have entered the airways. Those particles can persist in an environment for years, becoming embedded in any porous surface, such as floor boards. 

Jimmy Savile visited Haut de la Garenne children's home and is alleged to have abused children there. If this is true, how did he get away with it and how many of his friends and associates used that children's home as their play-away island resort with a captive selection of children available, like choosing goodies from a sweet shop? 

Time to have a very close look at Haut de la Garenne and its list of visitors. For the sake of the children who lived there and survived and those who died there, the truth must come out. It is never too late to do the right thing by the victims. 

SOS Madeleine McCann: Eddie is behind the discovery of the bodies of five children.

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2/08/08

Eddie à l’origine de la découverte de cinq cadavres d’enfants

Au moins cinq corps d’enfants ont déjà été retrouvés dans l’ancien orphelinat anglais de l'île de Jersey, là où Eddie, le chien pisteurs utilisé précédemment dans l’affaire Madeleine, avait marqué la présence des cadavres.

L’ancien orphelinat, situé à Haut de la Garenne, est sous investigation depuis 2006, après plusieurs dénonciations d’abus sexuel.

The bodies of at least five children have been found at the former English children's home on the island of Jersey, where Eddie the sniffer dog, previously used in the Madeleine case, indicated the presence of the bodies.

The former children's home, situated at Haut da la Garenne, has been under investigation since 2006, after several disclosures of sexual abuse.

Selon Lenny Harper, responsable de la police de Jersey, les corps de cinq enfants, âgés de quatre à onze ans, ont été brulés et caché fin des années soixante et début des années septante. Jusqu’au moment la police britannique a également découvert 65 dents de lait et au moins une centaine de fragments d’os, certains coupés et brulés.

Eddie, capable de renifler la moindre odeur de cadavre, après avoir détecté des traces du passage du corps de Madeleine McCann à Praia da Luz, s’est illustré en détectant la présence de vestiges humains dans l’ancien orphelinat, où il a désigné au moins six endroits, à l'intérieur du bâtiment, ou la police britannique a maintenant effectué la découverte.

According to Lenny Harper, Jersey's police chief, the bodies of five children, aged from four ro eleven, were burned and hidden between the late sixties and early seventies. Until now, the British police have also discovered 65 milk teeth and at least a hundred bone fragments, some cut and burnt.

Eddie, capable of sniffing the slightest cadaver odour, after having detected signs in Praia da Luz that Madeleine McCann's body had been there, demonstrated his skills by detecting the presence of human remains at the former children's home, where he indicated at least six places, inside the building, where the British police then made the discovery.

Malgré les découvertes, la police britannique considère qu’il n’y a pas assez de preuves pour avancer vers une enquête pour meurtre, ce que scandalise plusieurs témoins qui accusent les autorités de ne pas vouloir ouvrir la boite de pandore : "Je suis étonné que les preuves soient apparemment si peu concluantes," affirme un responsable en médecine légale soulignant qu’il semble étrange que nous ayons un bon nombre d’os, mais qu’on annonce qu'il n'y aurait pas d’enquête pour meurtre."

In spite of the discoveries, the British police consider that there is not enough evidence to proceed with a murder investigation, which shocks several witnesses who are accusing the authorities of not wanting to open Pandora's box: "I am astonished that the evidence is apparently so inconclusive," states a specialist in forensics, stressing that, "it seems strange that we have a large number of bones, but it is announced that there will not be a murder investigation."

Eddie dans l’affaire McCann

Après avoir réussi dans plus de 200 enquêtes criminelles, Eddie arrive au Portugal le 30 juillet 2007 afin d’aider les autorités portugaises et britanniques sur l’enquête à la disparition de Madeleine McCann.

Eddie, le Springer Spaniel de la police britannique, est habilité à détecter des victimes mortelles (EVRD), il recherche et localise des restes humains et fluides corporels. Il est capable de signaler le passage d’un cadavre par un endroit, même si le corps n’est plus sur place. Eddie signale également la contamination par l’odeur d’un cadavre.

Eddie in the McCann case.

After being successful in more than 200 criminal investigations, Eddie arrived in Portugal on July 30th 2007 to help the Portuguese and British authroities with the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Eddie, the Springer Spaniel of the British police, is skilled at detecting murder victims. (EVRD) He looks for and locates human remains and bodily fluids. He is capable of indicating the presence of a body in a place, even if the body is no longer there. Eddie also indicates contamination by the odour of a body.

Dans l’affaire de disparition de Madeleine McCann, Eddie, utilisée en conjugaison avec Keela, à signalé l’odeur à cadavre à plusieurs endroits, tous en rapport direct avec les parents de la jeune britannique :

• le sol de la chambre de Kate et Gerry McCann ;
• derrière le sofa bleu qui se trouve à côté de la fenêtre du 5A ;
• balcon de la chambre des McCann ;

In the case of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, Eddie, used in conjunction with Keela, indicated the cadaver odour in several places, all directly connected to the parents of the young British girl.

• The floor of Kate and Gerry McCann's bedroom.
• Behind the blue sofa beside the window of 5A
• On the balcony of the McCanns' bedroom.

Selon le dossier d’enquête, avant la disparition de Madeleine, aucune mort n’a eu lieu à l’intérieur de l’appartement 5A, où sont restés installés les McCann pendant leurs vacances à Praia da Luz. Eddie a également été utilisé pour inspecter les appartements 5B, 5D et 5H de l’Océan Club, mais il n’a rien signalé.

According to the investigation file, before Madeleine's disappearance, no death had taken place inside apartment 5A, where the McCanns stayed during their holiday in Praia da Luz. Eddie was also used to inspect apartments 5B,5D and 5H at the Ocean Club, but he did not alert on anything there.

Dans la villa occupée par Kate et Gerry McCann, louée après leur départ de l’Océan Club, Eddie à signalé l’odeur de cadavre sur cuddle cat (la peluche rose appartenant à Madeleine), et sur deux vêtements de Kate. Eddie a également signalé plusieurs endroits de la voiture louée par les McCann : sur la clé et dans le coffre de la Renault Scénic.

Des examens analogues ont été effectués, sans succès, à la maison de Robert Murat, ses vêtements et voitures. Eddie n’a identifié l’odeur à cadavre que dans des endroits ou sur des objets liés directement à Kate et Gerry McCann, les parents de Madeleine.

In the rented villa which Kate and Gerry McCann occupied after their departure from the Ocean Club, Eddie indicated the cadaver odour on Cuddle Cat (the pink soft toy belonging to Madeleine), and on two items of Kate's clothing. Eddie also indicated several places in the car rented by the mcCanns: on the key and in the boot of the Renault Scenic.

Similar examinations were carried out, without success, at Robert Murat's house, on his clothes and on his cars. Eddie only found the cadaver odour in places and on objects directly linked to Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents.

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2/08/08

That doggie can sniff through concrete!

Eddie, that amazing doggie, trained by South Yorkshire police officer Martin Grime, has been helping the Jersey police with their investigations at the former children's home, "Haut de la Garenne." Here is some information from the BBC about Eddie, his training and his remarkable skills.

BBC 26/02/08

"A child's remains were discovered under several inches of concrete at a former children's home in Jersey after police bought in dogs to search the site. But how can they sniff through concrete?"

Eddie is described as, "an advanced human remains discovery dog," in the UK press and as a, "cadaver dog," in US parlance. By Philomena McCann, Eddie is referred to as, "Lassie," who would bark at anything! So, Philomena, now that Eddie has found human remains under several inches of concrete, do you really think he barks at anything or that he reacted to the scent of soiled nappies and rotting meat?

"Jersey Police said the seven-year-old dog located parts of a child's body even though they were buried under several inches of concrete. So how did he do it?"

"The specialist training techniques - which are highly confidential - were developed by Eddie's handler Martin Grime, along with the UK's National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) and America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."

"We don't discuss what the training involves, but it's a lot more than putting bits of meat on the ground for them to hunt out," says Mr Grime, a retired South Yorkshire Police officer who now works as an independent consultant."

"A standard sniffer dog is like a basic tool. An enhanced dog goes through much more training and is a lot more discriminating about smells, basically its nose is super sensitive. It's also about getting the dog to really focus on a task."

"Other dogs have to do other police duties but mine work full-time in this area, making them very sharp and highly skilled."

The dogs have been used by police forces across the world and were called in to help with the Madeleine McCann investigation."

So, there we have it! Eddie has not been trained using bits of meat nor do I imagine is he fooled by bits of meat in the course of his work. He is specially trained to sniff out human remains and he has shown his effectiveness in Jersey by sniffing out the skeletal remains of a child, hidden, it is thought, since the 1980s.

Will this help Philomena to change her mind about, "Lassie."? Perhaps it will give more credence to the way that Eddie reacted to traces of bodily fluids alleged to have been found in the vehicle Kate and Gerry McCann rented 25 days after their daughter's disappearance.

Eddie's reactions are not thought to be solid evidence in themselves and the samples analysed by FSS are reported to be, "inconclusive," but there are probably a few people changing their minds about the reliability of Eddie and his friend Keela.

Eddie and Keela prove themselves in Jersey! Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!

Pictured right; Eddie the Advanced Human Remains Recovery dog, trained by South Yorkshire Police.

I seem to recall that at the time when Eddie and Keela, those damned clever dogs, were reported to have alerted to a corpse scent and to minute traces of blood, that Philomena McCann was alleged to have made a remark about, "Lassie." Well, these dogs are definitely not actors and it seems that they can do exactly what they were trained to do; find bodies and blood!

Our Eddie seems to be the big star in Jersey, having led the police to human remains under several inches of concrete. So, does anyone believe that this clever doggie would be fooled by soiled nappies and rotting meat? I guess that is a question that the judges may be faced with if this case is taken to court with a charge, at least, of concealing a death; did Eddie alert to soiled nappies and rotting meat in the vehicle rented by Kate and Gerry McCann 25 days after Madeleine disappeared, or did he alert to the scent of human remains?

This report from SOS Madeleine McCann, 25th February, 2008.

"Chiens utilisés pour rechercher Madeleine prouvent leur efficacité"

"Eddie et Keela, les deux chiens pisteurs utilisés par la police britannique pour retrouver des traces de Madeleine McCann dans l’appartement et dans la voiture de location utilisé au Portugal par ses parents, font à nouveau parler d’eux, après avoir retrouvé des restes humains, présument d’une fillette, enterrés depuis les années 80 sous une dalle de 20 centimètres de béton dans un orphelinat à Haut de la Garenne, sur l’ile de Jersey."

The dogs used to search for Madeleine prove their effectiveness.

Eddie and Keela, the two tracker dogs used by the British police to find traces of Madeleine McCann in the apartment and in the rented car used in Portugal by her parents, are in the news again, after having found human remains, thought to be of a young girl, buried since the nineteen-eighties beneath a 20 cm thick concrete flagstone in an orphanage at Haut de la Garenne, on the island of Jersey.

"Les deux chiens ont prouvé, une fois encore, leur efficacité indiquant également plusieurs autres emplacements, à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de l’orphelinat, ou la police s’attend à retrouver d’autres cadavres.

The two dogs have, once again, proved their effectiveness, indicating several other sites inside and outside the orphanage building, where the police expect to find other bodies.

"Eddie âgé de sept ans, est un chien spécialisé dans la recherche des victimes, détectant le sang humain enterré, les os et la chair. Sa compétence est si rare qu'il est assuré pour plus de cinq millions d’euros, avec une feuille de service qui l’a déjà amené à travailler aux Etats-Unis. Keela, a été entrainée pour dépister les restes de traces microscopiques de sang humain."

Seven year-old Eddie is a dog specialised in the search for victims, detecting buried human blood, bones and flesh. His skill is so rare that he is insured for more than five million Euros, with a service record which has already led him to work in the United States. Keela is trained to sniff out microscopic traces of human blood.

"La découverte du squelette a été faite dans le cadre d’une importante enquête après que plus d’une centaine d’anciens pensionnaires ont fait état d’abus sexuels dans l’orphelinat britannique. Plusieurs témoins ont confirmé à la police que la punition corporelle, la flagellation et l'emprisonnement solitaire en cellules étaient "routine".

The discovery of a skeleton was made during an important enquiry after which more than a hundred former residents made statements about sexual abuse at the British orphanage. Several witnesses confirmed to the police that corporal punishment, flogging and solitary imprisonment in small cells was, "routine."

"Maddie n’était pas à Stratton

La police à écarté ce matin la possibilité de que la fillette aperçue à Stratton par un retraité de 66 ans puisse être Madeleine McCann. Plusieurs médias outre-manche avaient rapporté hier qu’un enfant correspondant au signalement de la petite britannique avait visité la maison d’Alan Cameron, accompagné d’un couple prétendument portugais, qui était venu pour acheter quelques meubles de jardin."

Maddie is not in Stratton

The police, this morning, ruled out the possibility that the young girl, seen in Stratton by a 66 year-old pensioner, could be Madeleine McCann. Yesterday, several media sources on the other side of the channel had reported that a child who corresponded to the description of the little British girl, had visited Alan Cameron's house, accompanied accompanied by an allegedly Portuguese couple, who had come to buy some garden furniture.

"Le retraité affirme avoir vu une petite fille malheureuse et effrayée, "un visage que j'avais vu aux infos."

Un porte-parole de la police de Dorset à confirmé que rien ne permet de suggérer qu’il s’agissait de Maddie, soulignant, à titre de curiosité, que "le retraité n’étais pas capable de faire la différence entre le portugais, l’espagnol ou l’italien." Une position renforcée par une source de la police à Leicester pour qui le témoignage est considérée comme "non crédible"

The pensioner stated that he had seen a small, unhappy and frightened girl, "a face which I had seen in the press."

A spokesman for the Dorset police confirmed that there was nothing to suggest that it was Madeleine, noting incidentally, that, "the pensioner was not able to tell the difference between Portuguese, Spanish or Italian," a position reinforced by a Leicestershire police source for whom the witness statement is considered to be, "not credible."

"C’est la première fois, depuis la disparition de Maddie de l’appartement de vacances de ses parents, qu’un témoin prétend l’avoir aperçu au Royaume-Uni."

It is the first time since the disappearance of Maddie from her parents' holiday apartment, that a witness has claimed to have seen her in the United kingdom.

"Metodo 3, l’agence de détectives espagnole au service du couple McCann, avait précédemment fait connaître plusieurs signalements de Madeleine en Europe, au Maghreb et en Amérique du sud. C’est notamment l’ancien policier Antonio Jiménez, l’homme de confiance de l’agence de détectives espagnole, qui avait révélé les témoignages de Naoual Malhi et Isabel Gonzalez au Maroc.

Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency hired by the McCann couple, had previously reported several sightings of Madeleine in Europe, in Maghreb and in South America. It is notably the former police officer Antonio Jiminez, the private investigator of the Spanish detective agency, who had revealed the witness statements of Naoual Malhi and Isabel Gonzales of Morocco.

"Responsable de l’équipe de Metodo 3 sur le terrain, Antonio J.R. est, depuis vendredi, le même jour ou le témoin de Stratton s’est fait connaître, en prison accusé de corruption, association de malfaiteurs et complicité dans le vol de 400 kilos de cocaïne."

Since Friday, the same day that the Stratton witness made himself known, Antonio J.R., the leader of the Metodo 3 team on the ground, has been in prison accused of corruption, criminal conspiracy and involvement in the theft of 400 kilos of cocaine.

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