Search Dogs Trailed Missing Girl's Scent

The body of 14 yr. old Amber Dubois was found recently near Pala Indian Reservation in North San Diego county. Her remains were skeletonized and police are still conducting the investigation around the area where she was found.

Apart from the tragic loss of an innocent child is the interesting story of how Scent Dogs from Virginia and Maine actually followed her scent to that area. Last August donations made to the family paid for "VK9 Scent Specific Search and Recovery Unit" a Virginia based scent dog group to travel to Escondido California to search for Amber.

Both dogs were able to be driven up the freeway and get out every so often to see if the could pick up her scent along the way. Both dogs are let out one at a time to see if the dog recognizes the scent. In this case, both dogs traced Amber's scent from near her school up the highway to the Pala Reservation. Each dog is let out to see if they can pick up the scent and if one does then the other is let out of the vehicle to see if they too can pick up the scent. In this case both dogs lost her scent near the reservation indicating that she was or had been there in that area.

The head of the scent dog unit notified the Escondido police that the dogs had tracked her scent to the reservation and apparently at least one investigation was done but nothing further beyond that.

Amber's grandmother Mrs. Welch is angry at the police as she thinks it was a possibility that her granddaughter might've been alive at the time the dogs tracked her scent to Pala. She thinks a more thorough investigation should have been conducted after the police were notified that Amber's scent hadn't picked up beyond that point.

Tragic yes. But we also must consider just how wonderfully skilled these dog scent units are. These dogs are highly trained and in this case were right on when it came to pinpointing the area where the remains were found. These weren't police dogs so law enforcement tends not to take them as seriously as the general public does.

Hopefully there won't be much need for their services but when called on again, both scent dogs and their human trainers are always ready to use their skills to help find missing people.

Details of the scent dogs search for 14 yr old Amber Dubois at SignonSanDiego.