Wednesday, August 26th 2009 we responded to Knight’s Eddy, NY to help locate drowning victim HIN HON SIU, age 36, of Jamaica, New York. He had drowned on Sunday, August 23rd. He had been rafting with three friends near the Staircase Rapids when his raft overturned and he did not resurface. Rain has swollen the river on the 23rd making the rapids more dangerous than usual and hampering rescue efforts for the next two days. U.S. Parks Department Officers called me late Tuesday morning and we made arrangements for the next day.
Wednesday was the first day that the river was calm enough to search effectively with divers. The dogs were tasked to search just below the point last seen. If they could pinpoint an area, they could reduce the amount of river bottom that divers needed to search. Three teams from Eagle Valley were deployed: Findling and Stryder, Pardini and Suki, Warren and Quax. A fourth team was deployed from Ramapo Search and Rescue Dogs. All four teams completed their assignments and reported the dogs were alerting in a single area just below the point last seen (PLS). Divers were sent to search that area.
Meanwhile, I put together a second round of assignments. The trickiest part of searching the river is getting the dogs and boats to the places that need to be searched. I enlisted the help of a Pennsylvania Environmental Conservation Officer whose name I can’t remember who has lived his entire life in the area and knew every road, trail and boat landing.
Local Guide and EVDOGS Handler Liz Dalton
Amir Findling came prepared with a complete set of maps for the river from the point where the boat capsized down to Port Jervis. We both thought it likely that the body had already resurfaced and traveled beyond where the main search effort was focused. After sinking to the bottom for a period of time, drowning victims resurface. When they resurface depends upon several factors including the water temperature. The warmer the water, the sooner the victim surfaces. We were looking at a three day interval in August. If the body hadn’t become stuck, wedged in between rocks or debris, it very likely had already surfaced.
We planned to search at least 6 miles from the point last seen. This was both our experience with fast moving water, and was also indicated in Bob Koester’s Lost Person Behavior. 95% of drowning victims on rivers were located within 8 miles of the pls. If I had had more dogs, I would have extended the search area out the full 8 miles. We had three other dogs teams that hadn’t been deployed yet, me and Ripley, Katie Danzig and Scout, and Dick Szczesh and K-9 Buddy from Amigo Search and Rescue Dogs. The three teams that had been out in the morning were also ready for a second assignment. The plan was to search high probability areas–places where a floating body might get stuck on shore or in strainers along the river bank.
Amir came prepared with arial photos of the river
Just as we were getting ready to deploy the second round, a kayaking found him washed up on shore. He was found where we planned to deploy one of our teams–5.6 mile from the PLS, near an access point my guide had identified. I was glad the victim had been found. Diving is always dangerous. Having recently completed a course in lost person behavior, I was also gratified that we’d come up with a good plan.
Delaware River from PLS to where subject was found
What about the dogs who alerted earlier near the point last seen? Divers recovered a shoe positively identified as belonging to the victim exactly where the Ramapo dog indicated. Most likely the dogs were alerting on the shoe and possibly other items belonging to the subject. It is also likely they were alerting on the residual scent left by victim who had been in that spot for at least a day, probably two. Its likely he was under the water Monday and most of Tuesday. Once he had surfaced the journey downstream would not have taken long. His final location was out in the open, clearly visible to any river traffic. I had been on the shore since early that morning. There was no recreational traffic early in the morning. The first rafters started passing our location at Knights Eddy just an hour or so before he was located. The victim was probably seen by the very first kyacker that went past him that day.
A few months ago Roger Fox, the chairman of The New York State Federation of Search and Rescue Teams the was contacted by Field and Stream. The magazine was looking for someone to represent K-9 search and rescue. The someone had to be male and between 25 and 40 who looked like their image of wilderness search and rescue. Kyle was reluctant so team member, Jana Martin, took matters into her own hands, and submitted a few pics. And that was that.
- February 2009 issue Kyle, Maya and Quax
Not only the cover but Quax, (father of Raven and Abby) is on the table of contents and Eagle Valley Search Dogs gets a mention on page 8 along with a great picture of Kyle playing ball with Quax and Maya.
- Quax on the Table of Contents page
Karen Major from Lower Adirondack SAR called me a little after 8AM the day after Christmas. The DEC requested cadaver canines for a search near Round Lake. By the time we were called the situation was clearly a recovery mission. Brad Hurst, 42 years old, had been missing since the 19th. Background on the subject indicated a high probability that he might have attempted suicide or might have been impaired when he left his home. On Christmas Eve, late in the afternoon, search teams located the remainder of a fresh six-pack of beer in a wooded area not too far from his residence. No searching was done on Christmas and the next day the search resumed in earnest focusing on the area where the beer was located.
Karen and I contacted the nearest NYSFEDSAR K-9s and three were available. ‘Nearest’ is a relative term in K-9 SAR: I packed up and headed out with Sarah Sherburne and K-9 Ripley, and Ann McBride and K-9 Chisel responded from her home in the Keene Valley. Both of us were more than two hours away. Kyle Warren and K-9 Quax, who were closest, arrived first. They were already out in the field when I arrived at the staging area.
K9-Chisel
Lt. Solon, from the DEC, greeted me and said that he hoped my arrival would bring the same good luck as it had last time: on that search, they found the subject just a half an hour after Eagle Valley Search Dogs pulled into the parking lot.
When it comes to working with K-9s, Lt. Solon is one of the best DEC officers. He understands the resource’s strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately he can’t always control everything going on in the field. Since Hurst was reported missing we’d had over a foot of snow. The beer had been completely covered by snow — unearthing it was part skill and part luck. We expected the subject to be buried as well and therefore very difficult to find by sight. The assignment he gave Kyle and Quax therefore made a lot of sense: Just to the northwest of where the beer cans were found, there was a decent sized drainage. Drainages tend to be scent traps. We also had a bit of a breeze (about 2MPH) from the SE. Kyle and Quax were to work that drainage, and follow up on any leads.
While I was getting my assignment (another drainage a little farther away from those beer cans), Kyle called. He told me that Quax was showing interest in an area that he wanted to cover in detail, but that there were grid searchers in the area. That meant two things. first, Kyle couldn’t tell for sure if Quax’s alerts were caused by the presence of our subject, or by the presence of the grid searchers. Second, he couldn’t get in there to detail the area, because a grid team was in the way. This is what he had to say about it:
We have faced this situation before — the presence of the grid searchers decreasing the value of the K-9s and their alerts. We decided that if Brad Hurst wasn’t located that day, we would get back out there at first light — before any other searchers were out, and check that area again. I went out to start my assignment and was about half way done with it when we got the call: Hurst had been located.
The grid team in Kyle’s way had been in the area of the subject and missed him. Not their fault–a snow burial is very difficult. Who found him? Another ranger, who practiced good detective work and searched systematically. He walked a bearing between the subject’s house and the beer cans, making sure to disturb every little mound he saw in his lane. In one mound he found the subject, buried in snow.
As I signed out and headed home, Gretchen from LASAR commented that I was still bringing good luck. Planning for the next day had started and could now be called off. A good thing, given the predicted ice storm.
Recovery efforts like this are a mixed bag. On the one hand, there is the excitement of going out with our dogs to do the work we have trained to do. But we never forget what is at stake. They say finding the deceased helps to “bring closure.” I don’t think so. Successful recovery efforts allow the grieving process to move forward, and that is good. But they also bring an end to hope. For that, I am always sorry.
What are some of the lessons learned from this? Comments from our SAR buddies appreciated.
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