|
The Unfortunate Find
Decmeber 1998
It's 5:00 a.m. on December 4th at the OES Office, and everyone is waiting for their assignment. At 6:30 a.m., Paul Duer comes out and says it's time to start the search. There are many different teams waiting for information, from foot searchers to OHV to Mounted to CARDA.
Paul tells everyone we are looking for a 77-year-old male with dementia. His name is Dolph and he's been missing since Wednesday, December 2nd, about 5:18 am. His car was found in front of the school entrance on Green Valley Road blocking the road. The front tire was gone. It seems that although Dolph dropped off his wife at the hospital in Roseville on Tuesday, he never returned to pick her up. He somehow, and for some unknown reason, ended up in El Dorado County on Green Valley Road. He is wearing a plaid shirt with brown pants and wing tip shoes. He has glasses and he might have a gray coat with him.
Paul then turned it over to Jim Wassner, who said during this search, "We will not miss anything. I want every spot checked and if we don't find him, I don't want to hear later that he was found ten feet off the road in plain sight. There is a bad storm coming in and we will have to call it off at that time, let's find him!"
It's now 6:50 a.m. I request to be teamed up with Carol Shapiro and her dog "Regal", a young German Sheppard. Our area of search is Indian Creek Road, south to the reservoir, across to Sundance Road, to Green Valley Road and back to Indian Creek Road on the south side of Green Valley Road. It's about two miles around. As we start out we think about the past few nights when the weather was cold and wet, hoping that Dolph is dry and safe. Our area has a lot of trees and high brush, but Regal is doing well.
It's 10:00 a.m. and we have covered about 60% of our search area. We have made it back around to Green Valley Road and are heading back to Indian Creek Road. Regal is still going strong and we are holding our own. Regal shows some interest in the creek running next to Green Valley Road heading north, but nothing strong. Then it was gone, so we kept going along the road back to Indian Creek Road. The radio breaks "A dog has picked up a trail into Kmart." One of the other dog teams going south gets what seems to be a trail heading into Kmart, but the trail is lost later. Th team requests a scent article and picks up another scent trail at the PLS, this time heading north down the creek. In the same area where Regal did, but again it's lost. At 11:00 a.m. we need to take a break, lunch time. We eat and head out to finish the final area assigned to us. It's 1:30 p.m. and some of the teams head back to command post. We follow. A quick debriefing and it's nap time, Carol in the chair and Regal and I on the floor. At 2:35 p.m., Betty comes to us with another assignment. "Wake up time guys. I need you to go back to the area you were in before. See if the dog will do anything on the northside of the creek." Two other searchers join us this time, Mike Corum and Robert Dietz from the OHV unit.
At 3:00 p.m. we arrive at the second search area and break up into two teams. Our new area is the two creeks next to the Greenstone entrance on the north side of Green Valley Road. Mike and Robert go to Indian Springs Creek and Carol, Regal and I start at Mound Springs Creek. Carol tells Regal to search the bridge and the water. Regal goes deep into the reeds and really likes the area this time. A white country style fence on private property is what is stopping us from going further now. Carol asks me if we should go in. I said, "Yes, it looks like Regal wants to. If the owner comes out, I'll explain what is going on and if we need to, I'll call for a deputy to talk with them." Carol and I make our way under the fence and Regal is starting to move ahead of us.
We search every opening to the creek that the berry bushes would allow but that didn't stop Regal. He went deep into bushes. We moved about 100 yards down the creek from the road when Regal ran about 10 feet in front of us to a large opening next to the creek about 8 feet wide. Regal let us know what he found. Carol and I walked up to the opening and saw an older male lying on his back, his shoes and socks off as if they had been wet, his glasses missing and a small amount of change lying next to him. His hands are pulled up to this chest. With a closer look it appears that the man had passed away within the last 24 to 48 hours. I pull a survival blanket out of my medical bag, and Carol covers the man. I then made the call to Command Post.
"Team 37 to Command Post," Command Post responds, "Go ahead 37." "Command Post I need a deputy to respond to my location." "What did you find team 37," this time I said, "I need a deputy to respond immediately." David 200 comes on the air "what is your location?" With all of the emotions that I am feeling all at once I said "I'm at Eagle creek…No wait, I'm at the first bridge in my search area…Wait next to Greenstone." I was so frustrated, and then I got it out. "I'm located at the first bridge you come to before you come to Greenstone." David 200 said ok and that he would find us. I felt bad. I forgot my ten codes. I walked to the fence and waved down David 200, then returned to Carol and Regal. Carol reassured me that I did ok and we told Regal that he did a good job and gave him his reward toy. Channel 40 arrived about the same time as the deputy. Carol gave a short interview.
The creek is located between two homes, one on a hill and one facing that home. One homeowner was on vacation for a week and returns to find SAR personnel and Deputies in front of their home. The other homeowner was sick and had been in bed all week, never knowing that someone was in the creek until seeing us.
A perimeter was set up and the news crew and al others were asked to keep back to the fence line. With more deputies arriving it was time for us to return to Command Post and debrief. On the way back reality started to set in, I made my first find. Sadly, the subject was not alive. The word from the deputy later was that the man we found was Dolph, the missing subject.
To end this long story, I want to say that I was happy to see so many searchers show up. On every road you could see orange. And to Search Management for teaming foot and dog teams together. All of the dog teams did a great job. I also want to thank Carol for letting me work with her and her outstanding dog, Regal.
Submitted by David McCracken
SAR #52
|