Cadaver Dog Alert Convictions without a body

[Alfred R Jones]

When have I said they are never wrong?

When have they ever been wrong in your view then?

[Wonderfulspam]

When have they ever been wrong in your view then?

1 case so far, isn't it, vs, how many?

[Alfred R Jones]

1 case so far, isn't it, vs, how many?

Which case are you referring to?

[Wonderfulspam]

Which case are you referring to?

Jesus.

[ferryman]

On the Reliability of Cadaver dogs

Dogs trained to detect the smell of human cadaverine are now routinely used throughout the world.  We examine some of the leading cases.

From the outset it is important to note that a dog cannot give “evidence“ in a criminal trial. In most jurisdictions evidence has to be subject to examination and cross examination by learned counsel, and this is clearly impossible.  On many occasions the alert by the dog will result in the discovery of remains and it will be that which becomes the primary evidence. The fact that the dog indicated where to look becomes a side issue, of no particular legal importance.

Here we look at some occasions when the dog alerts, but no significant physical evidence can be found at the time.   The best that can be achieved in these circumstances is that the handler of the animal gives evidence of the dog’s reactions, often with video confirmation, and can then be cross examined on his interpretation of the animal’s behaviour.

(I shall refer to the cases by the name of the deceased or missing person, rather than by the Trial reference, because of the ways in which these differ across jurisdictions)

1 The case with a legal significance may not yet have been fully appreciated, is that of Jeanette Zapata. in Dane Country, USA.   In 1976 she served her husband Eugene Zapata with divorce papers.  She went missing shortly afterwards.  29 years later dogs alerted in the basement of the family home, and in several other places where the family had lived over the intervening time.   At trial his lawyer persuaded the judge that the dog’s finding could not be admitted, since the places in which they had alerted indicated that he had carried the body round to everywhere he had lived, and it was suggested that this was preposterous.   The jury failed to reach a verdict.    Before his retrial however, he confessed, and crucially confirmed that he had in fact transported the body round before disposing of it.    The dogs had been absolutely accurate.   No body has been found. 

2 The recent case of  Bianca Jones, a 2 year old girl murdered by her father D’Andre Lane in Detroit USA, with the added details of an alleged abduction, was an occasion when Mr Martin Grime, a British retired police officer, was working for the FBI.  His evidence of the alerts by his dog was admitted to show that Bianca was dead whilst in the back of the car, and not taken by armed men as was being alleged. Lane was convicted, though no body has been found.

3 The trial of Adrian Prout, in 2010, for the murder of Kate Prout, his wife, in the UK, was notable again for a verdict of guilty, despite no body having been found. Dogs had indicted the presence of a body in the house, but nothing had been found.  Some time after his conviction Prout confessed, and indicted the location of the body, confirming that the dogs had been absolutely accurate in their findings.

4 In the murder of Susan Pilley in Edinburgh, by her colleague David Gilroy, in 2010, the court heard that the dogs had alerted in the office basement garage and in two areas of the boot of Gilroy’s car, even though this had been cleaned recently with fluid or air freshener.  The defence failed to convince the jury that the absence of physical evidence entitled his client to acquittal.  He was convicted.   No body has been found.

5 Cori Baker from Oklahoma was murdered by her sister’s boyfriend Marquis Bulloch, in 2007. He changed his story several times whilst being investigated, and the dogs, partly funded by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, were brought into search a large area after a skull had been found.  They alerted in several places.  No other physical evidence was discovered.  He was convicted

6 The case of  Guadeloupe Montano from Kane County, USA, is now complete. It is alleged that she was murdered by her husband Aurelio Montano in 1990.  It may be the first time that the dog’s alerts have been used as evidence in that State.  They indicate that the body lay in one position and was then moved to another. The trial took place in October 2013.   No body has been found.   He was convicted

7 The case of Amir Jennings, allegedly killed by her mother Zinah Jennings in 2011, involves a mother who reported her son missing.   Dogs searched the house and the car, and human blood was then found. No body has been found. Zinah Jennings was convicted on a charge of unlawful conduct toward a child, and sentenced to 10 years

8 The trial of Albert Fine, the partner of Catherine Hoholski, from Lorain USA, is  pending.  In this case the body was found within 60 seconds of the dog being deployed, and it was then used to identify other locations relevant to the prosecution case.  He faces the death penalty if convicted.

9 The alleged abduction of Isabel Mercedes Celis has been called into question by the findings of two dogs, one a cadaver dog, in the family home.  The findings were said to be “significant”,  the house is being treated as a crime scene and the matter is still under investigation.   No body has been found.

10 The disappearance of 6 year old Etan Patz in New York 33 years ago, has already shown the almost unbelievable feats of which cadaver dogs are capable. In this case pads of absorbent material were left for a time on the concrete floor of the basement and then presented to the dogs for testing.  As a result the concrete floor  was then ripped up. The handler Englebert said.  "We as human beings never lose our scent. If [a body] had been there for a while, that scent would still be there," she said, indicating that even if investigators do not find remains in the basement, it is possible human remains may have once been there before being moved.”  The trial of Pedro Hernandez, who has admitted kidnapping and murder, is pending.  No body has been found.

11 The parents of Lisa Irwin, from Kansas City, also allege that she must have been abducted in the middle of the night.  The mother told Police she did not search, “because she was afraid of what she might find”.    Disturbed earth was found behind the house, and the dog alerted in the parent’s bedroom.  As a result a full search warrant was granted, and the police say they want to talk to the parents Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, one to one.

12 The cold case of 14 year old Melanie Melanson, from Massachusetts USA, who disappeared 20 years ago, has been given fresh impetus through the findings of a cadaver dog which alerted in an area targeted following a tip off to Police.

13 Another mother, Shakara Dickens, of Memphis USA, reported in 2010 that she had given up her daughter Lauryn Dickens for adoption, but the various stories turned out to be false. A dog identified cadaver odour in the house and in the boot of the car, and despite defence arguments, she was found guilty of Murder.  No body has been found.

14 The infamous case of Caylee Anthony, whose mother Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her in Orlando USA, in 2011, was also notable in that the evidence of the cadaver dog handler was admitted, even though the body was found later at a different location.  The dog alerted in the boot of the car, and it was alleged that the mother had then dumped the body.  The evidence was highly detailed, with full description of the system of ‘final trained alert’ by the dog showing an exact position, distinguished from a more general interest.   In the event  Anthony was not found guilty of the murder, but was convicted of several lesser offences.  There are moves to have the case reopened at Federal level.

15 In the UK, the case of Kirsi Gifford-Hull, in Winchester in 2005, is of interest since although the body was discovered by a man walking a dog, and the offender Mike Gifford-Hull had made a public appeal at a press conference for his wife to return, cadaver dogs had already alerted some weeks earlier in the house and in his car during the initial search for a “missing person”.   After the trial he told officers that when he saw the dogs alerting in the car he had contemplated making a full admission.  He was convicted.    After the trial  Judge Guy Boney QC ”. . .added that the police inquiry was so superior it could be matched with that of any other police force in the world.”

http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t9051p860-why-operation-grange-can-only-be-a-whitewash

Didn't really need to go further than this:

Dogs trained to detect the smell of human cadaverine are now routinely used throughout the world.

Although dogs (trained using the aid of pseudo-scents) will react to cadaverine, that's not very helpful, since cadaverine is a bi-product of living humans, present in semen and urine.

What a poorly researched article!

[Alfred R Jones]

I've got another good example of a conviction without a body.  The case of Thomas Quick, the Swedish serial killer who never was.  Zampo the cadaver dog alerted no less than 45 times in places that Quick claimed to have brought his victims' bodies.  The only slight problem was...he never actually committed any of the murders.  Ooops.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/20/thomas-quick-bergwall-sweden-murder

[Brietta]

Two Scottish cases in which cadaver dogs were used without success...

The disappearance of Renee MacRae and her son Andrew (3) in 1976.  No sign of them has ever been found and nobody has faced prosecution for her murder despite compelling evidence of involvement. Read more...

The disappearance of Arlene Fraser in 1998 which saw her estranged husband Nat Fraser twice convicted of murder in 2003 and 2012.  Her remains have never been found.

**clip

"[1] Detective Sergeant John Cathcart coordinated the search and after eight months he had a breakthrough.
While excavating Dalmagarry quarry he was hit by a stench after removing a layer of topsoil.
Convinced it was a sign of corpses, he continued digging, but was told by a superior officer to stop as the bulldozer they were using had to go back to the contractors due to short funds.[5]"  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_MacRae

Many years later when the area was again searched nothing was found; there had been much earth movement in the intervening period. 
Absolutely reprehensible that the DS ... a man who would certainly have recognised the smell of such decomposition ... was overruled due to a "shortage of funds". 
Apart from SAR dogs being used initially, it was the human nose which was disregarded in this case.

Arlene Fraser: Her husband was convicted on the evidence and witness statements, I have never seen anywhere that a cadaver dog alerted anywhere;  either in her home, the farm which had spcialist equipment ... (As Mr Dick told police he had no visitors on April 27, 1998 - the day before Mrs Fraser's disappearance - Fraser was telling officers he had been to see him.
Police also searched Mr Dick's farm in December 1998, interested in equipment he had for "steam cooking" and mixing pig food. http://news.stv.tv/north/305445-court-hears-alibi-of-man-nat-fraser-says-may-have-murdered-his-wife/) or any vehicle - particularly the one which could not be accounted for.

Suzanne Pilley: The conviction was obtained on the basis of evidence presented to the court the VRD alert in the work garage being treated as probable cause ... the probable clincher for the jury as far as that was concerned was probably the CCTV coverage of Suzanne entering the building but not exiting.
Therefore backing up the indication of the VRD with solid evidential CCTV footage.

[faithlilly]

Nobody has ever been prosecuted for the murder of Renee MacRae although her lover was charged in 1990 with dishonesty and forgery involving sums totalling £240,000.

Cadaver dogs failed to discover any trace of the victims.

Apologies John my mistake. I was thinking Muriel McKay.

[Carana]

I'm not quite sure what the purpose is:

- Is it to show that various people have been convicted in certain jurisdictions due to dog alerts without a body?

- That victims were eventually found where the dogs had alerted?

The examples don't seem to all be of the same nature. Unfortunately, Bennett doesn't provide a bibliography.

[Alfred R Jones]

I'm not quite sure what the purpose is:

- Is it to show that various people have been convicted in certain jurisdictions due to dog alerts without a body?

- That victims were eventually found where the dogs had alerted?

The examples don't seem to all be of the same nature. Unfortunately, Bennett doesn't provide a bibliography.

It's to suggest that dogs are always right and never, ever wrong (apart from when they are, but we'll gloss over those or make excuses for them).

[Brietta]

I've got another good example of a conviction without a body.  The case of Thomas Quick, the Swedish serial killer who never was.  Zampo the cadaver dog alerted no less than 45 times in places that Quick claimed to have brought his victims' bodies.  The only slight problem was...he never actually committed any of the murders.  Ooops.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/20/thomas-quick-bergwall-sweden-murder

Good old clever Hans ... I think he probably makes a lot more appearances than we give him credit for.

That is one thing, though ... another is just downright blatant dishonesty for whatever reason, which must be taken into account.  Sandra Marie Anderson actually 'planted' false forensic evidence ... she could really have gone to town if there had been reliance only on her dog's alert.

**Clip
The indictment said Mrs. Anderson, director of the Great Lakes Search and Rescue Team of Michigan K-9 Unit, planted human remains and fiber evidence during searches with her dog, Eagle, at the Huron National Forest search in northern Michigan on April 17 and 18, 2002, as well as human remains during a search in the Proud Lake Recreation Center, also in northern Michigan, on Jan. 4, 2002.

The human remains, according to the indictment, included bones, which she “pretended to discover as genuine potential evidence.”

Authorities said some of the evidence uncovered by Mrs. Anderson led to convictions in several cases, including at least one homicide, although they declined to elaborate.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/aug/20/20030820-104817-8300r/#ixzz3O91lgDlG

[Carana]

In how many cases were the dog alerts incidental or anecdotal?

[faithlilly]

Good old clever Hans ... I think he probably makes a lot more appearances than we give him credit for.

That is one thing, though ... another is just downright blatant dishonesty for whatever reason, which must be taken into account.  Sandra Marie Anderson actually 'planted' false forensic evidence ... she could really have gone to town if there had been reliance only on her dog's alert.

**Clip
The indictment said Mrs. Anderson, director of the Great Lakes Search and Rescue Team of Michigan K-9 Unit, planted human remains and fiber evidence during searches with her dog, Eagle, at the Huron National Forest search in northern Michigan on April 17 and 18, 2002, as well as human remains during a search in the Proud Lake Recreation Center, also in northern Michigan, on Jan. 4, 2002.

The human remains, according to the indictment, included bones, which she “pretended to discover as genuine potential evidence.”

Authorities said some of the evidence uncovered by Mrs. Anderson led to convictions in several cases, including at least one homicide, although they declined to elaborate.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/aug/20/20030820-104817-8300r/#ixzz3O91lgDlG

Are you accusing Martin Grime of planting evidence because if not I fail to see how the article above is relevant ?

[lordpookles]

Interesting handbook on cadaver dogs:

https://sardog.org/index.php/downloads/search-and-rescue-books/1-cadaver-dog-handbook-forensic-training-and-tactics-2000-ww1/file

This book is £60 on Amazon, but is available free as a PDF here... interesting reading.

[Mr Gray]

Interesting handbook on cadaver dogs:

https://sardog.org/index.php/downloads/search-and-rescue-books/1-cadaver-dog-handbook-forensic-training-and-tactics-2000-ww1/file

This book is £60 on Amazon, but is available free as a PDF here... interesting reading.

Dogs are used world wide to find evidence...eddie found none