The dog that could sniff out Julie

4 December 2004
Evening Herald
Jayne Freer

Police dogs trained in sniffing out human remains were today searching the site of a new housing development in the hunt for missing mum Julie Crocker.

The two specialist search dogs and their handlers have been drafted in from South Yorkshire Police to carry out an overall search of the part-constructed site at Carew Gardens in Honicknowle.

Plymouth police officers leading the hunt today insisted the search was to 'rule out' the site as a possible area for concealment as opposed to acting on information received.

Construction work began on the Hedgerows development in late September - around the same time Julie disappeared from her home in nearby Chard Barton.

Barratt Homes is building 29 three-bedroom homes on the site.

Police search co-ordinator, Inspector Steve Bickley, said the police dog search formed 'just one of a number of searches' close to Julie's home.

He said: "We are not reacting to specific information we are searching to make sure she is not there, as opposed to searching because we think she is."

Continue Reading... Labels: Alicia Eborne, Boscastle floods, Charlotte Pinkney, Eddie, Frankie, John Ellis, Julie Crocker, Keela, Martin Grime, South Yorkshire Police

Dogs led hunt for victims of the floods

26 August 2004
Cornish Guardian

An air exclusion zone was set up over Boscastle to ensure that search and rescue dogs would not be distracted as they scoured the area for victims of the floods.

Dogs from Wales and a pair of dogs from South Yorkshire, together with their handlers, were brought in last Wednesday.

Border collie Frankie and springer spaniel Eddie work with PCs John Ellis and Martin Grime as part of the Victim Search team.

The dogs are the only two in Britain capable of locating human blood and body fluids in small quantities. They are trained to seek buried remains and target disturbed areas of broken branches, rubble or turned over earth.

The dogs worked their way through the devastation at Boscastle as emergency and rescue services made sure that no one had been lost in the flash floods.

The team is part of the specialist search unit operated by the National Crime and Operations Faculty and receives at least one request a week from forces at home and abroad.

During the last 12 months the dogs and their handlers have assisted 17 forces at a charge of £950 a day.

In 2001 the dogs helped recover the body of Shane Collier in the Yorkshire Dales, enabling Barnsley officers to gain a murder conviction, while at the end of last year the FBI sought their help in a ten-year-old murder inquiry in the United States.

Closer to home the dogs have worked in Northern Ireland, while in North Devon they helped to search for the missing Ilfracombe teenager Charlotte Pinkney.

Handler John Ellis said: "South Yorkshire Police is very fortunate to have such a sought-after and valuable resource and, of course, to our officers it's free of charge.

"The team is fast gaining a high level of expertise and operational credibility in the field of crime scene and victim search."

When not working, Frankie and Eddie are family dogs.

Continue Reading... Labels: Boscastle floods, Charlotte Pinkney, Eddie, Frankie, John Ellis, Martin Grime, Shane Collier, South Yorkshire Police

Two of Yorkshire's top sleuths drafted in to join search

19 August 2004
Yorkshire Post
Lyn Barton
Two expert sniffer dogs from South Yorkshire have been helping the recovery effort at flood-devastated Boscastle in Cornwall.

Eddie and Frankie - canine sleuths who have already played a major part in many high-profile murder probes - were drafted in to help make sure there are no bodies trapped under the rubble.

Yesterday their handlers, South Yorkshire Police officers PC Martin Grime and PC John Ellis, told the Yorkshire Post how the dogs had conducted a sweep search through the village.

As he gazed around Boscastle, PC Grime said: "The scene is one of complete devastation. There are at least 20 cars in the channel and 16 under a sandbank.

"We were called in by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and we got to Boscastle around midnight on Tuesday and started searching first thing the following morning.

"We searched the cars washed down into the harbour and fortunately we did not find anything, which is good on this occasion. But the weather down there has been absolutely atrocious."

Chief Supt Dave Ellis, in charge of the Devon and Cornwall Police operation in Boscastle, said the sniffer dogs had been sent in as a precaution.

"There was no reason to feel we have got anybody that is missing."

He added that the emergency services were trying to "move forward" the issue of local people being able to return to their homes.

"But we have got to do it with safety in mind," he said.

The two dogs, who cost £1,000 a day to hire from the South Yorkshire police force, were used earlier this year in the hunt for missing north Devon teenager Charlotte Pinkney and Bradford-born student Shafilea Ahmed, 17, who went missing from her home in Warrington last September.

Their expert services were also called on by the FBI, but the two dogs were too busy to respond.

Devon and Cornwall Police spokeswoman PC Sharon Newman said an air-exclusion zone was maintained over Boscastle because the noise distracted the dogs in their work.

Continue Reading... Labels: Boscastle floods, Charlotte Pinkney, Eddie, Frankie, John Ellis, Martin Grime, Shafilea Ahmed, South Yorkshire Police