The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘It’s like getting paid to go hunting every day’
It was a mother’s worst nightmare. A New Fairfield woman put her baby down for a nap one day last summer, and when she turned around, her older child was nowhere to be found.
A frantic search ensued as neighbors and police looked for the 4-year-old boy whose home was located near a large body of water.
Texas, a 4-year-old bloodhound, and his handler, State Trooper Edward Anuszewski, joined the effort.
“We try to get something the person last touched,” Anuszewski said.
Texas was given the scent of the boy, but kept leading his partner toward the home.
They first went to the boy’s bedroom, but Anuszewski said Texas headed downstairs to the family’s couch. As they moved closer, the trooper spotted the boy — sleeping nestled between the cushions of the big couch.
“That was probably the most fun save we ever had,” Anuszewski said.
As part of the State Police K-9 Unit, Texas and Anuszewski are stationed at Troop A in Southbury. The State Police have one other bloodhound used for tracking stationed at Troop E in Montville. Four more bloodhound teams will soon enter the class taught by the State Police K-9 Training Unit, which trains teams from around the world in a variety of specialties.
The state police have 62 K-9s, including the two bloodhounds used for tracking. Shepherds are used on patrol and perform a variety of tasks, including tracking criminals. There are also specialty K-9s who sniff narcotics, bombs, accelerants used in arson fires and electronic storage devices.
“The shepherds are patrol dogs who do a little bit of everything,” said Sgt. Anthony Guiliano, who heads the state police K-9 units. “The shepherds are trained to track, but usually can only follow a per-
son’s scent for five or six hours, compared to a bloodhound who will follow a scent for much longer.”
The specialty dogs, which are primarily Labradors, are trained to detect certain smells. The Training Unit is graduating seven K-9 teams trained in electronic storage detection — a discipline created by the unit in 2012 with the help of Jack Hubble, a retired chemist at the state crime lab.
These types of K-9s are trained to detect a chemical used in every piece of computer storage — whether it’s an SD card, a thumb drive or any other electronic storage device, Guiliano said. These K-9s help investigators find hidden electronic storage devices that may contain child pornography, he said.
In the 1980s, the Connecticut State Police also pioneered the training and use of accelerant-detection K-9s to assist in arson investigations.
Anuszewski, a 29-year veteran with the state police, was a shepherd handler in the 1990s. Texas was donated by a family when it became apparent he was going to weight upwards of 90 pounds.
Texas was originally paired with a different trooper, but Anuszewski said he was always fascinated with the tracking aspect, so he became certified with Texas in 2016.
“I’m the driver,” said Anuszewski, who spends a good deal of time wiping up his partner’s saliva. His uniform is covered with it. With a shake of his head, Texas can throw a wad of spit up to nine feet.
The pair has been involved in 30 successful tracks, including the search-and-recovery mission last month for a man who committed suicide in a wooded area of Granby.
“We look for people, whether it’s good guys or bad guys running away,” Anuszweski said. “He likes people, he just wants to find the person.”
His large ears that brush the ground, excessive skin folds that fall forward when his head is down and moisture from his nasal cavity all make him an exceptional tracker when he’s hit on a scent.
But his skills were nearly his undoing in December 2017, when he stayed on the scent of a missing Danbury man after Anuszewski fell and dropped his leash.
The pair had been called to find the man who was autistic and had taken off after an argument with his mother. The track led the two to rocky terrain on a ridge. Anuszewski slipped and accidentally let go of the leash as he was trying to break his fall.
“By the time I scrambled up the ridge, he was over and gone,” Anuszewski said. “The problem is with the hounds, once you get him fixated, they are locked in and not listening.”
Dozens of K-9 teams and volunteers from Connecticut and New York searched for Texas for three days before he was found in a neighborhood five miles away with his leash caught on a fence in a yard.
“The family was on vacation, so they didn’t know he was out there,” Anuszewski said. Texas isn’t much of a howler like other bloodhounds so he wasn’t making a racket despite his predicament.
But a federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security who thought he heard some barks while patrolling the area on ATV looking for the bloodhound likely saved Texas’ life as an ice storm was about to move in, Anuszewski said.
“That was the three worst days of my career,” Anuszewski said. “It was like losing your child and your partner.”
Texas now wears a hunting garment with a beacon when on a track, an addition that has been picked up by other law enforcement agencies.
“I wish I did this like 10 years ago,” Anuszewski said of his partner. “It’s like getting paid to go hunting every day. There’s always a lot of pieces to put together in a case. He’s not the end all, but he’s a big help. I’m just the driver.”