State police K-9 unit hunts for evidence.
HARTFORD — For the past week, members of the state police search-andrescue K-9 unit have been sifting through piles of trash in hopes of finding evidence linked to the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.
“The whole team is dedicated to bringing this case to an end,” said Anthony Guiliano, the unit’s training supervisor.
The K-9s and their handlers have been at the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority plant on Maxim Road in Hartford, searching for the scent of blood and bodily fluids connected to Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance.
Dulos was last seen on May 24 and her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution.
The charges stem from video showing them throwing garbage bags into more than 30 trash receptacles in a four-mile stretch in Hartford the night Jennifer Dulos disappeared, police said. Some of the bags contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood, police said.
Since most of the bags were already picked up and taken to the Maxim Road plant, Guiliano’s team was called in last Monday.
Guiliano would not discuss the details of the case, but said the K-9s are patrol dogs specially trained to sniff biological materials such as blood and bodily fluids. Unlike bloodhounds, which will track a specific person’s scent, the searchand-rescue dogs sniff for any biological fluids in an area, including rivers and lakes where a decomposing body will emit gases that rise to the surface of the water.
“They aren’t looking for anyone in particular,” Guiliano said. “They are looking for any human odor, alive or deceased.”
The dogs, which are usually German shepherds, are initially trained as patrol K-9s and then chosen with their handler to undergo the six-week searchand-rescue training after they have spent some time on the road.
The state police have 12 teams of these K-9s and handlers who will go out either in pairs or in larger numbers depending on the size of the area that needs to be be searched, Guiliano said.
The dogs also undergo a weeklong training in finding decomposing bodies in water, he said. They are typically used in situations such as 9/11 when a disaster has occurred that may have trapped humans in debris. The K-9s are also used during searches of live humans after a bloodhound has failed to pick up the person’s scent.
“It’s a progression,” Guiliano said. “The patrol dogs are always first to call, they are usually the closest and track pretty well. The bloodhounds are the best trackers for a specific person, but if a bloodhound fails, we send in the searchand-rescue teams.”
The number of teams deployed depends on the time of year and the area that needs to be searched, he said.
Precautions are taken for the K-9 teams who are searching rough terrain such as the Hartford garbage facility, he said.
The teams involved in the search for Jennifer Dulos range in experience from two to three years to seven to 10 years on the job, he said.
After their initial sixweek specialty training, the K-9s and their handlers are required to attend three days of training every four months. The teams are required to be re-certified in search- andrescue every year.