Helping in the search

Recently Pat Lamson and her dog Tucker spent four days in the Happy Valley-Goose Bay area to offer their services.

Tucker, a 10-year-old Labrador Retriever mix, is a human remains detection dog, and Ms. Lamson is his handler.

She said Tucker’s work is based on the detection of odors and work starts from the last known point of an individual.

Ms. Lamson said human beings give off gases, skin oils, hair and other odors, that rise to the surface and can sit on the surface of the water or convert into a gas.

“Our job is to get him to an area where he can detect a scent and then it’s his job to tell us if he has found anything,” she said.

Tucker’s indication of an odor detected is in the form of a bark.

Ms. Lamson started this form of work in 2000 and Tucker has been with her every since.

She said over the course of nine years he has been able develop his training and experience.

She said if the handler can get the dog in the right position to detect an order, it can be quite a successful method of search.

Ms Lamson said the success rate with this type of work is hard to determine.

The searchers work started from the water wells, roughly 10 kilometres west of the Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Churchill highway branch. From there it was a two-hour boat ride to the falls, and work commenced back and forth the river.

The young men were not recovered and Ms Lamson said the details and findings of the search are not being released to the public. They will be provided to the families of the missing young men and the police.

She did say the weather conditions cooperated and that there were some challenges faced.

Being from Michigan, United States, Ms. Lamson has done her fair share of work involving water, but this area is the most the duo has ever covered.

She said larger areas of water take more time to clear.

“Our job is to get him to an area where he can detect a scent and then it’s his job to tell us if he has found anything.” - Pat Lamson

In working with the river she said the currents and wind have also presented a challenge.

“We’ve worked with some white water so the currents are something we’ve work with and trained for, but they always presents a challenge,” she said.

Ms. Lamson said it can be a challenge because the currents on the surface and underneath the water can run in two separate directions.

She said the terrain and wind can have a current moving in one direction on the surface, while the falls or different channels of water may be moving the current in a different direction underneath.

“That’s where experience as a handler, you’ve got to learn how to work through those things and put the dog at the best advantage point to work in those conditions,” she said. “So yeah it’s challenging.”

Randy Rose, the father of Randy Scott Rose – who was one of the original missing young men, escorted her up river. Mr. Rose had located and retrieved his son’s remains in late June, but still keeps up the search for the other two missing boys.

Mr. Rose said he availed of Ms. Lamson’s services after talking with Gene Ralston of the Stephan Hopkins Memorial Foundation, who’s team spent a week conducting a side-scan sonar search on the river in early June.

He said in talking with Mr. Ralston he was told Ms. Lamson and Tucker were the best in their field, and he wanted to give it a shot.

Mr. Rose said the cost of bringing her and Tucker in is being covered by the Triple R fund – Randy, Roy, and Ryan – previously called the Water Recovery Fund.

Mr. Rose said he appreciates their efforts and also wanted to thank the local Search and Rescue unit who had a boat and three men in the area, while the group was on the river.