Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
One also has to be prepared for what a body might look like. Andy has a slide show that
provides a whirlwind tour: There's rigor mortis, putrefaction, skin slippage, and liquefaction.
Jay damage. Crow damage. People tied up, burned up, pulled up from lakes, crushed in dis-
asters. Scattered by bear and coyote. Handlers need to have a realistic notion of what bodies
look like after a few days, weeks, or months out in the environment. A search is not an aca-
demic exercise. Bodies are never pretty in early stages; later, they can fade into their environ-
ment like camouflage. It's critical to be able to recognize a spot where the soil has turned so
acidic from a body lying there that plants die.
Soon enough, the bodies deflate and fade into the North Carolina woody foliage, a slightly
darker or sometimes yellowish leathery accent under the dark green. You would have to know
where they are to see them. Or have a dog around who can tell you.
On a recent search, the detective flanking me asked me whether cadaver dogs can miss
or skip over a body. It depends. I looked around at the impenetrable woods on one side
and the clear-cut mess on the other—logs lying crisscrossed, shrubby growth coming up in
between. A swamp lay behind us; suspicious tire tracks were visible along the dirt road. We
had punched in several places where slight deer paths, or even a break in the vines and un-
dergrowth, provided a gap. The working presumption, not a stupid one, was that someone
trying to carry a body wouldn't have an easy time, either. If Solo hit scent, he would fol-
low it if he weren't too exhausted and panting to bring in scent. But his nose had to be in
the proper place. Getting his body levitated over impenetrable brush isn't that easy. Hasty
searches over dozens of acres don't give 100 percent coverage. People talk about grid searches
or line searches in a casual way, but in many areas in North Carolina, doing that would take
a phalanx of Bush Hogs running in front of you. his was triage. Everyone does his or her
level best—a bit of whacking with a machete when it's feasible, saving a bit of energy when
you can see a spot for entry just ahead.
You try to maximize the odds by knowing as much as you can. Before I tackle a new kind
of search—say, an Alzheimer's victim who wandered of, someone who was separated from a
violent husband, or a drug user who was desperate for a fix—I will go back and hit the re-
search.
Take a person with Alzheimer's or dementia. Her behavior differs from that of other lost
people. If an unimpaired person is right-handed and gets lost, she tends to move to the right.
Not someone with dementia. That person doesn't behave logically, even at a subconscious
level. She will walk straight into thick brush. Her brain can't compute turning around and
backing up. She will keep walking in place. The body of a man with Alzheimer's was found
in the woods two streets away from his suburban home, a month after he went missing. he
police, I heard through the grapevine, had been given my name and number soon after he
