Meeting a Cadaver Dog While I'm Still Alive

Last week our local chapter of Sisters in Crime (NEOSinC) had as our guest Ed Ripepi, the owner of Verso Casual Italian Restaurant in Parma, Ohio, and also the owner and handler of a trained cadaver and tracking dog. Jet is a Czech Shepherd. Ed went to the Czech Republic to pick him out when he was a puppy because his first cadaver and tracking dog, Remo, a white German shepherd, was getting older and ready to be retired.  He brought Jet home and turned him over to Paul Shaughnessy in Hiram, Ohio.

Paul Shaughnessy’s business, Excel K-9 Services, Inc. is based out of Hiram, but he has branches in other states, too.  He and his training staff annually travel to the Netherlands Antilles to train 25 handlers and 30 dogs to create a highly effective professional K-9 unit.  The process starts with dog selection, imprinting, and proceeding through several months of handler and dog training. The unit consists of Patrol Dog Teams, Narcotics Detection Dog Teams, Explosive Detection Dog Teams and Search and Rescue Dog and Emergency Response Teams. These teams are ready to respond to any emergency on land and seaport. He has extended his business to on-site training worldwide to meet client needs. Excel K-9 Services also trains dogs for family protection and therapy dogs, too.

Jet's favorite tug  toy, a long lead, a vest, a shorter lead

On the Monday Ed came, he brought a few items he uses with his dogs. He left his dog in his vehicle because he would be too distracting to the audience at the beginning, but later when he brought him in, we found him delightful.  He described how his dog has two different collar/vests to wear depending on whether he’s to look for a cadaver or tracking a live person. Jet knows from the collar/vest he wears, what he is supposed to do. One thing he showed us was what he used as a treat for Jet. The dog doesn’t get a food treat. Either he’s thrown a ball to chase when he finds a cadaver or a person he’s been tracking – like an Alzheimer’s patient who wandered away from home or maybe a toddler who has wandered off, or in a case recently a young girl and the child she was babysitting. He was able to track the girl to a spot in a parking lot which makes it look like she met someone there and left with them. His favorite treat is a long narrow rubbery stuffed tube with handles on both ends. He loves playing tug of war with it. He grabs hold of one end and absolutely will not let go even when Ed twirls him around in circles while raising his arm until the dog is flying around Ed with none of his feet touching the ground. He won’t let go until Ed gives him the command in Czech. All the dogs' commands are in the Czech language:  Come, stay, sit, etc.

Jet waiting for the command to attack his tug of war toy.

Ed told us about the work he did with Jet to find a body in a neighborhood familiar to him since he’d lived there for a long time growing up. The safe community hadn’t had a murder in thirty years. But then a familiar man who rode his bike through the neighborhood and spoke to everyone went missing. He still lived at home with his mother for years and had some kind of mental handicap. He didn’t work, but was friendly and generally well-liked. A woman reported that a neighbor woman had told her that her husband had killed the man. Going only on this information, they started a search for him, and Ed was called to do a cadaver search. Other dogs and handlers on the team were called, too, but their dogs were tracking dogs. Cadaver dogs are trained to search out the smell of decaying human flesh. To train them coroners often give flesh or bone samples to stuff into a pipe for the dog to search and find. Ed said they are nothing you’d want to keep in your house. So while the tracking dogs were busy tracking one area, Ed moved in a grid area until Jet stopped at a compost pile in a back yard and stared at the spot. Ed called for an investigation team, and they dug up the decomposing body of the missing man. Jet’s treat? Ed threw a ball a long ways for Jet to race for and retrieve. It’s all a game for him with his reward a ball.

Jet held on even when Ed twirled him in the air in circles.

The victim had moved into the basement of the home of a man and his wife who was in a wheelchair.  I’m not sure, but maybe the victim’s mother had died. Anyway, they (probably only the man) were cashing the victim’s Social Security checks. The murderer pleaded it was self-defense since the man had attacked him, which no one believed because all the neighbors knew he wasn’t a violent person. Also, he had been shot in the back of the head.

Some other things we learned that night. Female dogs are more aggressive so most K-9 dogs are male. Also, males are better at paying attention - at least in the dog world. I found out dogs can smell 250 times better than humans, and that there are dogs who find bodies from a boat by smelling the methane gas a body releases. I also found out that to buy and train service dogs for police work, family protection or as service dogs for the blind, deaf, PTSD, or other disabilities, is very, very expensive.  We’re talking ten thousand dollars or more. I also found out that Ed Ripepi gets no money for his services. He doesn’t charge for time, mileage, dog care and training and bought the dog with no financial assistance. At least it is tax deductible, although that can’t cover the time and expense he puts into it, I’m sure. Why does he do it?  He loves dogs and helping others. Even if a person is found dead, it brings closure to a family.

We all loved the two-year old Jet, who was playful and friendly and roamed among us to get petted. It was a nice ending to a very interesting meeting. In fact, he’s such a gentle dog, that when Ed’s wife brought home their newborn baby, both Jet and Remo, the retired white shepherd, kept visiting family members away from the baby not through growling, but by getting between the baby and the visitor and gently leaning on them to push them away. They’re also both gentle with their older child.

One of our members wanted to own a cadaver or tracking dog. Would you?

Have you ever met a service dog?

Do you know anyone who has one?