They Smell Dead People

In the blockbuster film, The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment’s character admits that he sees dead people. Tali Grebenkemper can actually smell them. The 7-year-old Border collie is one of a dozen doggie detectives who works as a Human Remains Detection (HRD) dog with the Institute for Canine Forensics, a non-profit organization based in Woodside, Calif. I had the pleasure of shaking paws with Tali and several of her two- and four-legged co-workers during a Sunday afternoon presentation, which was hosted by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

As guests nibbled on chocolate-covered pretzels (“no chocolate for the dogs, please,” cautioned one of the hosts), Adela Morris, founder of the Institute for Canine Forensics, a volunteer for the County of Santa Clara Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, and a consultant for the CSI Crime Scene Investigation TV show, gave a riveting presentation to a roomful of history buffs, war veterans, and animal lovers. Morris said she became interested in search and rescue work after seeing a segment on television in 1985 shortly after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Mexico City.

“When I saw the dogs in the media,” said Morris, “the thought came to me:  it’s so cool that they’re doing something useful with the dogs—not that it’s bad to do AKC obedience or dog shows—but I wanted to help. I began doing search and rescue and found live, lost people, but I soon got derailed and went over to the dark side, so to speak.”

Morris began training dogs—whose super sensitive noses have approximately 250 million olfactory receptors, compared to just 5 million in humans—to sniff out historic and prehistoric graves. Unlike heavy machinery and ground-penetrating radars, HRD dogs offer a non-invasive and cost-effective approach to locating bodies that have been buried for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years.

“Archeologists were understandably wary of our dogs at first,” Morris said. “After all, when people think of dogs, they think of digging and chewing on bones. Our dogs are taught never to touch human remains.”

Part of an HRD dog’s training includes discriminating between human and non-human remains. (One smart-as-a-whip boy in the audience wanted to know: “Can the dogs find dead bunnies?”) Yes they can, Morris said, but they’re trained not to “alert” for anything other than people. When a dog picks up a scent, he will simply sit or lie down, which is his way of notifying his handler that he’s found something, usually the faint scent of human tissue, bone, or dried blood.

Presently, the Institute has certified 12 HRD dogs, and 10 more are currently in training. Instruction begins when a dog is about 18 months old and lasts for two or more years before they can become certified. (John Grebenkemper’s dog, Tali is the exception—she entered the training program at the ripe old age of six and was certified in less than a year—talk about a good work ethic!) Although most of the dogs are Border collies, there are some Labs, German shepherds, Australian shepherds, and Dobermans,” said Morris. “Basically, only dogs with a working mentality can do this work.”

Over the years, these specially trained dogs have helped officials search for long-missing persons at such places as the World Trade Center in New York City, the site of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Loma Prieta and Mexico City earthquakes, the Oakland firestorm, and the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. In addition, they have helped scientists identify the Donner Camp at Alder Creek, cemetery plots on Pilot Hill in Truckee, Half Moon Bay, and El Dorado Hills, California, and they have assisted Caltrans in identifying an historic Native American burial ground near the site of a highway widening project in California. The oldest find occurred in 2007, when HRD dogs alerted their handlers to skeletal remains dating to 400-450 A.D. at a construction site in Prague, Czech Republic.

Like all HRD dog handlers, Adela Morris isn’t in the business for the big bucks (there aren’t any), but simply because she loves solving mysteries. “To me, it’s like reading a really good book and it’s totally got you captivated,” she said. “You can’t put it down, but then you discover the last chapter is missing and you don’t know who committed the crime or where the body is.”

As for Tali, her star pupil? She may not get the hefty salaries and outlandish perks associated with movie stars, but she still loves going to work every day. Her compensation is pretty straightforward too: the chance to play with a tug toy or receive a word of praise from her human partner, John.

Karen doesn’t see, hear, or smell dead people, but she likes to learn about dogs that do. Send an email message to her at karenleestevens@cox.net if you uncover some facts on any canine “Sherlock Bones.”

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