ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010096
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV21 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
While drug dogs are the new tool of law enforcement, another breed long used in police work is still held in high esteem: bloodhounds for tracking.
They are invaluable in finding children, the elderly or ill who have wandered away from home. They can also help crack a criminal investigation - leading officers literally by their noses to a suspect.
Bloodhounds are being used in Pulaski and Giles counties, where officers who own the dogs make them available to the law enforcement agency they work for and are happy to assist surrounding jurisdictions when needed.
Morgan Millirons, a Pembroke police officer and former Giles County deputy sheriff, uses two bloodhounds that he raised and trains himself. Veterinary bills, feed and other costs are paid by the Pembroke Police Department and with generous help from the Tri-County CB Club in Giles County.
Legend, a black-and tan registered bloodhound almost 2 years old, has a lot to prove to live up to the reputation of Josh, an 8-year-old bloodhound that has helped Giles County and other jurisdictions in many investigations.
Legend got her big test in December, when law officers apprehended three suspects in two robberies in Giles County. Later, the trio was charged with the murder of Alexander DeFilippis, a Virginia Tech student who was carjacked from a Blacksburg convenience store and killed in Montgomery County's Whitethorne community.
Legend was put to the job of tracking a fourth suspect. But she didn't give any indication she was on to a scent.
Millirons was beginning to get annoyed with the dog, fearful she wasn't performing. "Come to find out, there wasn't anyone to track," because there was no fourth person as officers first believed.
Josh has been in service in Giles County and the New River Valley for seven years, but recently has had health problems and is on light duty as he makes his comeback.
The bloodhounds provoke strong reactions in people. Either they respect the dogs for their ability, think they are so ugly they are cute, or they find their smell repulsive.
"They seem to think those long-eared, red-eyed, loose-skinned dogs are the ugliest things that ever walked, but I've always been a fan of big dogs," Millirons said.
He prefers purebreds because they are more respected and less likely to be challenged in court.
"You have to trust your dog because his nose knows," Millirons said. "I've thought I've been on a wild goose chase before [and then] there's a man laying in the ditch or up in a tree."
There are no training schools or certification standards for bloodhounds, Millirons said. The dog's worth is proven over time by the number of tracks it runs.
"I don't know but one way to train a bloodhound - that's to get out and work it."
When the hounds are pups, Millirons starts training by playing hide and seek with them, first setting up short trails and letting them follow the scent and find him. Gradually, the distance increases.
"You just make it harder and harder for them."
Millirons keeps a record of every track his dog runs, whether it be for fun, such as tracking a deer, or for investigative purposes. That helps establish the dog's credibility in court. So far, Millirons has never had to testify in court because the 20 cases in which Josh has helped identify a suspect have ended in plea bargains. Millirons takes that as a testament to faith in the dog's accuracy.
Millirons started with the Giles County Sheriff's Office in 1987. He began using his own bloodhounds in 1988. He left the county to become a police officer with the Pembroke Police Department in August 1995, but still runs calls for the county when needed.
The first person Millirons ever found with Josh is also his most memorable case. An Alzheimer's patient who was in her 80s had wandered from the Giles Memorial Hospital on a February day. Josh smelled the woman's bed linens, then quickly found her alive - covered in leaves - in a nearby drainpipe
"That's when we got to trusting him," Millirons said.
Last year, it was Josh who assisted authorities in a search near the Montgomery-Giles line for two men who had run from a state trooper during a traffic stop.
After hours of searching by authorities, Josh found one of the men within minutes, covered in leaves and laurel.
While it's important to call out tracking dogs early in a search to avoid contaminating search areas, Millirons said bloodhounds can find someone hours after they've passed through an area.
"An older trail is easier to run than a fresh trail. As you move along millions of skin cells are falling off your body and it takes a long time for them to settle on the ground."
Bloodhounds, with loose-skinned jowls and long ears, are able to trap those particles and follow their nose until finding the person.
The oldest trail Josh has successfully run was 38 hours old.
What people think of as the worst weather is the best weather for tracking someone, Millirons said. "The rain puts the scent on the ground."
When Josh is on a trail, his nose to the ground, he sounds like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up the scent of his target.
Seeing Josh in action is what got Pulaski County Investigator Brian Wade interested in bloodhounds. He bought Hoss from a local federal agent.
Both stress the need to call in the dogs immediately, not as a last resort.
"You might not always find a person but you may find his wallet, a hat, a gun, hair fibers," Millirons said.
Hoss, a red Tennessee bloodhound who is almost 2 years old, has been with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office for about 1 1/2 years. He recently assisted in a search in Montgomery County for a young Shawsville man who runs from home when experiencing seizures.
It was late in the search when Hoss hit the trail. He was close to finding the man, undeterred even by a skunk's spray, when human searchers spotted him first.
The primary job for Hoss in Pulaski County is finding lost people, especially elderly, disoriented patients, Sheriff Ralph Dobbins said.
"We hope to save a life with him," Dobbins said.
The Pulaski County sheriff thinks bloodhounds require a lot more work and training than drug dogs. That's because drug dogs are after an inanimate object, while bloodhounds may be looking for objects or people that are most likely on the move.
Hoss is tenacious on the job, tail wagging as he zones in on his prey. "Once he's on a hot track it's all you can do to keep up with him," Wade said.
Like drug dogs, bloodhounds give law enforcement "one more little step where we weren't able to do anything before," Dobbins said.
He often wonders what the reward is for bloodhounds, who will follow a track until they are exhausted.
In Hoss' case, Wade replied, it's "a lot of praise ... and Vienna sausages."
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