K-9 Unit Helps Find Man's Body In Recovery Operation

Oklahoma Task Force 1 said its K-9s were crucial in helping find a man who died along the Arkansas River near 61st and Riverside.

Police said Andrew Ferris was searching for copper wiring when the tunnel he was building collapsed, burying him in several feet of sand.

"We decided to take Truman down there to see if he alerted, so we took him down there and within five minutes he was alerting right on the area he was supposed to be," said Canine Coordinator, Jeff Leon.

Leon said they have 12 dogs on the team in this part of the state.

He said some are trained to find human remains, and some are trained to find people trapped under rubble or lost in the woods.

"Our dogs are specifically trained to find human remains, whether it's buried or not, they can find it, live find dogs can track and if you are buried 15 feet in the rubble, they can tell us where you're at," he said.

Leon said on Sunday, Ferris' body was deep into the sand, so Truman was able to give them the exact area where they needed to start digging.

"On Sunday's recovery, without Truman they wouldn't have known where to dig, they say he was 12 feet in, 8 to 10 feet down in the ground," he said.

Leon said the team typically works in pairs, so they brought in another K-9 from Oklahoma City. With both dogs' help, they knew they were in the right spot.

"You can't just call and be like, 'oh bring me a backhoe,' for a maybe, they probably wouldn't have done that, but since he alerted and gave me his response, we were like, 'yeah he's in here, let's get this guy out of here,'" he said.

Leon said the dogs typically train twice a week and last year they completed 3,200 hours of training.