'Legitimate' White County Search and Rescue team being established; close to 60 first responders take part in missing person exercise

“We’ve been working for about six months on establishing White County Search and Rescue as a legitimate team,” Mize said, adding that those efforts “paid off during back-to-back search and rescue ops” last week. “However, luck would have it that these occurred just before our planned training.”

Close to 60 first responders took part in the exercise, showing up under a pavilion at the park to get started Tuesday evening. Searcy Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Bogan led a discussion about what goes into getting organized for a search and rescue operation. The turnout in the rain and the cold prompted Bogan to say that the group was serious about such efforts.

“Missing person is something that we’ve all probably been a part of. We’ve all walked through the woods and the field at some point or another, and we all got the job done,” Bogan said. “We’ve actually had like three [missing person situations] in the last week, all with positive outcomes, and honestly, that’s a huge blessing.”

Missing for real

Austin Hargrove, who has been with the White County Sheriff’s Office for six years and has been a K-9 handler for five, said that “the most important thing on a lost person is to not contaminate the scene before the dog gets there.”

“My dog does not specifically track scent, he tracks on ground disturbance, so if we have a lost person out in the woods and six of you all take off before the dog gets there, I don’t know what track I’m on,” Hargrove told the other first responders. “I don’t know if I’m on six of you all’s tracks or the person’s track, so that’s the most important thing about knowing if a dog is coming and knowing when and not when to deploy from the time you all get there.”

Hargrove said that a dog track was used last week when a 62-year-old from the Walker community went missing in the rural Griffithville area. The individual was believed to have gone turkey hunting on foot that morning and was reported missing later that day after his family started looking for him around noon. A search for the missing man began around 11:15 p.m. April 28.

Hargrove said that by the time his K-9 team got involved, they were working off a 25-hour track and “we don’t really know how many people were out there and contaminated the actual area.” He said the team “did get into the area where the gentleman was,” even though the track was unsuccessful in finding him.

Drones also were deployed, but also were unsuccessful. However, with daylight approaching the next morning, grid search teams made “successful contact ... with the missing subject at approximately 7:35 a.m.,” Mize said last week. He was medically extracted and NorthStar EMS took him to Unity Health-White County Medical Center.

Hargrove also mentioned a child who went missing April 30 near the 800 block of Arkansas Highway 258. “There was talk about bringing an ADC [Arkansas Department of Correction] dog in but it may have been two hours before they could get on scene,” Hargove said.

A K-9 was used but it failed to locate the child, who had been reported missing around 4:30 a.m. Search teams found the child around 7:05 a.m. and she “appeared to be in good health,” according to the county.

Hargrove also brought up an incident on Arkansas Highway 36 “the other day” where a family was looking for a lost boy. He said that there were already 11 people searching for him, so he “decided to not put a dog on the ground because I wasn’t going to try the waste of time to pick up the child’s track. We decided no dog and put boots on the ground and he was found within 20 minutes, which is a perfect outcome.”

That incident happened Saturday in the Rose Bud area and the missing child was nonverbal, according to Lt. Scott Seiders with the sheriff’s office. He said the child went missing around 2:30 p.m. and actually was found by 4 p.m., so there was “less than an hour and a half between notification and finding.”

The sheriff’s office, Rose Bud Police Department and White County OEM worked together on the case, Seiders said. “Basically, the kid was taking a nap and she [a guardian or parent] went and checked on him, checked on him again and he was gone.”

Seiders said the child “was found down the road. He has done this before. so there were a couple of check this place first, check this place first, that’s where we found him last time kinds of thing.”

Broader spectrum

Agencies participating in Tuesday’s missing person training included the White County OEM, sheriff’s office, Arkansas Game and Fish, Arkansas Department of Correction, Searcy police and fire, amateur radio and NorthStar EMS.

Bogan called for using only one 10-person team because of the conditions, with Randy Salvo from the Searcy Fire Department stepping into the role as team leader. Mize said that they had intentions of using multiple search teams during the exercise but didn’t because of the rain.

In the scenario, Bogan said you could kind of suspect a medical issue. Bogan said if he was on a search team he would bring a backpack, water for himself and snacks, along with a space blanket. He said the missing kid is going to probably be cold, especially when it is raining. Hothands hand warmers and cold packs were mentioned, too.

Bogan talked about keeping a team by the command center. He also talked about staging an area for the transport team and equipment like a side-by-side and harnesses. He said having an emergency medical technician on the team would be great.

Bogan passed out radios and told everyone who the unified command staff was, a representative from each agency. He talked about hanging glow sticks to see the trails clearly at night; however, the mannequin was found before nightfall.

During the debriefing, the search team talked about some things they could have used in their search, including machetes, walking sticks and eye protection gear. The machetes would be used to cut briars, and Salvo said there were some boulders the team had to deal with.

Salvo said everyone stayed on task, walking their specific paths until they found the victim. Salvo said he is glad they found the mannequin before dark. Capt. Corbry Swain talked about having a hand lamp ready to go if needed, plus extra batteries.

Bogan said seeing the broader spectrum was the focus of the training. He said the firefighters get together for a training drill each quarter and it was determined that the search and rescue exercise would be this quarter’s drill. “Typically, a missing person is not a fireman’s problem; that’s typically a police problem, at least initially.” However, Mize said, that the exercise “is incredibly relevant” for all first responders.

“You can guarantee every single day there is some type of missing call,” Mize said.