Services

Families

Missing persons, lost persons

Law Enforcement

Missing persons, cold cases, homicides, forensic evidence, clandestine graves

Tribes/Archaeologists

K9 HRD Surveys for historic and precontact burials, abandoned and lost cemeteries

Families

 

  • KYK9 was created to bring the missing home, reunite families, and provide closure.

  • Families can contact us directly.

  • KYK9 will evaluate the circumstances to determine if we think we can help.

  • If we think we can help and families would still like our assistance, we will reach out to collaborate with law enforcement, governmental agencies, or Tribal nations.

Law Enforcement

  • KYK9 provides professional search dog services to police, sheriffs, and other law enforcement agencies.

  • KYK9 search dogs are nationally certified by the International Police Working Dog Association (IPWDA).

  • Law enforcement and prosecutors have successfully used our scent detection dogs in innovative ways to find missing persons, investigate crime scenes, find forensic evidence, work cold cases, obtain search warrants, and provide scent evidence and expert witness testimony needed for conviction in death penalty cases.

  • Director Jennifer Jordan Hall graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude, and Harvard Law School, cum laude.

  • Hall is recognized by courts as expert witness in K9 forensic evidence in death investigations and K9 human remains detection.

  • KYK9 write confidentiality agreements to protect the integrity of cases.

KYK9 searching with Kentucky State Police

Human Remains Detection (HRD)

Nationally certified in human remains detection (HRD) on land and water, and crime scene K9 forensic evidence:

  • Tissue, blood, skin, fat, adipocere, bones, teeth

  • Disarticulated and scattered remains

  • Clandestine graves (deep and shallow)

  • Burned remains from fire or crime scenes

  • Submerged in water (search from boat or shore)

K9 Pocket and police water search

Missing and Lost Persons

  • Our scent-specific trailing dogs find missing persons.

  • Search buildings and areas of interest to find or narrow search area for missing person or suspect.

  • Follow car trails and provide direction of travel.

KYK9 and coroner search for human remains

Forensic K9 Scent Evidence

  • Find blood, bodily fluids, other evidence at crime scene (i.e., locate where victim was killed).

  • Find forensic evidence of commission of crime that is otherwise undetectable.

  • Narrow down scope of crime scene to save time processing the crime scene (i.e., K9 alerts in a specific room or vehicle).

  • Locate forensic evidence like blood left on objects (i.e., knife, gun).

Additional Services

  • Write confidential search report to be used in court.

  • Help obtain search warrants, by understanding evidentiary standards and needed language.

  • Testify in court as K9 expert witness.

  • Advise on effective use of search dogs.

  • Geographic spatial imaging of search, creating topographical maps for analysis.

Archaeologists, Governmental Agencies, and Tribes

How to use K9 HRD Surveys

Archaeological human remains detection (HRD) dogs are a unique and increasingly used remote sensing modality that can help locate abandoned cemeteries, graves, and sacred burial sites. KYK9’s HRD dogs are specifically trained to detect the scent of archeological human remains, which includes historic remains and ancient remains dating back at least 2000 years.

Archaeological HRD dogs can be used by CRM firms together with geophysical survey and traditional excavation techniques as part of an initial field strategy or in response to the discovery of a burial during excavation or if there is a need to determine if additional burials are present at the excavation site.

How using HRD K9 benefits a CRM project

  • K9 HRD surveys help determine and narrow search area for human remains.

  • K9 HRD surveys increase protection of ancestral human remains by locating them more efficiently.

  • K9 HRD surveys help target or focus your excavation efforts.

  • K9 HRD surveys increase your accuracy and ability to find abandoned cemeteries, burials, and human remain isolates that might be on your site.

  • K9 HRD surveys save time and save money.

  • K9 HRD surveys improve your ability to find graves or clear an excavation site, and move more quickly toward project completion.

Human Remains Detection (HRD) Surveys

  • We provide historic human remains detection (HRD) dog services to indigenous organizations, Tribal nations, CRM firms, NGOs, and governmental agencies (i.e., U.S. Corps of Army Engineers, DOT infrastructure projects.)

  • We provide archaeological HRD surveys to find pre-contact and historic burials.

  • KYK9’s oldest K9 HRD discoveries to date are approximately 2,000 years old.

  • Our K9 HRD survey work includes searches for indigenous burials, burials dating to the American Revolution and the Civil War, burials in abandoned cemeteries, and clandestine burials in cold cases.

  • Our K9 HRD work includes searching for sacred burial sites, abandoned Black cemeteries and other historically significant sites.

  • K9 Pocket in 2020 discovered 11 adults and 1 sub-adult in a Fort Ancient context, approximately 1,000 years old.

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