Dax does it again! Lake Co. Sheriff's K-9 helps to save woman's life
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A four-legged K-9 partner is not only cracking down on crime, but also helped to locate a missing woman.
CBS 2's Shardaa Gray shows us how he saved a woman's life Sunday night.
The K-9 named Dax has been partnered with Deputy John Forlenza with the Lake County Sheriff's Office for seven and half years. The sheriff's office said Dax saved a woman's life Sunday night.
"Her body temperature was 80 degrees, which obviously is a life threatening situation. We were fortunate to locate her when we did," Forlenza said.
The sheriff's office said a 25-year-old woman went missing for five hours and who wasn't dressed for the cold temperatures. Dax is trained to detect a suspect or a missing person's scent on a piece of evidence or even at the scene of a crime.
From there, he does what's called scent specific tracking, or following the scent to wherever that person might be located. He did on Sunday night.
"Once he was in this area, he smelled around the tree line, which is where she may have been. Then, we went west over here," Forlenza said.
Dax has an impressive resume. Just this past summer, he caught 19 people within two weeks. Dax has picked up the scent of three people in an abandoned stolen car and found them more than a mile away this past spring.
Forlenza credits their success to the training they do every week at TOPS Kennel in Grayslake.
"I think what motivates Dax the most to find people is just that, the reward at the end. He is very driven to play with a toy and that's a primary motivator for all of our K-9s who are trained in police work," Forlenza said.
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