Question for professional searchers, if anyone sees this.
After watching 48 Hours on Amber's case last week, I noted that Amber's mom hired her own search team of dogs, and that the dogs picked up Amber's scent after 6 months, and led the handlers all the way to the Indian land, within a half mile of where she was found 6 months later. (this was several miles from where she was taken, 15 miles I think they said.)
I always thought that Kyron could not be traced at all because he was taken into a car right in the Skyline lot, yet these dogs led the way onto a freeway, off an exit and more.
Have you heard of this before and wonder why they don't try it with Kyron?
I am not an expert but I spotted a few inconsistencies just based on the show.
For one thing, towards the end of the show, when Amber's mother had a chance to question John Gardner, she found out that Gardner abducted Amber from a side street, one that Amber did not normally use in going to school. That's how Gardner was able to abduct her without witnesses; the eyewitness reports placing Amber near the school driveway were mistaken.
The dogs appeared to follow Amber's usual route to school. Ooops! That says to me that the dogs were following cues from the handlers rather than following scent.
Both various LE agencies and the military have done a lot of testing to see if dogs can follow humans in cars. The results I am familiar with go back to the 90s, so I'm not exactly up to date. At that time, though, the verdict was mixed. Dogs can sometimes follow scent from a human in a car but it is heavily dependent on variables. Older cars are more likely to be followed, probably because they are not as airtight as newer models (more dents and bangs, door gaskets worn out or torn, etc).
The vehicle they showed, implying it was either Gardner's or one similar, was quite new and looked to be in very good condition. I wouldn't expect it to leak a lot of air. Gardner's testimony was that he rolled the window down initially, which suggests electric windows. Considering the risk of the victim screaming, I doubt he left the windows down while transporting her.
It was fairly clear that Amber was not located near her home because that entire area was searched thoroughly. The logical places would be outside that initial radius and the reservation, with its abundance of land, small roads and pull offs, would be a good guess.
Dogs are really, really good at reading their handler's body language and going what the handler wants, rather than where the evidence (scent) leads them.
There is an awful lot of handler error that goes on with handlers of scent dogs.
That particular case makes me think that it was similar to cases "solved" by psychics; they got a few results that were kinda close to what really happened, so the handlers decided they were accurate.
