Missing juvenile found safe after K9 search in Rolette County

ST. JOHN, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A missing 16-year-old female from St. John in Rolette County was found safe Tuesday after North Dakota Highway Patrol canines tracked her to the west side of town.

The juvenile was last seen the night before, Monday.

Six members of the North Dakota Highway Patrol Emergency Response Team responded with mantrailing canines, Gary and Lorace. Three additional troopers supported the search.

Both canines were deployed in the St. John area and trailed from the juvenile’s home to a location on the west side of St. John. A follow-up search by K9 Gary in the area resulted in the juvenile being located safe and unharmed.

“It’s a really nice benefit of our dogs, is not only can they follow a trail when it’s there, but they can tell us when there’s not a trail,” said Trooper Steven Clark of the North Dakota Highway Patrol. He is also Lorace’s K9 Handler.

“By going farther down the road, both dogs said, ‘No, she hadn’t been here.’ We kind of felt that we should go back to that last area where we were and maybe she was in the area.”

Trooper Nevon Heisler, and K9 Gary’s Handler, spoke on how vital K9s can be:

“Just brings everything full circle. Like we train really hard, we work really hard. Even though we don’t find somebody on every trail we do, usually it ends up mid-trail or we direct people ahead of us and they find the person. In this case, it was Gary. I had to like use every part of me to stop him from going up to her. She was scared of the dog, Gary wanted to get to her because that’s how he’s trained is to get to the person.”

Missing persons in North Dakota

Last year, North Dakota had a 98% closure rate on missing persons cases. More than 1,300 missing persons reports were filed across the state.

The state says 984 people were reported missing with just over 400 being recurring missing persons cases. Currently, there are still 21 people unaccounted for.

All missing persons cases in North Dakota can be found on the Office of the Attorney General’s website.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol said agencies and organizations assisted with the search, including the Turtle Mountain Bureau of Indian Affairs, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Police Department, Rolla Fire, St. John Fire, Belcourt Fire, Rolette County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Border Patrol.

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Tribal Council, Turtle Mountain Missing Indigenous Persons local chapter and Turtle Mountain Horse Nation Search and Rescue also assisted with the search.

Highway Patrol said searches like this one can start with one phone call, and early reporting can help bring loved ones home.