Two dogs, the U.S Border Patrol's only cadaver-searching dogs, began working Wednesday in Grand Forks and Polk counties, looking for Dru Sjodin.
One of the dogs is Malcolm, a black Lab who works with Agent Roy Lopez out of San Diego. The other is Boy, a two-year-old Belgian Malinois, a brown short-haired shepherd, who works with Agent Pete Vasques out of Yuma, Ariz.
Vasques said the cool temperatures Wednesday were perfect for Boy. "I can work him all day in these conditions," Vasques said.
In October, the two dogs and their handlers helped find human remains in a Massachusetts case, Vasques said.
He and Boy searched for Sjodin for four days in December, shortly after the UND student disappeared Nov. 22, last seen in Columbia Mall.
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Alfonso Rodriguez, 51, a convicted sex offender from Crookston, pleaded not guilty to a charge of abducting her and is in jail awaiting trial.
Vasques and Lopez will search for several days, as the weather allows, Vasques said. Rain expected today through the weekend won't help, he said.
Helping locally While the two cadaver K9 teams typically work border-crossing cases in the Southwest (dozens of other Border Patrol K9 teams focus on drug and alien interdiction), they also help out local law enforcement in cases like Sjodin's, said Lonny Schweitzer, assistant chief patrol agent in the Grand Forks District Office of the Border Patrol. It's one result of beefed-up numbers and budgets and greater cooperation linked to post-9-11 homeland security, Schweitzer said.
River search Also Wednesday, two Grand Forks County Sheriff's deputies cruised the Red River in a boat from the city south to the Thompson (N.D.) bridge, and back, said Maj. Mike Fonder.
A larger effort, involving eight boats, run by the Polk County Sheriff's Office using Minnesota Department of Natural Resources personnel and equipment, will cover the 58 miles of the Red Lake River from Crookston to East Grand Forks on Saturday, said Sgt. Walt Keller.
Keller is asking for up to 250 volunteers for a mass search Saturday. He said volunteers should report at 9 a.m. to the Crookston High School, dressed for the work and with a photo ID. Searchers will be bussed from the school to various sites between Crookston and East Grand Forks, Keller said.
The dozen or so members of the Sjodin family and friends search covered several areas in Polk County on Wednesday, including the rural site about two miles west of Crookston where Rodriguez's family lived when he was a child, said Bob Heales, the Denver private investigator heading up the search.
