COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A group of K9s trained to find human remains even if they’re under concrete and their handler are the newest additions to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell talked to Dr. Tracy Sargent about the thousands of cases she’s worked on.
Sargent is one of the newest criminal investigators in the District Attorney’s Office’s cold case unit.
“I have assisted or been requested in over 2,000 cases over the years that I have been doing this,” Sargent said.
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One of those cases involved an Iraq War veteran who disappeared from his home in 2014. Sargent’s K9s found the man underneath concrete in 2017.
“We imprint the dog to the scent that we want them to find. In this case, it’s human remains. They do not know they are finding dead bodies,” Sargent explained.
Last year, her K9s found a woman’s remains. Last week, the judge sentenced the victim’s husband to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“He followed the scent and responded to a specific debris pile. They tell us where something is and where something isn’t,” she said.
She is also training courthouse dogs and two new comfort dogs.
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