Cadaver dogs from U.S. fail to find Miramichi man with Alzheimer's, missing for 6 weeks

An exhaustive search in Miramichi by cadaver dog teams from the U.S. has failed to locate 76-year-old Brian Ahern, a man with Alzheimer's who went missing six weeks ago.

The three-day search was called off around 6 p.m. Friday.

His family is "disappointed and heartbroken," said son Cory Ahern.

"We really thought that this would be it and we could finally have some closure," he said Saturday morning.

"The only good thing I can say is that we now know where he isn't so we can turn our focus on a different area and we will continue to search."

The Miramichi Police Force brought in five members of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and three from the Massachusetts Canine Response Team to search for Brian Ahern, who disappeared on the afternoon of April 29. He had been visiting a neighbour.

Can smell up to 450 feet away

The dogs are trained in wilderness air scent search, tracking, water search, and human remains detection.

"Their ability to smell allows us to search areas that we cannot see into, like thick brush or vegetation and including underwater," said Deb Palman, founder of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and the team leader.

The dogs can smell a person or body up to 450 feet (137 metres) "if the wind is steady and conditions are good," said Palman, who has been a dog handler since 1979, first as a Maine game warden, and for the past 15 years as a private volunteer "as a way to give back and help others."

Without steady winds, there's less scent available downwind and the teams have to search in tighter patterns, she said.

The dogs, which work off-lead, are trained to find the source of the scent, return to their handler and take the handler back.

Searched more than 2,000 acres in 3 days

They searched Wednesday through Friday, with assistance from Miramichi Ground Search and Rescue and police, said Deputy Chief Brian Cummings.

The volunteer teams covered more than 2,000 acres, or about 810 hectares — much of it dense woods with ponds, swamps and bogs, said Cummings. He and a detective used their personal side-by-sides to transport the teams to their assigned search areas.

"It's pretty hard slogging in places," said Cummings, noting there are floating bogs where someone could become submerged.

"You could see the ground actually floating ahead of you as you walk on it. So there's some pretty precarious places in there."

They focused on a "high-probability area," said Cummings, where they believed Ahern would be located, based on where he was last seen and footprints in the snow. They took into account his age and his medical condition, information gleaned from previous searches for him, as well as statistical information on where similar types of missing persons have been found. 

Ahern was last seen on foot crossing Highway 126 and entering a trail into the woods that leads directly to the family home on Ahern Road.

It should have been a five-minute walk, according to his son. He suspects his father might have missed the turnoff and kept going straight, deeper into the woods.

The woods is a big place and it keeps its secrets close sometimes.- Brian Cummings, Miramichi Police Force deputy chief

The search crews were initially "very confident" when they saw the search conditions "that we might have a success at the end of the day," said Cummings.

"But it looks like Brian's willpower and stamina took him a lot further than what anybody anticipated."

The search turned up no clues.

"A lot of people are of the opinion that it's easy to find something in the woods. But having been in the woods all my life, I can tell you, the woods is a big place and it keeps its secrets close sometimes," said Cummings.

"It's frustrating and it's puzzling. But I'm still confident at the end of the day that Brian will be brought home to his family," either through future searches by community members, or discovery by a hunter. "It's just a matter of when."

The Ahern family is grateful to the search crews for their efforts, and for the help and support of community members, friends and extended family, said Cory Ahern.

He was heading out to search again Saturday with a few people from the community. The area of interest now, he said, is Ray Barrieau Lane, heading south toward Barnaby.

If anyone else searches, Ahern requests they let the family know so they can mark the area off on their map.