Respectfully snipped for space:
<So perhaps they can clarify... if these dogs are hitting on this wood... what are the options?
Did it HAVE to be in contact with decomposition fluid, or are there other possibilities?[/quote]>
Oh boy. I am
so unhappy with this situation right now, can't even tell ya. And my heart breaks yet again for the Cox family.
Why is this continually being referred to as a 'gravesite'? Where is the indication that this is a gravesite? The dog hits? The disturbed earth? People build campfires all the time, and then when they go to leave the site, many very responsibly cover any remaining embers with surrounding dirt so as not to start a wildfire. Looks a lot like disturbed earth- but it's not a grave.
Unless there are human remains identified at that specific coordinate, I don't understand how that term is being thrown around so loosely. If we are waiting to see if anything is identified by the lab as human remains (because there is nothing visible to the naked eye as human remains) then we can't call it a grave just yet.
Anyway... if the dog 'hits' are accurate (and I feel the need to talk about the verbage used here, because the media and handlers have also used 'showed interest in' - which is different than a true alert) then I would think there must be something other than charred wood found.
*Note: I do not believe that to be the case here, but that's moo.
An HRD dog should alert on human decomp present on a material, a substrate, remains etc. But completely charred wood? Not so much, because-even if HR scent was present at one time on the wood- the scent has been completely degraded and a properly trained HRD dog should NOT alert on that.
I'm not talking about human remains, such as a burnt body or parts of a body- I'm talking about wood. Now if there's some charred wood that had 'fresh' decomp
added to it then that might explain an alert. For example, someone builds a campfire with wood that has HR scent on it. The fire burns the wood. That HR scent is gone. Then a person comes along and cuts their hand while covering the burnt wood, bleeding all over the charred wood. Now we've got 'new' decomp, and an HRD dog should hit on
that. See what I mean?
Oiy. I am having a hard understanding this search.