From what distance can a cadaver dog sniff out a body?
Hi Chilly, I don't know the distance, but have studied this very subject in the Madeleine McCann case.
Simplified version: A person's specific Death Scent is purely chemical, and every person has an individual scent unlike any other person as every body is different chemically.
From the minute of death this scent is created and starts to be emitted as the body enters initial decomposition. And within approx 1 1/2 to 2 hours, this Death Scant can be sniffed by a Recovery dog.
This scent travels in waves, layers so to speak that float and waft through the air in layers, moved by the air currents and then falling gently down as they are heavier than the air itself.
First a chemical smell will be sniffed by the dog, entering his very complicated nose sensory system, then in a bit another of the same will enter his nose. He will move to travel in the direction from whence came that scent, and then as the scent particles increase in number, the dog hones his senses and follows the trail.
Soon the scent is floating down thru the air to him at a steadier pace, and at some certain point, That's It. He is at ground base as the complex scent molecules joined together as a unit hit all the parts of his complicated nose. There he is at the site where the dead body lays in repose, or where a corpse or something that has been in physical contact with the corpse is discovered or has even been placed there at one time. He alerts. And the strength of his alert depends on the strength of the scent.
That is a really simplified version. Dogs are amazing and they never lie. They like to eat, and food is a reward for a job well done!~
xox
ETA: Chilly, do we know that the Orlando police specifically brought cadaver dogs in to search these woods before the body was found?
On Nancy's show it was brought up that because of Hurricane Fay {Aucust 20 is when that hit} cadaver dogs were in that area. I think Nancy pointed out they might not have been brought to that specific site.
I have watched Cadaver dogs work, and that alone is a complicated process. Even the best, Eddie from the Suffolk PD doesn't always go right to the scent as scents have degrees. They might go back and forth, around the scent as their nose picks up on it, and then suddenly WHAM BAM, their nose is flooded with the scent and they alert in the way they have been taught.