I don't think the dogs can smell all that good after the body has been gone for awhile.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2007/09/scent_of_a_dead_woman.html
and I don't think if they hit on the car that would be enough since it could just be blood.
Good article, but here's one that is a little more updated (a couple of months ago - right after CM disappeared) regarding cadaver dogs and their amazing ability to detect death:
'Cadaver dog' work more accepted by cops, courts
MARTHA IRVINE Associated Press | Posted 2 months ago
BENTON, Calif. The burly Labrador retriever sticks out his wide snout to sniff the dirt and dusty air. He's clearly excited as he runs, yelping, through the high desert of California's Eastern Sierra region.
Buster, go find! Paul Dostie commands.
They are a team, the black Lab and the retired police officer. For years, they have worked together to unlock mysteries to find the bodies of fighting men who fell long ago on foreign battlefields, or of victims of unsolved crimes or disappearances. In all, Dostie says that Buster's alerts have aided in the recovery of the remains of about 200 people.
He's a one-in-a-million dog, Dostie says.
Maybe, but he's far from the only dog doing this kind of work. Increasingly, law enforcement investigators across the country are putting their faith in dogs like Buster to help find remains bodies, bones and blood from the missing and the murdered. Cadaver dogs, as these specially trained canines are sometimes called, were used in searches after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and to help find victims of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.
More recently, these dogs have helped convict some murder suspects, even when no body is found. Trainers and some forensic scientists say the dogs can detect human residue that's been left behind in a trunk, or on a blanket or tarp, or a temporary grave of some sort. In some cases, the dogs also help pinpoint areas where air and soil can be tested with increasingly sophisticated detection devices though these methods have not been without controversy.
Proving what these dogs know isn't easy.
If only Buster could talk, Dostie quips, as he works his dog through a wide patch of scraggly brush, about 50 miles east of Yosemite National Park.
Near an old mine shaft, Buster eventually zeroes in on a spot, then stops and barks with more urgency. Show me, Buster! Dostie shouts.
In his younger days, Buster would lie down on a spot like this to indicate an alert. But having lost a leg to cancer, the 12-year-old canine now prefers to poke his nose in the direction of a particular spot in the dirt, or at a rock, or whatever has set off his nose.
As a reward, Dostie tosses Buster a blue rubber toy he's been holding behind his back while the dog searches. Good boy, he says.
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More at link.....
http://www.theeagle.com/news/nation...dc4-592b-11e4-9c2e-f75d09a793d3.html?mode=jqm
eace:
