IMO - Personally, I find it absolutely staggering that bodies so often turn up in previously searched areas. How does this happen? What exactly are the searchers doing for it to so often appear that human beings searching for a body in any kind of rural area, are woefully inadequate. Is there anything that can be changed to make searches more successful? Why are human bodies so difficult to find, even when not purposefully hidden? My questions are merely my own musing but feel free to answer any of them. MOO
Having volunteered in grid searches I can say that the searchers are doing their best, but they too are only human and a body, especially a small body, can be very easy to overlook. On the one hand you are supposed to check under every branch, look into every cranny, but on the other hand during initial searches at least there’s the silent pressure to cover ground more quickly, to find the person fast. Sometimes one section of the chain (of searchers) will have easier terrain to go over than another section so they advance more rapidly, which again creates pressure which might cause something to be overlooked or gaps may form before regrouping. When the chain is halted to inspect something more closely (or to adjust pace), people get distracted, they start chatting, looking around, and from my experience it takes them a few strides to get back on task, so to say. Two people walking side-by-side might both be looking in the wrong direction at the wrong time. People’s eyesight varies, their depth of vision varies, even the ability to “look” at a scene varies (think of the
pink elephant invisible gorilla video - our brain is very good at blocking out information it doesn’t deem important).
These are my observations from volunteering. I’m sure professional SAR units have been extensively trained and many of these issues are mitigated but again, they are only human and they don’t have xray vision.
I’ve been “lucky” in the sense that nothing has been later discovered in “my” sectors, but you are constantly thinking about was I thorough enough, did I miss anything… And what we’ve been told is that it’s normal and unfortunately something you have to learn to let go of, because sometimes stuff is missed and that’s the reality of these kinds of searches.
Edited to add: another factor which I forgot to mention initially is that people curl up when they are cold and scared, and they can fit into unbelievably tight spots. Even adults, let alone a child. My bf’s 3 year old fits easily into a paper shopping bag. Imagine looking for a shopping bag in the field.
