Will County Adds New Scent K9 To Department

The Will County Sheriff’s office is adding a seventh dog to its specialized K9 Unit. Currently the department has five narcotics dogs, one explosive detection dog and as of September 21st, “Liz” has joined the team. K9 “Liz” is a scent discriminate bloodhound, is 10-months old, and is in the process of completing her training to locate a missing person by using the individual’s unique scent. Will County purchased K9 Liz from Tallahassee-based Scent Evidence K9 when she was only 3-months old and the Sheriff’s Office has been following her training progress since then. When Liz reported for duty on Monday, she met her new handler, Sheriff’s Deputy Marty Stortz and Sergeant Jeff Pogose.

The Scent Evidence Preservation kits that are used by Liz provide a way for families and caregivers to pre-collect a scent article from an individual and store it in case a person goes missing. Once the kit is completed, it is kept at the home or facility where the at-risk individual resides and remains effective for up to 10 years. Liz was named in honor of Elizabeth Smart who is a survivor and child safety advocate. Smart gained national attention when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City at age 14 and was held for nine months with her captors in the wilderness of Utah. The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, located in Utah, has collaborated with Scent Evidence K9 on several projects to help promote more effective search response methods in missing person cases.