On February 20, 2017 at approximately 7:30PM, Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Somerville and his canine partner, Diesel, were dispatched to the 100 block of Lisk Drive in Hainesville to assist in locating a missing 8-year old boy. The boy left his residence approximately one hour before the canine team arrived and efforts in locating him were unsuccessful to that point.

Deputy Somerville and Diesel arrived and began an immediate track for the missing child. Diesel gained the scent of the missing child from a pillow the boy uses. After learning the scent, Diesel began tracking and located the boy a short distance away, hiding in bushes, near an air conditioning unit. The child was uninjured and reunited with his parents.

Sheriff Mark Curran said, “A major fear for a parent is when they can’t find their child. I’m very thankful our canine team was able to quickly locate this missing boy and reunite him with his family.”

Undersheriff Ray Rose said, “Instances like this are exactly why our canine teams are trained in more than just contraband detection. They train at least twice a week in areas such as article searches and human tracking.”