Teen Tracked
After missing for three days, dog helps find missing teen
By Katy England
Dec 2, 2009 - The Maine Edge
ORONO/TENNESEE – Orono Police Department, in conjunction with Julie Jones and her dog Quincy of VK9 were able to determine that a missing teen had taken the bus to Tennessee.
On Nov. 17, at approximately 7:30 p.m., police received a report of a teen who had been missing for around three days. An investigation revealed that the 16-year-old was not staying with friends or family in the surrounding area and Orono Police contacted Julie Jones of VK9 to see if she and her K-9 partner Quincy could track the youth. Officer Jason Zalva accompanied Jones and Quincy. Jones obtained a scent article and tracked from Talmar woods, through the Orono Land Trust walking trails, along Hillside Avenue and North Main Ave to a Bangor Area Transit bus stop.
They suspended the track there as Quincy had indicated that it had become a vehicle track (the youth had gotten on the bus). Jones took Quincy to Bangor, and Orono Police contacted Bangor Police and they met Jones at the Pickering Square BAT station. They picked up the trail there and tracked the youth to the Grayhound Station, where Quincy indicated that the juvenile had gone inside.
Police were able to determine that the 16-year-old had been sent a bus ticket by his biological mother to a town in Tennessee. Working with the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office, Orono Police determined that the young man was in the custody of his mother, who told officers she had paperwork that indicated she had full custody.
Sgt. Scott Wilcox of the Orono Police Department credited Jones in determining the whereabouts of the teen.
“The wonderful tracking job by Julie Jones and Quincy never ceases to amaze you when they work together,” he said.
