Alton Police K9 team locates missing woman, feet from lake

ALTON — A K9 officer and his human partner used their extensive training to quickly locate a missing woman on Saturday, who left home near Lake Winnipesaukee.

Det. Sgt. Kyle Donahue of the Alton Police Department responded to a call near Mount Major Highway and Gilford, at approximately 8 a.m. on Aug. 8, about a woman suffering from cognitive decline who had been missing for an hour.

Since the home was close to Winnipesaukee, Donahue called Marine Patrol as well as Alton Police Officer Christian Johnson and his K9 partner Ripp. Marine Patrol Officer Julia Annunziato went out on the water to check for any sign of the missing woman.

Johnson said he used the woman’s pillowcase as a “scent starter” for Ripp to follow. At her house, Ripp circled the outside of the house twice, then made a beeline for three houses over, a decent distance from her home.

Johnson and Ripp located the woman on a rocky slope mere feet from the water’s edge, at 9:30 a.m. She was suffering from non-life-threatening injuries, after landing face-first on a rock. Johnson said the left side of the woman’s face was swollen, and her left eye was swollen shut.

Johnson has been a member of the NH Police K9 Academy since 2006, and also started his first K9 program in Northwood, in 2006. He has served as a K9 officer and handler in Alton for 18 years. Ripp is his fourth dog, who he's had and trained for a little over a year.

Johnson said different dogs have different motivations. Ripp is a high-drive dog who is incredibly ball-oriented. Johnson's first dogs were more food-oriented, while his last dog, Timber, loved balls, like Ripp.

During training, Johnson associated his scent for Ripp, laying hot dogs and other motivators on a track, aiming to get him to keep his nose down. Ripp had no interest in food, and total interest in his ball. The track Johnson used is a 30-40-foot straight track.

“When he tracks somebody, he thinks he’s looking for his ball,” Johnson said. “So, when I get him out of the vehicle, I give him a certain command. And that means I want him to look for a scent.”

Johnson said, for instances like Saturday morning in an area where he had no idea where the missing woman left the house and where she went in the yard, there’s no a great starting place for Ripp. In these cases, he will use a “scent article” or “scent starter,” such as the pillowcase.

“The wind off the lake at the start made it a little more difficult for him to work it out, and that’s why we ended up going around the yard twice before he — actually, all of a sudden it was like a light switch went turned on, and we were on it,” Johnson said. “It was like somebody just gave him a fish hook and wheeled him right in. He took a hard left, and almost took me off my feet he was pulling so hard.”

Alton Police Chief Adam Painchaud said the woman suffered injuries to her head as well as her hip, and appeared to have been laying there for a while when she was found along the water’s edge.

Annunziato docked the boat to assist Alton Police in treating the woman on-scene. Fire Rescue Capt. Patrick Obrien and firefighter Christopher Panek arrived after, and carried the woman to an ambulance, where she was transported to Concord Hospital for further care.