ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Do you love someone with dementia? Or a child on the autism spectrum? Or someone prone to get lost?
Maybe you need a free scent jar in your refrigerator.
People who care for a child who might wander off or an adult with Alzheimer's live with the fear they'll become a missing persons case.
But the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office wants to get the word out about their program to help save lives.
"We want you to reach out to us," Sheriff Robert Hardwick said. "We want to educate our community that this program even exists."
Hardwick said he has a dedicated team of experts to help locate your loved one.
But they could use your help. If you live in St. Johns County, do you have a free scent kit? .
It could mean your loved one is found alive and safe.
Here's how it works:
- You take a sterile cloth provided in the scent kit and --wearing gloves --swipe under your loved one's arm five times.
- You carefully put the cloth -- still wearing gloves ---into a glass scent jar and put the red EVIDENCE tape over the top.
- You store the jar in your refrigerator. It is good for 10 years. If you go out somewhere, say camping, keep the jar in a cooler.
- If your love ones goes missing, call 911. Tell them you have a scent jar.
- The bloodhounds can track the scent of your loved one and potentially save hours of searching.
- Again, the scent jar kit is free.
You can also purchase a SAFE TRAK bracelet, which has an electronic tracking device to help find your loved one. The cost for that is $250.
Ramona Davis, who's the officer leading the SJCSO missing persons tracking team, has been working these cases for 13 years now. She knows the clock is the villain.
"Within the hour, we need to have found that child," Davis said.
She added it's important to work quickly for missing adults, as well.
Cecelia and Conrad Karway are a couple living in St. Augustine. He was CFO of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Cecelia says he now has dementia.
"It was 1:30 in the morning," Cecelia Karway recalled. Her husband just disappeared through a garage door. She called 911.
Fortunately, she had his scent preserved in the free scent jar in her refrigerator. Davis and her team rushed over to their home and began tracking with the SAFE TRAK electronic device because Conrad wears the special bracelet on his ankle.
It can also be worn on the wrist.
However, the electronic device didn't ping right away. So they showed the scent jar to the trained bloodhounds.
"The dog took off and showed us the direction to go," Davis remembered. "It saved us a couple hours. It made a huge difference."
Eventually, the bracelet SAFE TRAK device kicked in and helped the search team. They found Conrad "in the dark...about three and a half miles away," according to Davis.
He was out wandering, lost, in his undershorts, according to Cecelia.
Cecelia, of course, was grateful. "I sat on my porch from 1:30 in the morning until 6:30 until he came home," she says.
Melanie Merritt has trained bloodhounds for years in St. Johns County. Her current tracking bloodhound, Daisy Mae, has recently located six missing persons.
Merritt says bloodhounds sniff the scent of millions of dead skin cells humans constantly give off into the air.
"Just like a dog sheds fur, we shed our skin," Merritt explained.
Merritt says a bloodhound can even track those skin cells floating up in water, should a missing person be in a pond or lake.
She says the bloodhounds' large ears function as brooms, sweeping up the skin cells into their highly-efficient noses to smell.
Merritt says the scent jars can save so much time.
Too often, she says, when a parent is in a panic because a child is lost, they hand deputies an article or clothing or they invite them into the child's bedroom.
She says the last person to touch, say the t-shirt, leaves a fresh scent on that shirt and that wastes time. It can confuse the bloodhound for a bit.
So, as the SJCSO office is saying, apply for the free scent kit. And if you choose, purchase the electronic SAFE TRAK device.
That precious time you save could spare you from heartache.
By the way, in Jacksonville, the sheriff's office is training a bloodhound now so JSO can add the program, perhaps this summer.