The Porter County Search and Rescue Team (PCSRT) successfully completed another mission, thanks to K-9 Jakob, Porter Fire Chief Jay Craig’s partner, according to the Town of Chesterton.
The search took place in Wheatfield, after a 10-year-old girl whom Craig characterized as “despondent” went missing Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 13, the Town of Chesterton reported. Craig got the call at 6:22 p.m., some two hours after the girl was last seen running into a cornfield.
Craig and PCSRT responded, with Jakob, and arrived at the scene at 7:10 p.m. to join other agencies already searching. His first stop was the girl’s bedroom, where Craig used a gauze pad rubbed on her pillow and sheets to give Jakob a sniff of her primary scent. Then Craig, Jakob, and Union Township Firefighter Cody Chayhitz—a K-9 handler in training—headed into the cornfield.
Craig said this proved a difficult terrain for a dog on a leash as Jakob kept getting tangled in the corn stalks. Craig let Jakob off the leash and about 100 yards in, after approximately 30 minutes of active searching, Jakob found the girl hiding in a ravine. Officers’ first sight of the girl was her popping her head up on hearing Jakob’s determined rustling.
Craig said the girl was okay.
Additional details can be found on the Town of Chesterton Facebook page.