Heather Roche began her SAR career in 1989 as part of a Virginia rescue squad's SAR team that specialized in cave/vertical, wilderness, and water rescue.  That first year she attained the 2nd highest training hours as she was training or attending classes every weekend.  Initially her interests were cave and water rescue since she spent several days a week underground and was an avid paddler.   Heather was introduced to canine SAR through squad friends.  Being initially skeptical, over time she realized that dogs had amazing talents and could find the subject or clues missed by ground searchers simply because the dog using its nose was far more effective than any human's eyes and ears.  So began her interest in training SAR dogs. 

Since 1989, Heather has...


 

•   Certified 4 dogs in wilderness,  cadaver, and water.  Red is also a FEMA USAR certified Type I disaster dog and IPWDA Disaster Search Certified.

  Alley

  Red

  Raven

  Cassy

•   Trained, experienced, and finds in:
   

  •  Wilderness: live, articles, inaccessible, and cadaver

  •  Water: fresh and aged

  •  Cadaver: above ground, buried, and buildings: including fresh and aged (modern, historical & pre-historical), disarticulated remains, crime scenes, evidence, residual scent, vehicle search, and arson/fire scenes.

  •  Urban & Natural Disasters
     

•   Worked with law enforcement agencies on numerous searches on the local, state, regional, and federal levels: VA/WV/NC/SC/MD/PA/DE/TX/DC/MS/LA/OK/FL/NY local and state police/sheriff/fire departments, county & state fire marshals & arson investigators, Federal Public Defenders Office (SC), VA/MD/NC Department of Natural Resources, NY DEC/Forest Rangers, Choctaw Wildlife & Parks Police and AG Office, Maryland National Capital Park Police, FEMA, NASA, KlassKids Search Center, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Team Adam & Project Alert teams, NecroSearch International, Navy Criminal Investigation Service, Army CID, and the FBI.

·         Approximately 300 local & national searches

o    Including Operation Noble Eagle - Pentagon September 16-27, 2001 for Human Remains Recovery and Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis, MS 2005

o    FEMA deployments include: La Plata Maryland tornado 2002, the Space Shuttle Columbia crew recovery efforts 2003, Toys R Us roof collapse 2003, Hurricane Isabel October 2003, Hurricane Rita 2005 and the NIH parking deck collapse 2004.

o    High profile cadaver searches
 

·         Certified 4 canines in various specialties (live, FEMA USAR, land & water cadaver)

·         FEMA Canine Search Specialist

·         Former VA State Certified Operational Dog Handler

·         Manage and lead searches.  Acting Field Team Leader.

·         Instructor, evaluator, & presenter

·         Currently investigating using canines for historical & ancient grave detection

•   Participated & assisted with instruction at the First & Second Human Remains Detection Specialized Training Invitationals hosted by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, K-9 Services of Washington County and Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

•   K9 Alley receives the American Kennel Club Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE) 2008 Honorable Mention for her Search & Rescue service.

•   Seminars/courses attended:

·   Andy Rebmann’s/K-9 Specialty Search Associates:
 

·          International Police Work Dog Association (IPWDA):

·          Independent land/building cadaver certification tests:

o    Evaluator: Lisa Higgins of CCC, LaSAR & St. Tammany Sheriff Dept

§   12/05, 12/07, 7/08, 11/09

o    Evaluator: Jonni Joyce  7/02

·          Independent water certification tests:

o    Evaluator: Lisa Higgins of CCC & LaSAR

§  5/07 & 7/08
 

·          FEMA’s Canine Search Specialist course at Disaster City, TX (week long) 10/02

·          Brevard County Sheriff's First Annual HRD Seminar (FL)(week long) 3/09

·          Canfield & Mosley K9 Seminar (3 days) (Instructor Lisa Higgins) 10/08

·          Old Dominion Water Cadaver Course (Instructor: Lisa Higgins) (week long) 10/01

·          Old Dominion Water Cadaver Course (Instructor: Lisa Higgins) (week long) 10/02 (Assistant Instructor)

·        Swift Water Level 1 (1 day)  5/01

·        NY SAR Council Seminar (USAR & cadaver - 2 days) 4/01

·       "Body Movement in Water"  (Instructor: Virginia State Police Diver, Mike Berry)(1 day) 6/99

·        MD National Capital Park Police: Mock Crime Scene & Moot Court 12/98

·        MD MSTTF SarEx Crime Scene Class 4/07

·        Jonni Joyce Instruction:

Attended NASAR’s annual conference 7/02 and 6/04

·        VA Department of Emergency Services:

·        National Cave Rescue Commission:

·        Triangle Rescue: Vertical Rope Rescue 1990

·        VAVRS:

·   Rocky Mountain National Park: 3 day SAR course 6/91

·   Wilderness First Aid & CPR

·   FEMA required HAZMAT, WMD & ICS courses

·   Certified EMT 1990-1998

·   Certified VCIN/NCIC (2 days) 1994

Class Instructor/Presenter:

·          Guest instructor in Georgia: Crime Scene Protocol/Report Writing; Advanced Cadaver class 12/00

·          Assistant cadaver instructor for week long water seminar at Old Dominion 10/02

·          Assisted with instruction at the First & Second Human Remains Detection Specialized Training Invitationals hosted by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, K-9 Services of Washington County and Mississippi Department of Archives and History. 2003 & 2004

·          Guest instructor for LaSAR on disaster/USAR scenes & skills for first responders & canines 6/05

·          Cadaver instructor at Jonni Joyce SAR Dog Workout Seminar 7/04 & 8/06

·          Cadaver instructor for beginning & advanced cadaver at DELMARVA SAR’s SarEx 5/05

·          Cadaver instructor for beginning & advanced cadaver at MSTTF SarEx 11/05 & 11/07

·          Cadaver instructor at Jonni Joyce SAR Train-the-Trainer Seminar 1/06

·          Cadaver instructor for land and water HRD at ARDA’s National 2006 Conference 10/06

·          Assistant cadaver instructor at Jonni Joyce Water Seminar 5/07

·          Assistant cadaver instructor at Canfield & Mosley K9 seminar 10/08

·          Cadaver instructor for Canfield K9 seminar 4/09 & week-long HRD class 10/09

·          Cadaver instructor for  Florida’s Brevard County Sheriff's Office “Back to the Basics” week long seminar 11/09

·          Cadaver instructor for land & building at ARDA’s National 2009 Conference 10/09

·          Presented on "Using Canines to Aid in Locating Historical and Pre-Historical Remains" to the Anne Arundel County Chapter of the Maryland Archaeology Society 10/04

·          Presented on "Using Canines as a Remote Sensing Tool: What Archaeologists Can Learn From Search & Recovery Dogs" & conducted field work with the Massanutten Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia 5/05

Memberships:

•   Founder of Bay Area Recovery Canines 2003 to present

•   FEMA - Maryland Task Force 1 canine handler March 2002 to present

•  Red certified Type I   4/07 

•  Red certified Type 2   2/05

•   National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

  •  NCMEC Team Adam & Project Alert HRD Resource List handler

•   National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA) member 2009 to present

  •   HRD K9 certified 3/09

•   United States Police Canine Association member (USPCA) 2008

•   International Police Work Dog Association (IPWDA) member 2006 & 2007

  •  2 Advanced Cadaver certified K9s

  •  1 USAR certified K9

•   Member of the National Search Dog Alliance  (NSDA) 2007 to present

  •  former member of USAR Standards Committee 

•   Instructor & Evaluator with Country Class Canines 1/08 to present

  •  3 Advanced Cadaver & Water certified K9s

•   Trainer on Jonni Joyce’s SAR Trainer Board August 2005 - 2007

•   Maryland SAR Teams Task Force (MSTTF) member

Affiliations/Other:

·  Bridgewater Tactical Rescue Squad 1989-1990

·  Harrisonburg Rescue Squad 1990

·  Blue and Gray SAR Dogs 1990-1996

    - 3 years as Training and Membership Officer

·  Dogs East 1996-2001

·  Chesapeake SAR 2001

·  Assisted training DC Metro Police Department’s cadaver K9s with MNCPP 4/01 & 3/02

·   NCRC-ER Staff Member 1990

·  Emergency 911 Dispatcher: Augusta County (police/fire/rescue)

·  National Park Ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park (1991):

    -  First ranger accompanied by a SAR dog in Rocky Mountain National Park

    - 3 Day SAR class Kick-off Presenter on using dogs for search work

    - Trained with SAR Dogs of Colorado

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Last modified: February 23, 2010