Check out our latest K9 Spotlight story featuringDetective Dennis Woodring and K-9 Loki ofDauphin County, PA.
“It was a Sunday in April of 2014. I was at home and we had been called to a large fire in Susquehanna Township early in the morning that day—that fire was an accidental fire. Later on in the afternoon we got called to a second fire, a structure fire at a residence.
“When the firefighters arrived, there were a couple of things that they realized that were unusual about this scene. Number one, they had a tremendous amount of fire, and that kind of made them suspicious, because there was nothing in the house to burn. There was no furniture or anything. So that’s when they requested that Loki and I go there to process the scene. Also, the owner was on the scene, and when the police officers discovered him, his hair was singed, which was more evidence that he might have been involved.
“The second floor had collapsed, but Loki was able to locate the scent of gasoline in the rubble. The police department took the owner to their offices to be interviewed, and he consented to having Loki search his clothes. He admitted to being there at the house, although he said he wasn’t responsible for the fire. When Loki searched him, she alerted on his pants. So they were sent to the lab and the lab came back positive for the presence of gasoline. And we knew gasoline was used to start the fire.
“We had a trial this past November where he was charged with arson. One of the firefighters got hurt in the fire, and the DA brought the arson charge that covers the firefighter, which is a Felony One, along with insurance fraud, because he did file an insurance claim. it just recently wrapped up in court—the jury was out for about two hours and they came back and convicted him of everything.”
