How Cadaver Dogs Sniff Out and Dig Up Decaying History
By Joshua Rapp Learn. Mar 6, 2023 8:00 AM
The scent of death revealed the location of the grisly, cannibalistic end to a hopeful trip to California nearly 175 years ago. This is thanks to cadaver-sniffing dogs who seem to have proven the ability to detect death thousands of years after some burials at historic sites.
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The Donner Party was a group of pioneers that attempted to migrate from Illinois to California in search of opportunity via a wagon train that partly followed the Oregon Trail starting in the spring of 1846.
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“This was the site called the Camp of Death,” says John Grebenkemper, a dog handler at the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF). The nonprofit was established 25 years ago in San Francisco to help detect ancient burials.
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In recent years, Grebenkemper’s dog Kayle, specially trained to sniff out cadavers, may have identified several of the places where people in the Donner Party died based on whiffs of decay that have lingered for nearly two centuries.
(Credit: Capuski/GettyImages)
A Unique Visit to the Hacienda Cemetery
By Veronica Jordan
Vol. 63, Issue 2 June 2022
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Back in April, our Pioneers’ Hacienda Cemetery in New Almaden was once again full of people, but not for a funeral. The last known burial in the now defunct cemetery was in 1920. No, this time a dog ac-companied each human and it was a good thing! Lisa Lee, a team coordinator for the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) asked the Pioneers if we would allow a team of canine handlers to visit the cemetery (owned by the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County and located on Bertram Road in San Jose) to train their dogs in detecting historic burials.
A Unique Visit to the Hacienda Cemetery
By Veronica Jordan
Vol. 63, Issue 2 June 2022
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Back in April, our Pioneers’ Hacienda Cemetery in New Almaden was once again full of people, but not for a funeral. The last known burial in the now defunct cemetery was in 1920. No, this time a dog ac-companied each human and it was a good thing! Lisa Lee, a team coordinator for the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) asked the Pioneers if we would allow a team of canine handlers to visit the cemetery (owned by the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County and located on Bertram Road in San Jose) to train their dogs in detecting historic burials.
Archeologists use canine forensics to find cremated remains after wildfire
Jefferson Public Radio | By Roman Battaglia
Published November 25, 2022 at 5:45 AM PST
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Lynne Engelbert and her dog Piper investigate a pile of ash they suspect could be the cremated remains of Kelly Greer's husband. An urn containing his ashes was lost during the McKinney Fire.
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Photo by Mason Trinca for
The Washington Post
Dogs help wildfire survivors recover their most precious possession: Human cremains
By LINDA CHILDERS | DEC 29, 2018
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The 73-year-old widower pointed to the mantel that once held his wife’s urn. His most precious possession was now missing, lost amid the ashes created by California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire in history.
Photo by: Irfan Khan
Los Angeles Times
Search dogs and archaeologists look for cremated remains amid a wildfire's debris
By DAVID MONTERO | DEC 06, 2018
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Adela Morris, left, and Lynne Engelbert of the Institute for Canine Forensics watch as Jasper sniffs through the rubble of Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein's home looking for her mother's cremated remains after the Woolsey fire gutted Vainstein's home.
Forensic Dogs Locate Spot Where Amelia Earhart May Have Died
BY RACHEL HARTIGAN SHEA | Published July 7, 2017
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NIKUMARORO ISLAND, KIRIBATI -- Four bone-sniffing dogs that were brought to this remote Pacific island to search for traces of Amelia Earhart have identified a spot where the pioneering aviator may have died 80 years ago.
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The dogs—four border collies named Marcy, Piper, Kayle, and Berkeley—arrived on the island on June 30 as part of an expedition sponsored by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) and the National Geographic Society.
Far Western and Institute for Canine Forensics Identify Emigrant Grave
Published July 24, 2017
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As part of the NV Energy Assets surveys and site evaluations on the Tahoe National Forest in 2011, Far Western recorded a possible historic grave site on the Overland Emigrant Trail near Truckee. At the request of Forest Service Heritage Program Manager Carrie Smith, we contacted the non-profit Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) to investigate. The ICF has worked on many archaeological sites, including the Donner Camp, a WWII aircraft crash in Goose Lake, Oregon, and graves under the chapel floor of the Santa Barbara Presidio. Currently they are in the South Pacific on an expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society to look for remains of Amelia Earhart and her navigator, missing since 1937.
What A Nose! Trained Dogs Sniff Out Pioneer Era Graves
By Tom Banse | Published on Sepember 29, 2017
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Some very special search dogs have been getting a workout in the Northwest. They’re trained to sniff out the remains of people buried as long as 9,000 years ago. This past week, their assignment was to find burials from the early Oregon Trail days.
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You've heard of hunting dogs and search and rescue dogs. There are drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs. And now, the increasing canine specialization brings: historic and prehistoric human remains detection dogs.