Cairn Canine Detection (a 501C)
What We Do:
Cairn Canine Detection uses highly specialized human remains detection K9s and search planning tools to locate and document human remains. We often work closely with law enforcement, forensic experts, archaeologists and other relevant stakeholders to gather information, analyze data and develop search plans that maximize the chances of locating old human remains including scattered bones and burials while providing crucial support in investigations and answers for families and communities. Our work typically falls into two general areas:
- Old cold cases working directly with law enforcement at their request
- Historical searches working with archeologists, historians, Native American communities and others to restore cemeteries and locate old human remains and unmarked graves
K9 Teams used by Cairn Canine are typically certified in both crime scene and historical human remains detection. It is important to note that the use of human remains detection K9s is just one tool in a broader range of methods employed on a search.
Our Team
Cairn Canine Detection is governed by a four-person Board with over 70 years of combined experience working in search and recovery utilizing K9s and state of the art search planning strategies. Additionally Cairn Canine Detection utilizes professional volunteer members for specific projects.
Board Members:
- President: Suzanne Elshult
- Vice President: Guy Mansfield
- Treasurer/Secretary: June Mansfield
- Member At Large: Sally Olsen
Suzanne Elshult
Suzanne Elshult/President and K9 Handler/Trainer with Cairn Canine Detection with K9 Kili. Suzanne has been active training and deploying with her detection dogs since 2001. She is the past President of Cascadia Search Dogs. Suzanne and her human remains detection K9s specialize in historical/archaeological search and old cold cases. She has also held leadership positions with both the Snohomish County K9 Volunteer Search and Rescue Team and Everett Mountain Rescue. She and her Labrador Retrievers have deployed on hundreds of missions including historical/archeological projects and many old cold cases, both as a Project Lead and as a K9 handler.
More about Suzanne
Suzanne has been recognized for her efforts in the K9 detection community and received the Washington State Search and Rescue Leadership Award in 2017. She is a Principal Evaluator of human remains detection dogs with the National Search Dog Alliance. Suzanne and her dogs deploy on search and rescue missions in Washington State through Mason County Search and Rescue. She has an M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has devoted her professional career to building organizational leadership and emotional intelligence, first as a senior executive and later in her practice as a Transformational Coach. She is a Karen Pryor Professional Dog Trainer and Certified Training Partner and has coached working dog handlers locally, regionally as well as in British Columbia, Sweden and Denmark. Suzanne is the co-author with Guy Mansfield of the award-winning bestseller A Dog’s Devotion: True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team.
June Mansfield
June Mansfield has been active in Search and Rescue since 2009 and is a Certified Field Support Member. June has an extensive background in administration and fundraising. In addition to being the Treasurer of Cairn Canine Detection, she is a member of Cascadia Search Dogs, Mason County Search Dogs, Snohomish County Volunteer Search & Rescue and the WA State SAR Planning Unit. June has been the recipient of the Snohomish County Volunteer Search & Rescue President’s Award which is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the building of SCVSAR. June has also served as the K9 Operational Lead on several large missions utilizing K9 teams from multiple counties and more recently on historical search projects.
Guy Mansfield
Guys Mansfield, PhD/Vice President, has been active in Search and Rescue since 2008, with experience as a member of Everett Mountain Rescue and the Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue. He has deployed on SAR missions ranging from wilderness searches to technical rope-rescues, to disaster searches, to urban searches for Alzheimer patients. He has assisted law enforcement on searches for human remains and clandestine graves on major homicide cases. Guy is a founder and Director of the Washington State SAR Planning Unit and has served as Operations Section Chief and Planning Section Chief on some of the largest searches in northwest Washington State.
More about Guy
He has been recognized by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department, Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, the Seattle Fire Department, and the Governor of Washington State for his role on high-profile search and rescue incidents. He has a Ph.D. from the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health Sciences University and has done research at the University of Washington and the University of Illinois Medical School. Guy has authored over a dozen scientific papers as well as several technical business articles.
He is the co- author with Suzanne Elshult of A Dogs Devotion: True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team. Guy also has experience as the Plans Chief for historical human remains detection projects.
Sally Olsen
Sally and her K9s have been on numerous missions involving cold cases -assisting law enforcement with old unsolved cases. In the past year she has begun training in historical human remains detection and has assisted in several detection projects at old cemeteries.
Sally is an active member and co-founder of Kitsap County Search Dogs and was the chair from 2016-2020. She received statewide recognition for her leadership in the K9 community by receiving the Washington State Search and Rescue Leadership Award in 2018. She is a Principal Evaluator of human remains detection dogs with the National Search Dog Alliance (NSDA) and the Search and Rescue Association of the United State (SARDUS).
Sally is a retired Superior Court Judge in Kitsap County where she handled a wide variety of cases including murders, contract disputes, personal injury and family law/juvenile cases since 2005. Prior to that, Sally was in private practice and was a deputy prosecuting attorney for King County. When she is not training her dogs or evaluating K9 teams, she is a private mediator with Olsen Mediation Services.
Meet Our Professional Volunteer Associates
Kristine Lesperance
Kris Lesperance, Ph.D. has been active in SAR since 1990. She started as a mantracker with Contra Costa County SAR and mission ready handler with California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA), working as a hasty team member in the (then) abduction capitol of the US. After responding to numerous searches throughout California, a move to Eastern Washington supplied Kris with working knowledge of searching in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. There she responded on over a hundred searches, from high country wilderness to human remains detection on many notable cases.
She became active with NASAR, taught Fundamentals of SAR, evaluated SARTech II certifications, and ran NASAR canine certifications in multiple locations domestically and internationally. She and her husband established their Spokane home as what many called a “SAR Camp,” running integrated multiple SAR discipline trainings and evaluations on their own property and the surrounding public lands. After cofounding two successful search and rescue teams and training hundreds, a move to Hawai’i afforded Kris the opportunity to become the master trainer for the new State Civil Defense (now HEMA) canine urban search and rescue team, where she helped multiple team members reach SARTech II and NASAR Disaster certifications and with deployment on the Kaloko Dam Disaster.
Kris has earned multiple certifications from a lifetime in SAR, Having certified five of her own dogs in different SAR disciplines across her SAR career, Kris has now returned to Washington state, and is grateful and honored to be an Associate Member of Carin Canine Detection, and a member of Cascadia Search Dogs. She is now training her new pup Sage in Human Remains Detection and Historical Human Remains Detection.
Dan Merrifield
Dan Merrifield has been active in Search and Rescue since 2011. He has an extensive background and training in mission planning and has served as Planning or Operations Section Chief on numerous SAR missions
Dan is a member of the WA State SAR Planning Unit, Mason County SAR K9 team, and is a member of the following teams in Snohomish County: SCVSAR Operational Support Unit (OSU), SCVSAR Alderwood Unit, Everett Mountain Rescue Unit and SCVSAR Project Care Track.
Dan and Belle are certified in Historical Human Remains Detection and deploy as an associate of Carin Canine Detection as well as a contractor with the Canine Forensics Foundation. They are currently training for their land human remains certification.
Public Relations
Our K9s often participate in public relations and educational events. As a not-for-profit organization we do fund-raising events to off-set expenses related to meeting training and certification requirements, expenses related to projects and specialized equipment such as high accuracy GPS technology. Our dogs can also be ambassadors and participate in events, campaigns, public gatherings and support awareness campaigns to help the causes we engage with. For example, to raise the awareness about a particular initiative such as the Native American boarding school children or the missing and murdered indigenous women and people.
Programs
Carin Canine Detection projects are labors of love and are typically non-compensated except for occasional reimbursement for lodging and expenses. We carefully select projects that have a cause we connect with and where we believe our resources can make a meaningful difference.
Native American Boarding Schools
Cairn Canine Board members started researching the dark history of Native American boarding schools in 2020 and recently engaged in a project in collaboration with Cascadia Search Dogs with the Yakama Cultural Resources Management Program working with Jon Shellenberger, Project Manager and Archaeologist for the Fort Simcoe Boarding School Project. Phase 2 of this project was completed in the Fall of 2023 with plans for Phase 3 in the Spring of 2024. Cairn Canine Detection is very aware of the importance of respecting cultural practices and understanding that Native American cultures are diverse and have their own unique rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs. Follow this link for a recent NPR podcast on this project. https://suzanneelshult.com/with-dogs-and-radar-we-continue-to-volunteer-at-mool-mool-looking-for-native-american-unmarked-graves/
Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP)
Cairn Canine Detection Board members initiated research on the MMIWP project in 2020 and started participating on regularly scheduled Zoom calls with the MMIWP Criminal Justice and Public Safety Sub-committee in the Summer of 2023. Guy Mansfield and Suzanne Elshult did a presentation to sub-committee members in the Fall of 2023. It is crucial to ensure that any future involvement of our K9s in the MMIWP program is done respectfully and in consultation with indigenous communities and organizations of the affected communities and families.
Cemetery Restoration
Cairn Canine Detection in collaboration with Cascadia Search Dogs started working with the Seabeck Cemetery Restoration Project located on the Kitsap Peninsula in 2023 as a local chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution started looking for a project to celebrate America’s 250 th birthday in 2026. Cairn Canine and Cascadia Search Dogs are supporting the Elizabeth Ellington DAR Chapter of the American Revolution by providing our historical human remains detection dogs and search planning expertise to help preserve, restore and locate unmarked graves.
Northern State Hospital
Cairn Canine Detection has initiated a project with the Northern State Hospital Cemetery Restoration Project Lead, John Horne, to explore the use of our historically trained human remains detection dogs to locate unmarked graves in the fenced in cemetery and also to determine if there are unmarked graves outside the designated cemetery. Northern State Hospital at one time was the largest asylum in Washington State and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Seattle Times article.