Rosie the search dog looks for Deanie Peters

By Joe LaFurgey

IONIA COUNTY, Mich. (WOOD) -- Rosie is a specially trained search dog. She's been trained to sniff for human remains that could be hundreds of years old. She and a human search team are in northwest Ionia County trying to find Deanie Peters.

Deanie disappeared from her brother's wrestling practice at Forest Hills Central Middle School in February 1981. She's never been seen since.

The Kent County cold case team re-opened the case in March. And on this day, the search-and-rescue team was on the case.

Rosie, a Doberman, is known as a historic cadaver dog. She and other dogs like her are trained to find unmarked Civil War graves, Indian burial grounds and other long-lost bodies.

"As it turns out, the chemical compositions in bone fragments don't completely break down," said searcher Maria Ciski. "A dog can still smell them if they're several hundred years old. There's still enough scent there so they can identify them."

Rosie and Ciski made the trip to northwest Ionia County from Wichita, Kansas. Not officially connected with the cold-case team, the search-and-rescue group decided to take a look in two sites long familiar to police.

Police previously searched each site and found nothing. Rosie, who either finds evidence or clears the scene about 80 percent of the time, also found nothing. But Ciski still considers this a succesful search, because now this site can be eliminated.

Previous story from 24 Hour News 8:

Deanie Peters disappearance remains a mystery after 27 years