Always on call, all volunteer

By Charles Sowell  

AUGUST 11, 2010 7:35 a.m. (0)

One of the greatest joys for members of South Carolina’s all-volunteer Search Tactics Rescue Recovery (STARR) team is when the grim task of body recovery becomes a rescue.

It doesn’t happen often as the members of the team respond to official agency requests across the state and region. But from time to time, like in a recent call to the western portion of the state to help find a missing Alzheimer’s patient, the cadaver dogs sniff out a survivor and not a victim, said Stephen Pearrow, founder and director of the unit.

Pearrow said the team only responds to requests from official agencies for help. They don’t want to become involved in turf wars, just help with tough situations that call for extra manpower, tools and expertise.

All of the team members are certified in one or more areas of search, recovery or rescue and most have backgrounds in law enforcement. The list of resources the STARR teams bring to a scene is impressive: mobile command post, horses, ATVs, dive boats and lots of highly trained dogs.

Burgess Shucker is a typical team member. Shucker, a Greenville County resident, is a military veteran who has done police work out of state and who moved back to pursue other interests.

He became involved with STARR to be part of something bigger than himself, to be of service. It is his way to scratch an itch that seems common in the group.

“Mountain rescues and recoveries take a lot of manpower and work,” he said in a recent interview. “There is, of course, the terrain which is difficult and lost or missing hikers can get into some pretty hairy situations but we have the gear and the training to deal with that.”

Burgess said a surprising number of bodies are found along the Blue Ridge Parkway every year and the STARR team plays a hand in finding some of them.

“Our dogs are just amazing,” he said. “A highly-trained dog can detect a single drop of blood in a swimming pool.”

Pearrow, who is a former state trooper and now works as a dog handler for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department says the dogs have good days and bad.

“They’re dogs and sometimes they just don’t feel like working,” he said. “But overall our success rate is pretty high.”

STARR team members were called to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to help in body recovery efforts.

“They treated us like royalty down there,” Pearrow said. “Put us up in a five-star hotel and nobody said a word when we’d come in sweaty and tired with our dogs to get some rest.”

The dogs stayed in the rooms with their handlers.