A search by Oak Bluffs police for a missing 3-year-old girl named Amelia ended happily Saturday morning when Edgartown K-9 Officer Jeff Trudel and his partner, Buster, a 5-year old black Lab, found the child wet, cold, and shivering off an overgrown path near her house in the Bayes Hill section of Oak Bluffs.
At approximately 6:15 am Saturday, Oak Bluffs police responded to Bayes Hill for a report of a missing child. “Both parents told responding officers that they last saw their daughter at midnight, and when they woke up at 6 am, the front door to the residence was unlocked,” Oak Bluffs Detective Sergeant Nicholas Curelli said in a press release. “Her parents called police when they realized that she was not in the house, or the yard.”
The heavy rain at the time made exposure to the elements a crucial concern of officers, Sergeant Curelli said. Oak Bluffs police requested assistance from surrounding police agencies and began a search of the area. Edgartown Police Officer Jeffrey Trudel and Buster began to search the neighborhood.
“Approximately one hour later, Officer Trudel and K-9 Buster located the child lying in the fetal position shivering, several hundred yards off of the roadway in an overgrown path,” Sergeant Curelli said. “She was cold from the heavy rain and told Officer Trudel that she was OK and ‘couldn’t find Mommy.’ She then began to pet Buster.”
The little girl was soon reunited with her parents, who were visiting the Island. Oak Bluffs EMS later transported the child and her parents to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for evaluation, police said. She was fine.
The parents, who asked not to be identified, said they were grateful to the Island police officers and, of course, Buster.
Officer Trudel said Buster has helped find individuals in the past, but those searches ended with the discovery of suicides. “This is the first real happy ending,” he said.
Buster joined the force in 2011. In addition to finding lost children, he is trained for drug investigations. An Island-wide agreement makes him available to any department upon request. In December 2011, Edgartown seasonal resident Ernie Boch Jr., president and CEO of Subaru of New England, donated a specially equipped vehicle for the Island’s new K-9 unit worth $65,000.