Late yesterday evening the team’s west section were called to carry out a small-scale search for a 51-year-old female, missing in the Swanpool area of Falmouth since the previous night. A dozen team members and a SARDA dog team proceeded to search woodland, open ground and urban areas late into the night.

Just before 2am search dog Blitz indicated on an area of deep undergrowth, where the missing female was found in a critical condition. Due to the effects of two cold nights and some significant injuries, she required immediate assistance from team medics. Further team members were deployed to help stabilise her before paramedics arrived and she could be evacuated to a waiting ambulance.

Once again this demonstrates the importance of our air-scenting search dogs, making the months and years of training so worthwhile. So congratulations to Jess and Blitz on a great find, but also to all the team members who gave up their night to save a life.

Further media coverage:
BBC Radio Cornwall (26:10 in)
ITV West Country
Pirate FM

Our regular pre-Christmas street collection outside Cotswold in Truro was interrupted by a local call-out, with team members downing collection boxes and picking up their search kit. Two foot teams and a SARDA search dog team were soon deployed to areas of open farmland near Redruth, searching for a despondent 27-year-old male. As a third foot team was about to deploy, the missing male returned home safe and well and the team were stood down.

The team were called out this evening after an 84-year-old male out walking his dog was reported as long-overdue in the Caradon Hill area near Minions. As the team were en route to the RV, the elderly gentleman found his way back to his car and was reunited with his wife, so the team stood down.

Yesterday’s search near Godolphin continued this morning, with the team being joined by five SARDA search dog teams that were originally planning to join us for training on Bodmin Moor for the day. The dog teams were deployed back into dense woodland searched by foot teams yesterday and also tasked to search large areas of open fields.

Very soon after being deployed, ‘Blitz’ (one of our own SARDA search dogs) had his first operational find, locating the body of a deceased male in an open field. Team members then liaised with the Police and Ambulance services to recover him to a nearby country lane. This was a sad ending to the extended search and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the missing person.

For the second Saturday in a row the team were called out to assist in the search for a despondent male, this time in the Godolphin area. Having been missing for several days, new information allowed high-priority search areas to be identified. Two foot teams and a SARDA dog team were tasked to search areas of woodland and scrub and these were covered by mid-afternoon and the team were stood down as police enquiries continue.

The team were called to assist Devon & Cornwall Police in the search for a missing 34-year-old despondent male near Launceston. As members were en route the missing males was located by police resources and the team were stood down.

The beautiful gardens at Heligan weren’t the only ones lost when the team was called to a 75 year old male who had become disorientated in the woods while trying to walk from Mevagissey to his holiday accommodation as darkness fell.

Police maintained phone contact with the male who was able to describe his surroundings while the two team SARDA dogs made their way to the location. They were stood down on arrival after a local police unit walked out to the male and managed to locate him.

Late evening the team were ‘paged’ by Devon & Cornwall Police to advise on the search for a 15-year-old male missing from home in the Redruth area since early afternoon.

After further investigation, and following a sighting of the teenager on his mountain bike in the Tehidy Woods area, the team were deployed to conduct ‘hasty checks’ of the numerous tracks and clearings in the surrounding area. Three foot teams searched extensive areas of the woodland until the early hours of the morning, before being stood down.

Thankfully the missing male returned home in the morning safe and well.

This evening saw widespread torrential rain in the west of the county, with over 25mm of rain in less than an hour in parts. This caused flash-flooding across the region and a major incident was declared, with the team put on stand-by to assist with flood response.

Members of west section gathered at the base in United Downs and were soon tasked to reports of people in stranded vehicles in Praze-an-Beeble. Thankfully the team found the road to be clear but only passable by 4×4 vehicles. Members were then deployed to Portreath after the Environment Agency declared a red alert for the river there. The river level was expected to rise as the catchment drained, but luckily the level remained safe and the team were stood down at 23:00 to return home.

News reports and videos of the flooding in Camborne, Pool and Falmouth are online here.

The team have just stood-down following one of the largest searches in the region in recent years. On Friday afternoon, 84-year-old Derek Dilworth went missing from his home near Darleyford on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Team members searched into the early hours of the Saturday morning in areas of woodland and fields close to his home address, but to no avail.

The search was then resumed on Saturday morning by Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team (Tavistock), with the assistance of two SARDA search dog teams. They searched through into the afternoon, using the daylight to cover areas previously only searched in darkness.

The search then scaled up on Sunday morning, with more than 40 volunteers from Cornwall and all four Dartmoor teams, along with three SARDA search dog teams and five team Land Rovers. Derek was thankfully then located late morning in fields to the north of his home address, cold and wet but stable. As a precaution he was flown to Derriford Hospital for a more thorough check-up. We’d like to thank all of our neighbouring teams who offered support in this search and for ensuring such a successful outcome.

UPDATE: Extra detail of the police search for Derek and the circumstances of his finding are now online.

After a quiet few weeks, the team were called this evening to assist in the search for a 16-year-old male missing since 4pm in the St Kew area. Initial thoughts were that he was still mobile, but having been missing for several hours and with very poor weather on the horizon, the team were tasked to search possible corridors of travel.

As the first team members were arriving at the RV, the missing teenager was located safe and well 8km from St Kew, so had indeed been quite mobile since going missing.

CSRT was contacted to provide assistance to search for a high risk missing person from out of the county after her personal belongings were found on the coast path between St Ives and Zennor.

With HM Coastguard already en route, the team provided two SARDA dogs to assist with the search but were stood down on arrival after a body was located by St Ives Lifeboat.

Team search managers were alerted at 6am this morning to a pending search in Kilkhampton near Bude, but following discussions with the Police control room, North Dartmoor SRT were called instead. Joined by Dartmoor SRT (Tavistock), HM Coastguard and many members of the local community, the search continued through the day, with members from Cornwall SRT joining the efforts in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, a body presumed to be that of Mark Gilbert was found late in the afternoon and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

Early evening, the team were called to assist in the search for a despondent 42-year-old male missing since mid-afternoon at Bodmin Beacon, following initial searches by Police dog units and the NPAS helicopter. Team members searched extensive areas of the Beacon and areas of woodland locally in classic Cornish mizzle, before the missing male was located by Police at a friend’s house at 10pm.

In a remarkably short call out, the team were called to search for a missing 17 year old female. Within a few minutes she was located by a police unit and the team stood down.