A Man and His Dog Help Search for Body of Murdered Baby

Last Sunday at this time, Matt Johnson and his dog, Sascha, were searching a landfill in Zion, IL, for the tiny body of a baby boy.

"The details of the case were just heartbreaking, and since Sascha is trained in tracking human remains, we wanted to help as much as we could," Johnson said. "We just wanted to be able to give some closure to the baby's family."

Zion police say 5-month-old Joshua Summeries was killed by his mother's boyfriend on Aug. 21. Demetries Thorpe, 40, reportedly confessed to killing the baby and placing his body in a backpack before discarding the backpack in a dumpster, according to WLS ABC 7 News in Chicago.

Our friends at Racine Uncovered first posted a press release from Zion Police Chief Wayne Brooks about the search for Baby Joshua on Aug. 21, and Johnson said that was how he found out about the case.

"I followed the updates so I knew what was going on with the case," he added. "When the search for the baby moved to the landfill, I thought Sascha could be of value so we volunteered."

Johnson owns and operates Tac Ops Shadow, LLC, a private investigation and security firm in Racine that also offers search-and-rescue and cadaver tracking. He and Sascha have been together since he adopted her after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She was one of thousands of animals brought north after the storm devastated New Orleans and other coastal towns in the South.

"I saw her picture and just fell in love right away," he said. "After I got her home and she got a little older, a friend who is a retired K9 officer trainer and I started training her first in tracking animals and then with humans."

This isn't the first time Johnson and Sascha got involved in a case they discovered on Racine Uncovered. On Jan. 23, one of the coldest nights of the winter, residents near the Flatiron Mall on Douglas Ave. found a female dog who appeared to still be nursing a litter of puppies. 

Beth David, who runs the RU website, posted a brief description of the situation and asked people in the area to look around for the puppies.

"I remember that was just a bitterly cold night and we were worried for the puppies," she said. "Matt saw the post and jumped right in with Sascha to help."

David said Johnson and Sascha found the puppies safe and warm with a resident of the apartment building where the mother dog was found.

"We considered that a successful case because the puppies were safe and warm and being fed," Johnson said. "The people who had them just hadn't notified anyone."

Brooks said Johnson's and Sascha's help in the the search for Baby Joshua at the landfill was invaluable because K9 officers had already been out and were exhausted by the countless scents - including human DNA from medical waste - that blanketed the area. 

"This isn't a job for just anyone with a dog," Brooks said. "Mr. Johnson has a trained tracking dog, and their assistance was invaluable when police dogs had already searched and were exhausted."

Johnson said the search was challenging for Sascha because dogs who are trained to track typically have a host item to guide them that smells like the person who is the target of the search. The search for Baby Joshua lacked that target smell and to make it even more difficult, was in a location of too many scents.

"We had a target of where to look, but it was overwhelming because 

of the compacting process and decomposition and even more difficult because there was 

nothing for her to hit on," Johnson explained. "We were out there for about three hours, and Sascha was exhausted."

After Sascha was back inside the air conditioned comfort of his truck to rest, Johnson kept searching, sifting through layers of garbage by hand. By 5:30 p.m. Sunday, though, the search was called off without Baby Joshua's body being found.

Sascha did get sick from participating in the search, something Johnson knew was a risk and that he tried to avoid by taking precautions at the landfill and as soon as they got home.

"There was a decontamination area for Sascha's paws, which is important because the pads on a dog's feet are extremely sensitive. I made sure to clean her off several times while we were there," he said. "After we got home, I gave her a bath and cleaned her paws with hydrogen peroxide, but she still got sick."

Johnson admits he was worried because his normally active and alert dog wasn't eating, she was lethargic and she was vomiting for several days after the search. By Thursday, though, Sascha was starting to show some of her old spark.

"I knew she was on the mend when she started playing with her red ball again," he said.

While the search for Baby Joshua was called off without finding his body, Johnson said his and Sascha's participation was worth it.

"It was some of the hardest work we've ever done but I'm glad we were there," Johnson said. "I'm just sorry we couldn't provide a proper place for the baby to rest."