Madison County Search Dogs Assist Jasper Police

JASPER, Ala. (WHNT) — A Madison County search team sniffed under a house and through some woods in Walker County, to try to find clues in a cold case.

SARTEC K-9 Unit is a volunteer group based in Madison but they go all over the state to assist in searches for missing persons, alive and deceased.

Tracking and trailing instructor Earl Hamby said the members train three nights a week, and they offer their services for free.

“If we can go out and help one family, then it’s worth it all,” Hamby said.

They spent Saturday trying to help the Cobb family in Walker County.

In 2005, 104-year-old Mary Cobb and 83-year-old Wynona Delvecchio disappeared from their home in Jasper.

Last weekend, the current resident of the house discovered a skull under the house.

Jasper police and the Alabama Bureau of Investigations have not identified the remains, but reopened the cold case involving the disappearance of the two women.

“An investigator from Jasper PD called earlier last week, wanting to know if we could help out and assist them doing this search,” Hamby said.

“We was glad to.”

SARTEC sent their search dogs under the house one at a time to sniff for other remains.

“There were several people under the house to serve as points for the dogs,” operations officer Shata Pace said.

“They were sitting at different points under the house with headlights so the dogs did not feel like they were walking off into a hole.”

The dogs also searched the woods.

SARTEC does not like to go into specifics of their searches–they leave that law enforcement–but were proud of the dogs for their long day of hard work.

“The search went well today,” Pace said.

“They found other remains, I guess, last week,” she said.

In 2002, Cobb was living in a nursing home, and police said a neighbor checked her out of the assisted living facility.

That neighbor, Wanda Kiser, was later arrested in West Virginia on charges of wire fraud.

The Railroad Retirement Board began investigating whether Cobb was still receiving her pension, and investigators connected it to Kiser.

Kiser pleaded guilty in 2006 to collecting Cobb’s retirement checks.