Cadaver dogs from U.S. to search Miramichi woods to help 'bring Brian home'

Every morning for the past five weeks, Cory Ahern wakes up wondering, "Are we going to find him today?"

But every night, the dedicated family and friends who continue to search the Miramichi woods for his 76-year-old father with Alzheimer's report the same thing — they still haven't found him, or any clues.

"There's still nothing. Literally nothing," said Ahern, who estimates they've scoured up to 1,500 acres around the family home, near where Brian Ahern disappeared on the afternoon of April 29, after visiting a neighbour.

"It's heartbreaking."

Two groups of volunteer search-and-rescue dog teams from the United States, however, have provided the family with new hope.

Five members of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and three from the Massachusetts Canine Response Team are scheduled to launch a search on Wednesday morning. The dogs are trained in wilderness air scent search, tracking, water search, and human remains detection.

Family hopes for closure

"We're very happy about that because we think that this is probably our last chance of maybe finding him," said Cory Ahern.

"It'll mean closure … 'cause right now, it's just — everything's up in the air. It's just a mystery. We don't know where he is."

And they will always wonder.

"So this will mean that we can just finally put him to rest the proper way, have his funeral, his burial, and then at least then we'll know where he is."

Brian Ahern, a father of three and grandfather of four, was last seen on foot crossing Highway 126 and entering a trail into the woods that leads directly to the family homestead on Ahern Road, which was built by his grandparents in 1904.

It should have been a short, five-minute walk, according to Cory Ahern. But his father never made it home. Ahern suspects he might have missed the turn-off and kept going straight, deeper into the woods.

The family reported him missing to the Miramichi Police Force the following day. Several officers and about 30 members of the Miramichi Ground Search and Rescue searched the area for two days straight, with the help of some conservation officers, members of the Department of Justice and Public Safety, an RCMP dog, and a police drone.

Hundreds of people in the tight-knit community also responded over the first week or so to a plea for help Ahern posted on social media.

Since then, the numbers have dwindled, with just a handful of people out searching daily — often the same four or five individuals. It "means a lot to us," Ahern said on behalf of his mother Doreen, sister Patricia Doiron, brother Dwyane and extended family.

His aunt Jacqueline Murphy was "sleuthing around the internet" for anyone who might be able to help and came across the Masachusetts search team. The group only searches at the request of law enforcement or government agencies responsible for search and rescue, so Ahern contacted Miramichi police Deputy Chief Brian Cummings about putting in a request.

Located Miramichi murder victim in 2003

The force has used the Massachusetts team before "with great success," according to Cummings, and didn't hesitate to invite them and agree to cover their expenses for three days, estimated at under $10,000.

In June 2003, the dogs helped find the decomposed body of Maria Tanasichuk in the woods off Route 11. She had been shot three times in the head. Her husband David Tanasichuk was convicted of first-degree murder in 2005, and again in 2009, following a retrial ordered by the appeal court.

"We owe them such a debt of gratitude," said Cummings, noting there are no police cadaver dogs in New Brunswick, only one woman in St. Stephen who volunteers with her own dog.

"I can't say enough about these people," he said, stressing they're all volunteers. "They do some pretty incredible work."

Cummings, who knows Brian Ahern personally and lives only about five kilometres away, is "cautiously optimistic" they'll help bring closure for the family — and the community as a whole.

"I haven't had a day go by yet where somebody hasn't said to me, 'Any word on Brian? Do you have any idea where he might be?'"

Although Miramichi is a city, it's a small place with a population of only 18,500, and "pretty much everybody knows everybody," he said.

"This has an impact on everybody and everybody just wants to bring Brian home."