A computer program shared with Burnett County by the St. Louis County Sheriff's Rescue Squad was instrumental in helping searchers Sunday find the autistic man who had been missing for seven days.
Search Tracker uses the laws of probability to guide searchers where to look for missing people.
"It really helped because all the indicators were pointing to the general area where he was eventually found," Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland said this morning. "It's like a compass -- you have to trust that compass, you have to trust what this program is telling you. When the mathematical numbers say that's the best place to go, you go."
Searchers found Keith Kennedy, 25, of Shoreview, Minn., about 7 p.m. Sunday, weakened but safe, in a wooded area inaccessible by vehicles. He was about a mile from the Trade Lake Camp in Grantsburg, from which he vanished June 15.
"The average missing person is found, more often than not -- as was proved by this case -- closer than what you would imagine," St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips said.
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Kennedy was conscious and alert when a St. Paul firefighter found him next to creek bed on swampy ground. Based on evidence of matted grass in the area, it appeared Kennedy had been there for two or three days, Roland said. Searchers had passed by the area at least twice but visibility was severely hampered by dense growth of tall grass, thistles and briars.
The brush where Kennedy was found was extremely difficult to penetrate, Phillips, said, "but someone did and they found him."
Kennedy was the subject of a massive search, using both law enforcement and fire professionals and civilian volunteers. The St. Louis County Sheriff's Rescue Squad helped with the search on Thursday and Friday. They brought Search Tracker with them.
The program breaks a search area into smaller units, analyzes what searchers have done and recommends which units need to be searched more. The rescue squad has used it for about three years.
"It was instrumental in this case," rescue squad Capt. Tom Crossmon said. "The program just screamed for us to get in and search the area were Keith was found. So we put canine resources in there, which give us better indications where to search."
"Burnett County was very open-minded to any new idea," Crossmon said. "That was critical in us being able to deploy this tool."
Roland credits the program with helping authorities focus the search to where they needed to be.
"That general was searched a lot, because that was what the probability was saying," he said. "We tried very hard to find him and we were successful."
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"As soon as I learn more about this, I will probably be one of its best advocates, because it worked for us," Roland said.
