Unfortunately, this training has been cancelled and will likely be rescheduled for early 2025. Notifications will go out shortly to all who have RSVP'd.
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Presented by Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Trainers and Instructors.
Learning to see “Sign Evidence”. Sign is the discoverable physical evidence of the presence or passage of a person.
Where is the Last Known Point? What is the Direction of Travel? How many people are involved?
These questions and many more may be answered when you learn to see sign evidence.
Dress for the weather and bring your own lunch. We will be in the classroom in the morning, and we will be working on practical exercises in the afternoon.
Instructor bios:
Kathleen "Kathy" Decker
Kathy joined the King County (Washington) Sheriff’s Department as a Deputy in 1985. She rose to the rank of Detective and has over 18 years’ experience working in the King County Sheriff’s Major Crime Unit, where she specialized in Homicide investigation. Kathy was also the Search and Rescue Coordinator for King County, managing over 300 volunteers over a five-year term. Kathy returned to patrol before being reassigned to the Major Crime Unit, where she worked until her retirement in January of 2020.
Kathy holds a BA degree in Criminal Justice from Washington State University. Kathy has investigated and worked on many crime scenes, providing tracking expertise and examination. As a result of her work on crime scenes, she has testified as an expert witness, presenting tracking evidence. She has been associated with the Joel Hardin tracking program since 1998, regularly providing introductory tracker training to law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office. Kathy has traveled internationally as a member of Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services, responding internationally to official SAR and investigative tracking requests. Kathy has also provided forensic photo analysis and testimony, based solely on crime scene photographs. She provides instruction to law enforcement on the identification and processing of outdoor crime scenes. Kathy’s background in criminal investigations and her experience in managing and coordinating have also been used on missing person cases.
Anthony "Tony" Lorange
Anthony has been a member
of the Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services since 2010 and is certified
as a Sign Cutter. Anthony is also a
member of the Pacific Crest Tracker’s Association, which provides trained
personnel to respond to visual tracking missions requested by local, state,
federal agencies, or private individuals and provides tracking training to SAR
groups and Law Enforcement. He has been
a member of the Lincoln County Search and Rescue (LCSO SAR) in Oregon since
1992, the year he joined the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office as a Deputy
Sheriff. While a SAR member he trained and deployed two SAR dogs, one for scent
tracking and another for human remains detection. Anthony is the LCSO SAR lead
tracker, designated tracking instructor and has represented Lincoln County in
tracking missions and training throughout the Pacific Northwest. Anthony served
20 years with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and retired after 25 years in
Law Enforcement. During his last 12 years he was assigned as a detective in a
regional narcotics task force. He has utilized his tracking training to
investigate incidents that have included missing persons, suicides, homicides, burglaries,
fraud, evidence recovery, methamphetamine labs and DTO grows. Anthony also
retired after twenty years in the US military, with a combination of time
served in both the active Army and Oregon National Guard.
Robert "Bob" Brady
Bob is the senior tracker having over 34 years working with Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Snohomish County Volunteer Search & Rescue.
His introduction to tracking people began in 1991 when he was taught about its use to locate lost or missing people. Bob attended formal tracking training through Universal Training Systems under the Sign Cut Division where he became certified as a tracker. He continued his training through Universal Tracking Services where he advanced his training and certification levels. In 2003 he continued his training with Joel Hardin as his first instructor for the tracking program “Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services” (JHPTS) becoming the first tracker to certify as “Sign Cutter” the highest level of certification, trackers at this level are considered to have mastered tracking. Bob's knowledge and experience have been gained from years of training and missions. He has over 5,000 hours of tracking experience with over 300 missions. These missions involved Search & Rescue, Major Crimes and Tactical Tracking. His tracking skills have been used by many agencies, including U.S. Army, Navy/Marines, Air Force, FBI, ATF&E, Fire Marshals, NCIS, DHS, Fish & Game, U.S. Forrest Service, along with multiple Sheriff’s Offices, SWAT, and Police agencies across multiple states in the U.S. as well as involvement in international tracking missions with U.S. Embassies in multiple countries. Bob has documented formal mission reports or training records for individuals or teams noted above. He's testified in multiple homicide cases and qualified as an expert in giving an opinion or conclusion to help the court understand evidence, or to establish a fact in issue.
