Sunday, November 3, 2024

Virginia Beach fire dog helps federal authorities crack the crime

Sadie, Virginia Beach Fire Department's accelerant-sniffing dog, helped crack an arson case in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of the Virginia Beach Fire Department)
Sadie, Virginia Beach Fire Department’s accelerant-sniffing dog, helped crack an arson case in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of the Virginia Beach Fire Department)

VIRGINIA BEACH — Last year when the call for help came in from federal authorities in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Sadie answered the call and helped the authorities get their man.

Sadie is the Virginia Beach Fire Department’s accelerant detecting dog.

After suspicious fires at a U.S. Navy Recruitment Center, a Coast Guard Station, and a federal courthouse in St. Thomas, the ATF, FBI and other federal authorities there investigating the fires requested help.

Sadie and her handler, VBFD Investigator Alana Cooper, went to St. Thomas in search of clues that the fires had been intentionally set.

Sadie “alerted” on a number of sites at the scenes of the fires, and a lab later confirmed that Sadie had indeed detected an accelerant that had been used to set the fires, according to a news release from the fire department.

Spencer Wayne Allen was sentenced to 93 months in prison for arson and malicious damage in connection to fires at U.S. installations (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of the Virginia Beach Fire Department)
Spencer Wayne Allen was sentenced to 93 months in prison for arson and malicious damage in connection to fires at U.S. installations (Southside Daily photo/Courtesy of the Virginia Beach Fire Department)

Last week, a federal court sentenced 26-year-old Spencer Wayne Allen to 93 months in prison for  arson and malicious damage in connection to the fires, Virginia Beach fire officials said.

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