Riverside County sheriff’s bloodhound Maggie Mae with Deputy Coby Webb. Maggie Mae, the department’s first bloodhound, died Wednesday of old age.
An award-winning bloodhound that worked on some of the most notable cases in Southern California, and whose tracking abilities were recounted in magazines and television, has died.
Maggie Mae, the first bloodhound hired by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, was taken on her bed to a veterinary hospital by a team of sheriff’s K-9 handlers after she couldn’t get up on her own the morning of Wednesday, May 2, her partner Lt. Coby Webb said by phone.
She was 14.
“She was my best friend and partner,” Webb said. “She taught me a lot about life. She was very devoted. She never gave up on a track.”
Starting with the first one, Webb said. Not long after Maggie and Webb joined the Sheriff’s Department as volunteers in 1999, they were assigned to help find a lost hiker near the top of the tram on Mount San Jacinto. Maggie Mae was the first to find the hiker safe.
“When that first one she found alive, I said she was paid for in my eyes,” Webb said.
From that point, every time Maggie Mae found a missing child or a suspect on the run, Webb took her to PetSmart to pick out a new toy. And she quickly collected lots of toys, Webb said.
Maggie Mae worked hundreds of cases, including the kidnappings of Samantha Runnion and Danielle Van Dam, who was found in 2002 in a remote area of San Diego County,Webb said
In the search for Samantha, who was murdered by a Lake Elsinore man in 2002, Maggie Mae ran almost 25 miles in one day in the Cleveland National Forest between Orange County and Lake Elsinore.
Maggie Mae was featured in Dog Fancy magazine and on an episode of the Discovery Channel TV show “Animal Planet.”
She led the way in thesheriff’s full time Bloodhound unit, which recently received the Sheriff Department’s Medal of Valor.
The dog received several awards and accolades, such as Officer of the Year in Moreno Valley, the Distinguished Service Medal, the American Kennel Club’s top tracking police dog two years in a row, and the Hero’s Award, a sheriff’s news release stated.
Maggie traveled across the country and was in the top Advanced Tracking Dog group with the National Police Bloodhound Association. She was instrumental in starting numerous law enforcement bloodhound programs, including in the Los Angeles Police Department and the Singapore Police Force, the release stated
When she retired in 2010, Maggie Mae was honored by the California Police Officer’s Association for her work.
Even in retirement she stayed busy, serving as an unofficial nanny to Webb’s twins up until her death.
“I didn’t really realize the impact (her death) would have on my kids,” Webb said softly. “I’m happy that so many recognized her. She was really more than a partner.”
original article: https://www.pe.com/2012/05/03/riverside-county-sheriff8217s-highly-decorated-bloodhound-dies/
