Moving on Without Molly Mae
December 21, 2010
Moving on Without Molly Mae
By: Jamie Klinger-Krebs
911bc keeps going after losing a key team member
Though 911BC Search and Recovery founder A.J. Marhofke has dealt with many deaths over the years, losing one of his own team members was especially difficult. In October of 2009, his trusted search and recovery dog, Molly Mae, passed away.
“She was an incredible dog and I would have done anything for her,” Marhofke explains, “but I knew the end was coming and I didn’t want her to suffer.”
Molly Mae was special not only to those who knew and loved her, but also to the countless lives she touched and saved during her 13-year-career as a forensic evidence specialist with 911BC, a non-profit, volunteer forensic evidence team from Waukesha County. Prior to her death, Molly Mae received a commendation from Gov. Jim Doyle for her stellar search and recovery efforts. Marhofke believes she is the only dog that has ever received this recognition in the state of Wisconsin.
“I was very happy that I was able to get her recognized for her work before she died,” he says. “After everything she had done and been through, it was the least I could do for that dog.”
Marhofke is now trying to receive the same honor for Zip, his 12-year old border collie that is still active with 911BC. The team’s newest member is two-year-old Cody, also a border collie. However, Cody has big shoes to fill.
“Cody is definitely smart, but he’s much more challenging than Molly Mae or Zip were when I first got them,” he says. “With Zip I was able to get him trained-in and ready to go within three months, but Cody is a lot more challenging. I give him about a six out of 10 in obedience, but that’s good too, he’s smart. He knows what to do, it’s just a matter of getting him to do it.”
Though many breeds of dogs are intelligent and suited for work in K-9 search and recovery, Marhofke feels border collies make perfect forensic specialists due to their intensity and overall eagerness to please. “I love the intense drive of a border collie, they’ll search till they drop and I love their intelligence.”
Over the years Marhofke and his dogs have traveled all over the country at the request of law enforcement agencies to participate in both “hot” and “cold” cases. Some of the team’s most notable cases were a triple homicide case in Jefferson County, and a three-day search for Tom Reinders, a mentally disabled man who wandered away from his foster home in 1998. The team also caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001 following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11. Currently the team remains active on the Amber Wilde case, a UW-Green Bay student who has been missing for 12 years.
While working with a Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) recovery team at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building following the Oklahoma City bombing in April of 1995, Marhofke realized the value of search and recovery dogs and soon founded 911BC.
Having served in the Waukesha County Medical Examiners office as a death scene investigator, becoming certified in K-9 forensics was second nature to Marhofke, who adopted both Molly Mae and Zip from Wisconsin Border Collie Rescue.
“The bombing happened before there was a boom in K-9 search and rescue and when I saw what they could do, I realized this would be a great job to have and a great way to help the community,” he explains.
Since Molly Mae’s death, Marhofke and his dogs have kept a lower profile and engage in more educational efforts and demonstrations. But, he and Zip will still assist in search cases when needed, and he hopes to have Cody up to par soon. One of the team’s latest cases involved a missing child case in Iowa. Marhofke is also trying to receive a fellowship for the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center, also known as the Body Farm. The program specializes in training for human identification services.
Though times are tough for the 911BC, Marhofke says he’s learned to keep going and the love and companionship with is dogs is always a driving force.
“It was really hard for me to go on after I lost Molly Mae,” he says. “But I’ve dedicated myself to this for so long that I couldn’t stop. People kept telling us we had to keep going, so I did and we’re still trucking away.”
For more information visit: www.911bc.org
Jamie Klinger-Krebs is a free-lance writer living in Jefferson County. She shares her home with a husband, daughter, two cats and one crazy border collie. Jamie can be reached at jklingerkrebs@yahoo.com.
