On May 2, the Greenwood Village Police Department, in Colorado, received a call about an 85-year-old woman who had been missing for two hours.
To help bring the woman home as soon as possible, the department deployed a K9 named Mercury, who has been with the department since July 2022 and is specially trained in tracking down missing persons.
Mercury and her handler Officer Speer arrived on the scene and got to work. The dog quickly found a trail and led the officers to a steep ravine — where the senior woman was found, clinging to a tree.
Bodycam footage shows the moment Speer and Mercury found the woman. “This is a friendly dog; he found you,” Speer tells the woman. “We’re going to get you home, okay?”
According to a Facebook post from the City of Greenwood Village Government, the deep ravine couldn’t be seen from the roadway or canal, so it’s unlikely the woman would’ve been found soon if it wasn’t for Mercury — whose search took no time at all.
“I had been searching for her for two hours and Mercury and officer Speer found her in 10 minutes: Pete Holman, the missing woman’s son, wrote on Facebook. “It was like watching a Navy Seal extraction.”
He explained that his mother became “gassed out” after trying to climb the hill and was unable to move.