This Conference is for anthropologists, archeologists, students, and anyone interested in learning more about the use of trained detection dogs for historic and pre-contact grave location.
INSTRUCTORS

Adela Morris
Historic Human Remains Detection Specialist
Member of the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) Board of Directors
Evaluator and Instructor: Human Remains Detection
Adela has been involved in human remains detection with her dogs since 1986 and has deployed her dogs on hundreds of searches specializing on cold cases, crime scenes and historic burials. She has certified ten dogs for human remains detection. Since 2017, she has also worked with the Alta Heritage Foundation’s Cremated Remains Recovery Team, helping locate previously cremated remains for victims of wildfires whose homes have been destroyed. She is the founder of the Institute for Canine Forensics, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of research and education for the use of canines. Adela is also the founder of the Canine Specialized Search Team, a volunteer resource for Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. She has served as an expert witness. She currently has two Border Collies certified in Historic Human Remains Detection, Zia and Asher.
Historic Human Remains Detection Publications
“Locating the Grave of John Snyder”, Overland Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, Fall 2012.
“Assessing Canine Forensic Results with Archaeological Excavations at Protohistoric Síi Túupentak (CA-ALA 565/H) in the San Francisco Bay Area”, Society for California Archaeology Annual Meeting, March 2019.
“Applying Canine Detection in Support of Collaborative Archaeology”, 2021, Advances in Archaeological Practice, 9(3), 226-237, doi:10.1017/aap.2021.12
Historic Human Remains Detection Specialist
Member of the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) Board of Directors
Evaluator and Instructor: Human Remains Detection
Adela has been involved in human remains detection with her dogs since 1986 and has deployed her dogs on hundreds of searches specializing on cold cases, crime scenes and historic burials. She has certified ten dogs for human remains detection. Since 2017, she has also worked with the Alta Heritage Foundation’s Cremated Remains Recovery Team, helping locate previously cremated remains for victims of wildfires whose homes have been destroyed. She is the founder of the Institute for Canine Forensics, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of research and education for the use of canines. Adela is also the founder of the Canine Specialized Search Team, a volunteer resource for Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. She has served as an expert witness. She currently has two Border Collies certified in Historic Human Remains Detection, Zia and Asher.
Historic Human Remains Detection Publications
“Locating the Grave of John Snyder”, Overland Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, Fall 2012.
“Assessing Canine Forensic Results with Archaeological Excavations at Protohistoric Síi Túupentak (CA-ALA 565/H) in the San Francisco Bay Area”, Society for California Archaeology Annual Meeting, March 2019.
“Applying Canine Detection in Support of Collaborative Archaeology”, 2021, Advances in Archaeological Practice, 9(3), 226-237, doi:10.1017/aap.2021.12
Lisa Higgins

Dr. Ben Alexander has been involved with fielding nationally certified human remains detection dogs since 2002. Ben is the director for FIRST Detection K9, a 501c3 organization dedicated to scent detection research, credentialing and cold case & historic/pre-contact mission focus.
In 2019 he began working his current partner a border collie Rip for cold cases, historic and pre-contact burials. Rips finds include burials that were between 150 & 250 years old as well as pre-contact graves ranging from 2500 years old and older. Ben is currently training his second Paleo human detection dog (PHD) Cami, a lagotto romagnolo.
Unlike many PHD/HHRD dogs Ben's dogs have been started on whole bodies at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State and worked on fresh burials in their early training. Transitioning to green cemeteries working contemporary graves then after reaching proficiency taken to historic cemeteries and introduced to graves ranging in age from 100 - 250 years old. This method has produced 4 successful HHRD dogs thus far. Pictures is his partner K9 Caile whom he started dabbling in historic with in the latter part of her career.
In 2019 he began working his current partner a border collie Rip for cold cases, historic and pre-contact burials. Rips finds include burials that were between 150 & 250 years old as well as pre-contact graves ranging from 2500 years old and older. Ben is currently training his second Paleo human detection dog (PHD) Cami, a lagotto romagnolo.
Unlike many PHD/HHRD dogs Ben's dogs have been started on whole bodies at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State and worked on fresh burials in their early training. Transitioning to green cemeteries working contemporary graves then after reaching proficiency taken to historic cemeteries and introduced to graves ranging in age from 100 - 250 years old. This method has produced 4 successful HHRD dogs thus far. Pictures is his partner K9 Caile whom he started dabbling in historic with in the latter part of her career.