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'Cadaver Dog' Buster Has Nose for Cold Cases

For years, retired police officer Paul Dostie has been working alongside his dog Buster to unlock mysteries.
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Paul Dostie points as his dog Buster sets off to search an area near Bishop, Calif., on Sept. 20, 2014.Gregory Bull / AP

For years, retired police officer Paul Dostie has been working alongside his dog Buster to unlock mysteries. They have located the remains of fighting men who fell long ago on foreign battlefields, and the bodies of victims of unsolved crimes or disappearances. In all, Dostie says, Buster has helped find the remains of about 200 people.

Associated Press photographer Gregory Bull joined the pair in the high desert of California's Eastern Sierra region, where they were searching for signs of a boy who disappeared in 1967. The 12-year-old canine keeps up a heavy workload even though he has lost a leg to cancer. "He's a one-in-a-million dog," Dostie says.

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Paul Dostie gets a look and a bark from his dog Buster near Bishop, Calif. In his younger days, Buster would lay down on a spot like this to indicate an “alert.” But having lost a leg to cancer, the 12-year-old canine now prefers to poke his nose in the direction of a particular spot in the dirt, or at a rock, or whatever has set off his nose.Gregory Bull / AP