Adela Morris
President, Dog Handler
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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 seven dogs for human remains detection. Her current certified dog is Jasper a 10-year-old Border collie and her newest dog in training is Zia, a Border Collie who will be one year in April 2022. 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 and President 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.
Adela is an evaluator and instructor for Human Remains Detection with ICF and for the state of CA. She has served as an expert witness.
She has co-writer in three published papers on Historic Human Remains Detection and are on our "Publications" tab on this website.
Joseph Kral
Dog Handler
Joseph has been active in Search and Rescue since 1997 and in Human Remains Detection since 1998 and was a director of CSST (Canine Specialized Search Team) at its inception. Joseph was involved with early Historic Human Remains searches in 2000 and has been a test evaluator for both CSST and ICF. Clíodhna is Joseph’s third search dog and is focused strictly on Historic Human Remains Detection. Joseph has acquired many skills through involvement with Search and Rescue and other Emergency Services including Emergency Medical Responder, Wilderness Navigation, SAR tech II certification, Hazardous Materials Awareness, crime scene operations, and is a radio communications specialist.
Larry Atkinson
Support Specialist
Larry is an advanced team leader and serves in search management, operations, planning, communications, safety, training, and as a searcher with Marin County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit (MSAR). He is also a search and rescue (SAR) technical support member, primary evaluator and instructor with the California Rescue Dogs Association (CARDA).
He is certified as a wilderness emergency medical first responder and a National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) SARTECH I and a high angle rope rescue technician & instructor. His certifications include the California State Fire Marshal Rescue Systems II Advanced Rescue Skills and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Law Enforcement Branch (OES), Direction and Control of the Search Function, Search Management courses.
Dana Timbrook
Treasurer, Dog Handler
Dana has been in search and rescue since 2013 and has worked as a certified search and rescue canine handler with his dog Hanna from 2015 to 2017. Dana has been a member of the California Rescue Dog Association since 2013, and is a member of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team. He has search experience as a ground team member, area canine handler, and as a search manager specializing in planning and operations. He is also a member of the Canine Specialized Search Team, a resource to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
Dana is certified with Sophie for Historical Human Remains Detection with the Institute for Canine Forensics.
John Grebenkemper, Ph.D.
Dog Handler
John joined ICF in 2007 and certified his first dog in less than a year. One area of special interest
is using canine scent detection to locate western emigrant graves.
John’s current dog, Kayle, is his second certified historical human remains detection dog. He has
worked numerous HHRD projects with ICF.
Before joining ICF, John spent 40 years working in the field of physics and engineering research.
He received a PhD from Stanford University, has published more than 30 technical papers, and
received 8 U.S. patents.
HHRD Publications
“Locating the Grave of John Snyder”, Overland Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, Fall 2012.
“Forensic Canine Search for the Donner Family Winter Camps at Alder Creek”, Overland
Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, Summer 2015.
“Forensic Canine Search for a Donner Cannibalism Camp”, Society for California Archaeology
Annual Meeting, March 2018.
“Starved Camp of the Donner Party”, Overland Journal, Vol 36 No. 2, Summer 2018.
Engbring, Laurel, Brian F. Byrd, John Grebenkemper, Adela Morris, MonicaV. Arellano, and
Alan Leventhal, 2019, Assessing Canine Forensic Results with Archaeological Excavations at
Protohistoric Site Síi Túupentak (CA-ALA-565/H) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Proceedings
of the Society for California Archaeology 33:239–245, 2019
“Applying Canine Detection in Support of Collaborative Archaeology”, 2021, Advances in
Archaeological Practice, 9(3), 226-237, doi:10.1017/aap.2021.12
Kris Black
Dog Handler
Kris has been involved in human remains detection with her dogs since 2004 and has deployed her dogs on hundreds of searches specializing on cold cases, crime scenes and historical burials. She has served as an expert witness as well as other legal cases.
Kris is an evaluator and instructor for Human Remains Detection. Annie is her 4th certified detection dog.
Lynne Engelbert
Dog Handler
Lynne has 30+ years of detection dog training and handling experience and is an associate with the Institute for Canine Forensics. Lynne and Piper, her border collie, are certified in Historic Human Remains Detection (HHRD), and FEMA Human Remains Detection (disaster). They were formerly certified to California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) Human Remains Detection (Type 1). Since 2017, Lynne and Piper have 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. Lynne is currently training a young border collie, Jazz, in HHRD.
Lynne serves as an evaluator for Human Remains, Historic Human Remains Detection and FEMA disaster search dogs (live-find and HRD). Lynne and her former search partner Lucy (1991-2006) became a CalOES certified Cadaver Team in January 1999 with several major finds in their career. She was also a certified Canine Search Specialist with the FEMA and CalOES with her live-find disaster search dog, Sweep (2003-2017).
Lynne is an instructor for Human Remains Detection, disaster search and canine decontamination. She has also worked with local and federal law enforcement agencies in doing maintenance training for narcotics, explosives and arson detection dogs
Karen Atkinson
Dog Handler
Karen has been a certified search and rescue K9 handler since 2009 and a Human Remains Detection K9 handler since 2013. She serves as a primary evaluator for HRD and HHRD K9 teams for Institute for Canine Forensics and the California Rescue Dog Association. Karen was a member of the Marin County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit until 2018 and served as K9 manager for that unit from 2012 through 2016. In 2018 she joined the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Canine Specialized Search Team which includes an on-call team for the FBI. Since 2019, Karen has been working with the Alta Heritage Foundation helping families who have lost their home to fire locating the lost memorial cremains of loved ones.
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Karen's dogs, Echo and Quincy, are certified for HHRD with the Institute for Canine Forensics.
Lisa Lee
Dog Handler
Lisa has over 30 years experience working a detection dog. She has been an active member of several county and state search dog teams, as well as an international search and rescue organization. Her experience covers a variety of search disciplines including: trailing, area search, and evidence, as well as cadaver / human remains detection (HRD) and historic human remains detection (HHRD). She also serves as a field coordinator where she leverages organizational skills honed in 35+ years as a professional program manager.
Additional training / certifications include: Performance Reliability & Statistical Confidence for the Working & Service Dog, Emergency Medical Responder, HAZWOPER (First Responder Awareness), and licensed HAM operator.
Saoirse is her 4th detection dog and is in training for Historic Human Remains Detection as an ICF resource.
Aurora Bibb, DVM
Dog Handler
Aurora has been in search and rescue since 2010 and is currently working as a search and recovery handler with her certified cadaver dog Roo. Aurora has been a member of the California Rescue Dog Association since 2010 working an area dog, Kodiak who is retired now and a member of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team since 2012. She is an associate with Specialized Search Team (CSST), a resource to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, since 2018. She has experience with searches as an area dog handler, cadaver dog handler and as a ground team member. In addition, Aurora is an associate with the Institute for Canine Forensics and is certified with her dog Roo in historic human remains detection.