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Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Officer Casey Collier. K9 Scout's tracking ability has resulted in finding a missing child and locating a discarded weapon.
5-27-2026 1:04am
Westwood K9 Team Helps Locate Missing Child in Canton, Discarded Airsoft Gun in Plymouth
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Westwood Police Officer Casey Collier and K9 Scout have been working together for just under a year, and the pair is already making significant contributions to Westwood Police Department and the region, successfully locating a missing child in Canton on Friday, May 22, and a discarded weapon in Plymouth on Wednesday, May 13.
Last Friday, around 5:15 p.m., the team arrived at Trillium Brewery in Canton to assist Canton Police Department in the search for a 10-year-old girl, who police say left the area while visiting with her grandparents. She had crawled under an exterior fence on the brewery property and was last seen at 4:30 p.m. near the sidewalk of Route 138. The girl was described as Caucasian with brown hair, wearing glasses and a multi-colored shirt.
Officer Collier equipped Scout, a black Labrador retriever, with his tracking harness, and the pair began their search at the child’s last known location. K9 Scout placed his nose on an article of the girl’s clothing that the family provided to police, and immediately began to track. Officer Collier and a Milton police officer followed.
Photo courtesy of Casey Collier. Westwood Police Department's K9 unit, Officer Casey Collier and K9 Scout, demonstrate their skills at Westwood Day in September 2025.Scout continued down the side of Route 138, and Westwood Police say he “eagerly tracked” for about a quarter of a mile, following the bend along the shoulder of the on-ramp to Route 93 South.
Westwood Police described how K9 Scout and Officer Collier located the missing child in a statement issued on May 26:
“K9 Scout led Officer Collier alongside a thick wooded area which abuts the Trillium property and the highway on-ramp. At this time, he began to raise his head and show a ‘proximity alert’ – indicating that someone was nearby. K9 Scout then pulled hard into the brush, with Officer Collier in tow. As the two of them navigated downed trees and heavy branches, Officer Collier looked ahead and observed a young female crouching in the bushes approximately 10 feet ahead. He immediately notified the Milton officer that Scout had located the child, and together they were able to remove her from the wooded area without incident or injury.”
Just nine days before this happy outcome, Officer Collier and K9 Scout successfully assisted Plymouth Police Department when they found a discarded “airsoft” gun, believed to have been used by a suspect to threaten a victim in Plymouth on May 13.
On that date, police say a male suspect was believed to have threatened a victim with a firearm from inside of his parked vehicle at 11 Resnik Road, and then discarded it. The victim called 911, and described the firearm as “a small black handgun, with an extended magazine and a silver barrel.”
Plymouth Police eventually located the suspect on Route 3, about 5 miles from where the incident had occurred. However, a search of the suspect and his car failed to turn up the firearm allegedly used to threaten the complainant.
Plymouth Police believed the firearm was thrown from the suspect’s car while he fled and requested mutual aid for a ballistics K9 to help locate it. Officer Collier and K9 Scout arrived in Plymouth around 6:15 p.m. to conduct the evidence/article search.
They cleared multiple properties along the suspect’s presumed driving route. About 45 minutes into the search, while the duo was sweeping alongside the road, “Scout suddenly pulled into the wood line,” said Westwood Police in their statement of May 26 describing the K9 unit’s search. “He immediately placed his nose on an item discarded approximately 10 yards from the sidewalk, and laid down in front of it. This alert prompted [Officer] Collier to follow up his leash at which point he observed the exact weapon described by the victim.”
While the weapon turned out turned out to be an “airsoft” gun, Westwood Police say that it was almost identical to a real firearm. They called the weapon “an essential piece of evidence” in the investigation by Plymouth Police.
Westwood Police issued a statement commending Officer Collier and K9 Scout, stating, “Officer Collier and K9 Scout have been certified and working as a team now for nearly one year. These recent events of success for them are a small sample of the invaluable addition they have been to our department, and the region as a whole. Whether they are locating dangerous weapons, or searching for missing people, they provide a resource that is irreplaceable.”
Thanks to Detective Lieutenant Christopher Aylward and Westwood Police Department for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.
