New Bloodhound for County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit

COURT HOUSE – The Cape May County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit obtained its first new bloodhound in over eight years. West is a 5 month old pure bred bloodhound that was obtained at no cost from the ALIE Foundation in Colorado. West will join Ollie who has been with the unit for 5 years and will replace bloodhound Audrey who has served the K-9 Unit faithfully for over 7 years having first come from the Vineland Police Department.
Sheriff Gary Schaffer said, “K-9 Officer Russ Norcross located the ALIE Foundation after extensive research and approached them about the possibility of supplying a bloodhound to our Sheriff’s Office. Undersheriff Robert Nolan followed through with the ALIE Foundation and bloodhound West was flown in from Colorado to the Philadelphia Airport and is now a member of the K-9 Unit. West is currently preparing for the rigorous training of the K-9 Academy.”
The ALIE Foundation was started in memory of Alie Berrelez who was a 10 year old girl who was abducted on May 18, 1993. When Alie disappeared, family and friends searched door to door in the neighborhood. Alie was last seen eating pizza in the courtyard of the apartment complex. She was with her two brothers and three neighborhood children when the neighbor who was watching them briefly stepped into her apartment to put away dishes. When she returned Alie was gone.
Alie was missing for four days when a police bloodhound named Yogi tracked Alie’s scent from the apartment complex 14 miles to a location in the canyon. Alie Berrelez’s body was found yards away from where Yogi had stopped, her body was stuffed in a green duffel bag and tossed down a ravine in Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County.
The day after Alie Berrelez’s body was found Yogi returned to Deer Creek Canyon and traced the scent back to a neighborhood apartment in the Englewood complex where Alie Berrelez had lived, leading police to believe that a neighbor committed the crime, according to the ALIE Foundation website.
Over the years, the investigation into Alie’s abduction and murder continued. Nicholas Randolph Stofer, a neighbor remained a person of interest and a suspect but police could not arrest him because there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Detectives traveled to Redlands, Calif. to take blood samples and hair samples from Stofer. However, DNA testing did not exist at that time.
There was considerable circumstantial evidence at the time that implicated Nicholas Stofer. Police sought murder charges against Stofer, but Arapahoe County prosecutors concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
As advancements in technology emerged, evidence gathered in the case has been re-submitted for additional testing and comparison, police said. Englewood police said that DNA taken from Alie’s underwear, possibly from saliva, belonged to Nicholas Randolph Stofer, 41. Stofer died of a drug overdose in his Phoenix apartment in October 2001. The case was closed on September 13, 2011 identifying Stofer as the person responsible for the death of Alie Berrelez.
After Alie’s death, Richard Berrelez, Alie’s grandfather was so impressed with the bloodhound’s work that the grandparents started the ALIE Foundation, which provides bloodhounds to police and sheriff’s departments to help them in missing and abducted children cases. The foundation also reaches out to families concerning the dangers of child abduction.
The Cape May County Sheriff’s Office will be running a bloodhound academy in cooperation with the Cape May County Police Academy in mid February. The academy will be working in cooperation with the National Police Bloodhound Association and the graduating officers and their partners will receive national certification from the NPBA.
“There was quite a bit of planning that has gone into this bloodhound academy and I am excited about taking law enforcement bloodhound training to a new level in this state. I am very proud of our K-9 Unit and what has been accomplished in the last few years,” said Sheriff Schaffer.
If anyone would like to make a donation to the ALIE Foundation in the name of the Cape May County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit, donations can be sent to the ALIE Foundation, 5800 Tower Road, Denver, Colorado 80249.
For additional information contact Sheriff Gary Schaffer at 609-465-6430 or email at sheriff@cmcsheriff.net.