Dog, handler to be honored for helping solve slaying

Teresa Puryear drove to meet a man she knew on a Sunday evening in June, and that's the last any of her friends saw her in Mecklenburg County.

More than a day of searching turned up nothing except her abandoned car.

Then, the Mecklenburg sheriff called in Summer.

A few hours later, the 2-year-old bloodhound broke the case.

For that, Summer and handler Brad Whittington are getting a certificate of recognition today at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman's Show at The Showplace.

The Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance will make the presentation at 12:30 p.m. for "service above and beyond the call of duty."

Whittington and Summer work for the Division of Forestry, primarily tracking suspects in arson cases, but they help with other cases as needed. They're based in South Hill near the community of La Crosse, where Puryear lived.

According to reports in the South Hill Enterprise, Puryear was at her best friend's house when she got a call from a man she knew, asking her to meet him. She left her children with the friend and said she would be back in a minute. The friend called police when she didn't return.

Whittington and Summer came in after her car was found. After picking up scents off a pair of Puryear's shoes found in the vehicle, the dog started out with her head held high to pick up any traces of the woman, but she didn't seem to be leading the search team anywhere.

Whittington called her back. He took off the steering wheel cover so the dog could pick up the scent of the driver.

This time, Summer led them 1.6 miles to a home where she ended the track. It was the home of Marcus Welby Adams, the man that Puryear told her friend she was meeting.

Adams has been charged with first-degree murder in the commission of a rape, according to Mecklenburg Sheriff Danny Fox.

Whittington was impressed, but not surprised, that Summer could find the track 36 hours after the car was abandoned.

"It's pretty good," he said. One of the handlers who trained him had run a track 14 days old, he said. "Thirty-six hours is definitely doable."

Summer might have found Puryear, too, if Whittington had just let her keep going, he said. Puryear's body apparently had been dumped in the woods and the car driven a short distance away before it was abandoned, so there was no trail to follow from the car for the missing woman.

When the woman's body was found the next day, though, it was on a straight line from where Summer was leading them.

"The hardest part for a handler is to trust the dog," Whittington said.

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .