Search for missing Pensacola woman continues as trained otter comes to assist

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Meet Splash, an asian small-clawed otter with a job few animals in the world can do.

Trained for underwater human remains and evidence detection, Splash works with Peace River Search and Rescue — the only organization in the world training otters for this type of mission.

“We use the dog first, and the dog stays with us and does the alert,” Peace River Search and Rescue Michael Hadsell said. “He tells us where the area is, and then we’ll come back and get in our dive gear, load up the otter, and then we’ll go back out and dive it and find the evidence, or whatever it is we’re looking for down there.”

“He goes down there, finds it, he comes back and tells us, and then he takes us back down,” he added.

Splash has been deployed 27 times nationwide, with six confirmed finds.

“His initial scent training took about two to three months, and then after that it was all conditioning in the environment,” Hadsell said. “Learning how to deploy from the boat, learning how to deploy from the shoreline, whether I was in the water with him or I was just not going to go in the water with him and deploy him from the shoreline.”

This week, he was in Pensacola assisting in the search for 37-year-old Robin Whitmire, last seen on January 23 near Cypress and L streets.

Police searched near the Mahogany Mill boat ramp after receiving a lead.

“Anytime investigators get a lead or any kind of information that points us in a certain direction, we’re gonna go check that out,” PEnsacola Police Department officer Mike Wood said. “That’s what they’re doing out here today, checking on that information.”

A K9 did alert in the area, but investigators say it wasn’t strong enough to deploy Splash into the water.

“There was some indication there, but not enough to put the otter to work,” Wood said. ” We kind of wish that that would have happened, but there’ll be some more times.”

The investigation remains active, and police say they’ll continue to follow any new leads.

Anyone with information about Robin Whitmire’s whereabouts is asked to contact Pensacola Police.