(Image credit: JW Fisher)
In the Spring of 2010, a woman named Shannon Gilbert made a hysterical phone call to 911. She had been at an individual’s home on Long Island and said she believed someone was after her. She fled the known location on foot and told the 911 operator there were people trying to kill her. Then, Gilbert disappeared. Police began their search with metal detectors across a large search area of Gilga Beach, one detector being the Pulse 8X. The teams were tasked with finding remains or any evidence of Ms. Gilbert. Many units were already owned by Suffolk County and were brought in to help the search across many of the marshes in Oak Beach, New York. In December 2010, a police officer and his K-9 found human remains near Gilgo Beach. It wasn’t Gilbert, but the bodies of four other women were located. What started as a search for one missing woman led to the discovery of multiple bodies (10 in all) along the Gilga Beach area. This resulted in the capture of a serial killer who was ultimately charged with murder in January of 2024, more than a decade later. The dedication of the entire team working on this high-profile case for more than ten years is a testament to all public safety and police departments across the globe that help the public when the call comes in.
(Image credit: JW Fisher)
In another part of the United States the SAR-1 underwater metal detector is in use by The Charles County Dive Rescue Team to search in zero visibility conditions. These detectors utilize the technology from the Pulse 8X and package it into a sleek, wireless design that vibrates upon location of metallic objects. Chief Porter states the team got a “Request from military dependent on a lost phone with special information on it.” The team went to work with their SAR-1 metal detectors and “found 18 phones, 2 fishing poles, knives, and other items.” The unit was able to locate the correct phone that they initially set out to find.