By: THERESE APEL, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer March 28, 2008
A high-tech photography expert was in Brookhaven Thursday to assist in the search for missing woman Virginia Ratliff. Gary Soucy, of Brewer, Maine, was one of several searchers who took part in a second helicopter search for Ratliff Thursday, flying over areas she could potentially have traveled when she went missing exactly a month before. Soucy said the digital imaging technology searchers used yesterday has never failed to find a missing person if that person is actually lost within the search area. "In all the cases I've been involved in, we've found every one of them," he said. The results of the digital mapping process could be available in about a week, he said.
Soucy was brought in after Brookhaven Assistant Police Chief Nolan Jones spoke with former congressman Mike Parker, who put him in touch with Mike Sheppard at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Sheppard offered his assistance with a plane used for air searches. When the plane began malfunctioning on the way to Mississippi, Sheppard called it back, but a local helicopter was enlisted.
The process, as Soucy explained it to searchers from Homeland Security, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Division of Public Safety and the Brookhaven Police Department, involves taking high-resolution pictures of the ground from inside an aircraft. Each picture covers between 500 and 1,000 feet of ground area. The pictures are taken from different angles as the aircraft flies over the search area. Once the photos are processed, each one of the possibly thousands of photos is reviewed by technicians trained in photo analysis. "Certain colors are pulled out, hoping the other colors will pop and show us what we call 'points of interest,'" Soucy said. After a point of interest - something that looks unusual or out of place for the terrain - is located, the digital image is superimposed over a map so searchers can locate the closest road access. Ground crews are then sent to that area to identify the point of interest.
Soucy said it's almost always surprising to hear where the missing people are found. "Even I'm sometimes like, 'You found them ... there?'" he said. "A lot of the time I don't know how we're going to find them in the kind of terrain we search, but if they are within our search area, we will find them." Soucy said he himself is only the photographer, and that his images are sent back to Verisar, a company out of Dayton, Ohio, that specializes in image analysis. "It's a real team effort," he said.
Homeland Security Deputy Director Byron Thompson said Thursday's search would key on areas not only that Ratliff was known to travel recently, but also in years long past. He said that seniors will sometimes revert and try to visit places they were familiar with in earlier stages of their lives. Family members said Ratliff, 83, had not driven a car in six years, and that her husband, Charles "Ploochie" Ratliff, had recently found the billfold he thought she might have taken with her. "So I'm not sure she ever left Brookhaven," said her sister-in-law Agnes Ratliff. "Never could I even drive in all that traffic (in Jackson), so I'm certain she couldn't have traveled all that distance. If she left Brookhaven, it's because someone carried her away."
One theory is that Ratliff went missing while on her way to see her husband, who was in the hospital in Jackson at the time of her disappearance. Authorities have said they do not suspect anything wrong and there has been nothing to indicate foul play in the disappearance. Thompson said one thing complicating the case is that Ratliff apparently left in her vehicle. "When you drive off, it makes it a lot harder to find you than if you leave on foot," he said. "People on foot are much more predictable, and we can do canine searches. But in a vehicle, you don't leave a trail. Plus, you can travel a greater distance in a shorter time."
Soucy said the large amount of area covered in the search could slow down the digital mapping process a little, as usually a search area is only a few square miles. The search for Ratliff could potentially cover hundreds of miles. "This process is not a guarantee, but it greatly improves your chances of finding someone," he said.
Jones said Thursday's search actually found an abandoned white Mercury fitting the description of Ratliff's car in Hazlehurst. While the car had no tag, when the vehicle identification number was checked, it turned out to be a different car.
"We really appreciate these guys and all their help," Jones said. Jones said if this search turns up nothing, another one could be conducted once Sheppard's airplane is back up and working.
Although VIASAR's name was inadvertently not mentioned, it is VIASAR's equipment you see in the background on the video.
