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Group from Texas started by man who lost his daughter

By RHONDA ROSS
Traveler Staff Writer

Tim Miller, the director and founder of the Texas-based search and rescue team, EquuSearch, commended the Arkansas City police Wednesday morning for their hard work and for asking for help with Jodi Sanderholm's disappearance. His team was instrumental in locating Sanderholm's car at the bottom of the Cowley State Fishing Lake on Tuesday.

"We were using a Hummingbird 5 scan sonar unit and we backed the boat in the water," Miller said. He said that, in less than a minute, before their vehicle was even parked, the search team had a sighting on the (Sanderholm) car on the sonar.

"We sent our diver down there and we marked the vehicle with a magnet and we had a marker on the top," he said. The car was then secured with a cable and, after law enforcement took underwater photos, the car was recovered from the lake, he said.

Miller said he was contacted Monday by Ark City Police Officer Chris Arnett, who informed him of the Sanderholm case and asked if he could help.

"I told him, 'Yes, we'll be there tomorrow. When we get called on a search, we just go. Each case is just as important as the last one, especially when it's a child's case and Jodi's still a child."

Miller said his team was doing a search in Oklahoma for another victim and that case was about a year-and-a-half old.

"Our sonar equipment and divers were in Oklahoma anyway. It was only about a five-hour trip for them to get here," he said.

He and another search member, a former FBI agent, flew up from Texas. He said, now, he felt like they were meant to be here.

Miller acknowledged that he has been "on the other side of the fence" when his own daughter was murdered.

He was referring to the abduction and murder of his 16-year-old daughter, Laura, in 1984. Laura was last seen alive at a convenience store in Texas where she had used the phone to call her boyfriend. It was seventeen "long months," he said, before her remains were found. Her murder remains unsolved. (Additional details of Laura Miller's murder can be found at: www.equusearch.org).

Miller said it was "incredible how a small police department put this case together and worked it."

He said, "Calling in the people they called in, the investigation that they did and how they handled it; it was wonderful working with them."

"I mean, we hate to work these cases, but they did a tremendous job," he said. "This was more than just another case for them. I think (Jodi) became one of their own children in a way, because she was one of the children in their city." He said he knew that Arnett, for one, went several nights with little or no sleep.

Miller has dealt with plenty of law enforcement agencies, beginning with his daughter's murder, he said, and not all are the same.

"So many departments are territorial and they don't want help with anything. This police department (ACPD) cares about their citizens and I wish every police department in the United States was like this one right here," he said.

"I remember the 17 months of total hell I went through, the lonely feelings, the helpless feelings, I didn't know what to do, I couldn't get any help from law enforcement, there weren't any search teams, and I remember when 17 months later my daughter's body was found and she was positively identified, but I felt relief because at least I knew something."

Miller also remembers the day he was with the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was missing.

"I saw that helpless, desperate look on her face and something just snapped in me and I said, 'Oh, my God, that's what I had to have looked like.'"

"At that time, I promised God and I promised Laura that I would never leave another family alone again, if there was anything I could do to help," he said.

Trying to help find Jodi was part of keeping that promise.

"I know that right now, it's hard for the family to realize because, of course, they've got to be in shock, but I'm hoping that one day they can look back at this and feel like they appreciate everybody that was involved, and I know that they do. But right now, they've got to go through the grieving process and they've got a funeral to get through."

He said he's been where they are but it also explains how he came to be involved with EquuSearch.

"The grieving process is long and painful," Miller said, "but I kept following these missing-persons cases and one thing led to another."

In 2000, Miller, a horseman, started a volunteer, mounted search-and-rescue team. Soon, he said people with boats and certified divers wanted to join, and then volunteers with planes and helicopters showed up.

His company is completely funded by donations, fundraising and grants. They have been involved in at least one high-profile case: the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the still-missing Alabama teen who disappeared in 2005 while on a chaperoned post-graduation trip to Aruba. Miller has been to Aruba twice and plans to return, because he said, "We've got some more sophisticated equipment than we had when we were there before and we want to continue our water search over there."

"None of these cases are over until they're over," he said. "These families become part of our family and we're just grateful that we've been able to help."

What his team does and how they do it is explained in the following profile of Miller and Texas EquuSearch written by Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D., that appears on the Web site, crime library.com:

Many of our members are trained in various rescue and lifesaving skills such as CPR, advanced lifesaving skills and field craft. Our members come from all walks of life. We have business owners, medics, firefighters, housewives, electricians and students on our team. Our resources range from horse-and-rider teams to foot searchers, water (divers, boats) air (planes, helicopters), dog teams (air scent, cadaver and tracking) and 4x4s. We have also utilized infrared cameras in some of our searches.

According to Miller, volunteers generally receive training on the spot, which means they learn how to place evidence markers or flags, as well as how to communicate with search coordinators. In the event they find a body, they're instructed, they should not panic. They're never to approach or touch a found body. In the event they see one, they are to stop immediately and walk backward in their own footprints so as not to further contaminate the scene. (Not all bodies are victims of crime, but each discovery is treated as a potential crime scene.) They must then seek official assistance immediately. Several law enforcement officers participate on the teams, as well as a few forensic scientists, so there are often volunteers who know the protocol, but large-scale searches are comprised of mostly lay volunteers, some of whom may never have seen a body before.

"I was one of the lucky ones," Miller said. "I was able to go through the painful, grieving process and turn my life around. I miss (Laura) every single day and I love her and she can never, ever be replaced. But I can look back and smile, now, and say, 'Laura, you're definitely not in vain.'"

Miller said when your child is missing, you don't want to leave the house for fear that you won't be there to receive crucial information. "Your whole life is at a standstill," he said.

"Every time my phone rang or someone knocked on my door, I literally got heart palpitations."

He said the palpitations went away after Laura's remains were discovered.

This is what compelled him to help the Sanderholm family. He said it's an "overwhelming feeling" when he can help make a difference in a family's life at the "worst possible time in their lives."

"I know this for a fact," he said. "There is one thing worse than having a murdered child, and that is probably knowing that they're dead out there somewhere and never being able to find them and never being able to say, 'goodbye.'" Because of this, he understands the fine line between the public's right to know and law enforcement's need to ensure justice by withholding information.

"As a parent, you want that information out there. You're hoping that someone's going to see something; that the press is going to generate leads. You want your loved one, you want your child, found."

As for the Sanderholm case, Miller said the press did a "wonderful job as well."

"They didn't make any allegations or try to sensationalize this story," he said. "I think everybody was just wonderful in this entire case."

He has great empathy for Jodi's family, he said. "They have an opportunity, if you can call it that, to go ahead and try to put their lives back together, though their lives will never, ever be the same."

w" At least they'll have a chance to go through the grieving process," he said. "When they're (missing persons) never found, you don't get that chance."

Miller said he plans to post Jodi's funeral arrangements on his Web site. He is also planning to fly back to attend the service because he said he hasn't had the opportunity yet to meet Jodi's parents. "It's something I've wanted to do, but the timing wasn't right," he said.

He said he would like to give them a hug and say, "God bless you all."

"I hope we're never needed up here again but, if we are, we will be on the next flight out."

Above: Tim Miller, left, started the EquuSearch group to help find missing people.