From Service Dog Reject to Crime-Fighting Hero: SIUE PD's K9 Marshall Retires After 6 Years

From Service Dog Reject to Crime-Fighting Hero: SIUE PD's K9 Marshall Retires After 6 Years

On Monday, August 11, K-9 Marshall retired from the police department of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Marshall's story starts with a plot twist. Born in Michigan and raised by Paws with a Cause, he was originally in training as a service dog for people with disabilities. Then COVID-19 hit, and life had other plans.

That detour led him to Todd Jordan of Jordan Detection K9, who trained him for a rare and specialized job: sniffing out hidden electronic storage devices. Not drugs. Not explosives. A specific chemical compound found in circuit boards and memory chips, the kind of odor for which no human eye could ever "search."

For the next six years, Marshall put that nose to work on some of the hardest cases in law enforcement: child exploitation investigations, where a hidden phone, SD card, or flash drive could be the difference between justice and a case gone cold. He worked alongside SIUE PD across Illinois and Missouri, often in cramped, cluttered, less-than-ideal spaces where evidence could be tucked into a wall, a vent or a shoebox.

Time and again, Marshall found what human searchers missed. Sometimes he was the only reason a device was found at all.

SIUE PD's Det. Sergeant Dave Baybordi, his handler, put it simply: working with Marshall was one of the most rewarding experiences of his career, a front-row seat to a dog doing something almost impossible, over and over again.

Now, after six years of service, countless cases, and an incalculable impact on victims who may never know his name, Marshall is signing off duty for good.

PHOTO: Marshall