HERSHEY — State Police announced Wednesday that K9 Officer Cratos, who served as the department’s Human Remains Detection Canine since 2012, has died of congestive heart failure.
Cratos, who was based in Hershey, was seven years old, according to a post on the State Police Facebook page.
Working with his handler, Trooper David Lock, Cratos searched for, tracked, and located missing persons across the entire Commonwealth and assisted law enforcement efforts in New York, West Virginia and Indiana. Certified through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, Pennsylvania State Police and the National Dog Search Alliance, Cratos was the first dog outside of the FBI to successfully complete the agency’s Human Remains Detection Qualification Course in the last 10 years, police say.
“Perhaps even greater than those accomplishments is the closure that K9 Cratos and Trooper Lock were able to provide for so many families (who were) missing loved ones,” the Facebook post read. “Cratos will be deeply missed by his handler and the entire department.”
