
K9 Unit
Valerie
Vernet / SARII
Training Coordinator/Trailing
K9 Gracie
AMPWDA Level 2
Trailing

Valerie joined SCSAR in 2019 after several years with SC Foothills SAR. Valerie and her trailing dog Gracie recently achieved Level 2 Trailing Certification with AMPWDA and Valerie recently obtained SARTECH II certification through NASAR. Valerie also holds a Part 107 UAS Pilot’s License and is active on the drone unit.
Valerie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Go Gators!), and has a career in Gas Turbine Development. She spent many years doing data analysis and control software for aviation Gas Turbine testing and is now writing modeling software for Power Plant turbines.
Valerie enjoys a hobby farm with her husband, and visits with her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. In addition to SAR, she loves back-country hiking and kayaking.
Kay
McDonald
Cadaver/HRD Handler
K9 Poppy
IPWDA
HRD Land & Crime Scene

Kay McDonald began in search and rescue in 2010 and trained her border collie in live find. He certified Level 3 in 160 acres through the Massachusetts Search and Rescue Dog Federation. She trained a second dog in human remains detection and she certified in crime scene through the International Police Work Dog Association as well as Advanced Human Remains through the Massachusetts Search and Rescue Dog Federation. Kay was the VP and Training Director for Massachusetts Rescue and Recovery Canine Unit, then Training Director for Massachusetts Canine Response Team. In 2020 Kay and her Human Remains dog, Poppy, moved to South Carolina and joined SCSAR. On February 27, 2021, Kay and K9 Poppy received their accredidation from the International Police Work Dog Association in Human Remains Detection for Land and Crime Scene. When Kay isn't training Poppy, she's working her 2 other K9's in her 9-5 business of bed bug detection. Kay is also currently training her youngest dog, Brio, in human remains detection.
Kay has trained two other dogs in bed bug detection and through her company, Bed Bug Detection K9s, does bed bug inspections for commercial and residential facilities. For fun she does dock diving and agility with her three dogs with K9 Poppy winning the Atlantic Coast Dock Diving Regional for Lapdogs in 2020. Her son lives and works in Massachusetts.
Allison
Scott / SARII
Air Scent Coordinator
K9 Dusty
Air Scent
AMPWDA Level 1
Air Scent
K9 Storm
Air Scent
AMPWDA
Level1
Air Scent

Allison Scott joined SCSAR in 2019 and recently completed SARTECH II certification. Her focus lies in SAR K9 and she is training her Border Collie/Catahoula, Muggy, in trailing work and her Catahoula puppy, Dusty, in Air Scent/Area Search.
Allison is an Arizona native who moved to the Upstate at the end of 2017. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Arizona State University and an MBA/Management from WIU. Her current occupation is stay-at-home mom to two girls and two boys. When she's not on mom-duty, she enjoys riding her horses and spending time with her husband, fellow SCSAR member Carl Scott. Carl is also working with both Dusty and Muggy with aspirations of both Allison and Carl certfying with both K9's.

David Harman
Trailing
K9 Ada
Trailing
AMPWDA Urban
Level 2 AMPWDA Wilderness
Level 1 GAK9
David Hartman joined SCSAR in 2021. His focus is on K9 handling. He and his wife Mary have a Czech German Shepherd, Ada, who has been training as a trailing dog. Ada earned her Level 1 through Georgia K9, and will be certifying with other agencies in the near future. David is also a Part 107 drone pilot and works with the drone team and ground teams.
David has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a Master’s in Business. Mary and David both spent careers in Computer Science, specializing in cloud computing software. David is an active light aircraft pilot and also volunteers as a SAR mission pilot.
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Marty
Hester
Air Scent Area Search
K9 Gunner
Air Scent
Air Scent
AMPWDA
Level1
Air Scent

Marty was born and raised in Memphis, TN and has lived in South Carolina since 2007. He and his wife have been married for 29 years, have a son, have daughter and have one grandson. He grew up in the outdoors, having had many hunting dogs over the years, but never a working dog. Gunner is his first working dog, he is a very high energy Golden Retriever. His favorite activity is fetching, followed by swimming and hiking. According to Marty (thank you for the kind words), he has learned more about dogs in the last few months by working with the K9 Team than he had during the first 53 years of his life.
Tyra
Seymour / SARII
Air Scent - InActive
K9 Roscoe
Retired Trailing
K9 Cricket
Air Scent


Tyra Seymour joined SCSAR in 2013 and quickly became SAR II Certified by the Summer of 2013. Since that time, Tyra has taken numerous classes, participated in numerous searches, and has become a proven leader on this team.
During Tyra's SAR career, his interest in SAR K9's grew and beginning in 2018, Tyra began training his first trailing dog, Cricket. Since then, Tyra adopted the infamous trailing dog Roscoe in February 2019, one of Mark Webb's well known SAR dogs (Coastal Carolina). Now, Tyra the ground searcher is Tyra the K9 Handler/ground searcher.
When Tyra isn't "Tyra: K9 Handler/Ground Searcher", Tyra is a loving husband and proud father of two children. In addition to his 2 children, Trya also has 4 fur babies and 1 cat. When Tyra's isn't wide open at home, he's wide open at work. Tyra is the owner of Eastlight Home Services where he specializes in home repairs and/or renovations.