CHATEAUGAY — A State Police cadaver dog has been called in to search Dale Jarvis Sr.'s property at 12 White St.
That's where the man, 48, was last seen on Feb. 20.
Earlier Wednesday, another canine search unit was ranging around the property, and investigators from the State Police Troop B Forensic Unit were also there, processing and measuring a burgundy Dodge Caravan van recently towed to the home.
A search warrant was issued to authorities for the property on Tuesday by Franklin County Judge Robert Main Jr. Troop B Criminal Bureau of Investigation Capt. Robert LaFountain said no missing persons report had been issued for Jarvis but police had launched an investigation after information had come to light that he had disappeared.
Shortly before noon Wednesday, LaFountain said the cadaver canine would search the 3-acre property and then an area behind the house would be excavated by heavy machinery.
LATE-NIGHT VISIT
Maynard Jarvis, father of the missing man, and an elder brother, Allen, stood across the street from the property, talking about the last time they saw or heard anything about Dale.
Maynard said they had been estranged for three or four years, so they hadn't talked much.
He said his grandson, Dale Jarvis Jr., who they call D.J., was living with his father and was apparently the last one to see him. Maynard said that his grandson had said a man came to door at midnight on Feb 20, asking to speak to Dale in private. They went to the garage, Maynard said D.J. had recounted, and were gone about an hour. Then Dale came back in, handed D.J. his keys and his cellphone and said that he was going to be leaving with the man, that they were heading south.
"He said, 'If I don't call or see you in a few days, I guess I won't be back,'" Maynard repeated what he said D.J. had told him.
"When he got to the end of the street," he added, "we don't know if he went left or right."
Maynard said D.J. also said to him his father had told him not to file a missing persons report on him if he didn't return.
Allen said Tuesday that Dale's daughter, Christina, in April had notified police that her father was missing; LaFountain said he couldn't comment on that.
SON JAILED TUESDAY
D.J. was arrested Tuesday night, charged with felony criminal contempt. Bail was set at $50,000, no bond. He remained in Franklin County Jail Wednesday morning.
The Jarvis home, third on the right from Route 11 and one of five or six houses on the dead-end street, is sided with particle board with a roof that is part metal and part tar paper. The front yard is fenced about 4 feet high with chicken wire that Dale installed to keep his golden retriever from scaring the mail carrier, Maynard said.
Sitting to the north of the house is a backhoe that belongs to Maynard, and an adjacent lot there holds piles of logs from trees Dale cut from farm fields to earn money in the summertime, he said.
Yellow crime-scene tape is strung around the home, the lot next to it and across a second driveway between 12 and 14 White Street where a beat-up pickup truck is parked in front of the garage.
Maynard said he gave the vehicle to D.J.
"We're executing a search warrant for however long it's going to take us," said State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Lt. Brent Davison at the property shortly before 11:30 a.m. "We can't rule out anything at this point."
Dale is Caucasian, 5-foot-9-inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, has brown hair, blue eyes and a burn scar that runs from his right forearm half way to his shoulder.
He also goes by the names "Cookie Joe" Jarvis and Stephen Dale Jarvis.
More details will be added to this story as they become available today.
Email Denise Raymo:
draymo@pressrepublican.com
