Colleagues, friends helped in search
By Stephen T. Watson
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Anthony Dashner left his house Wednesday to find dog.
Anthony Dashner could always be counted on to help a fellow corrections officer in need.
Saturday, his fellow officers did all they could to return the favor.
Scores of corrections officers helped search the streets of South Buffalo for Dashner, who was last seen about 7 a.m. Wednesday leaving his Avondale Place home to look for his parents’ dog. He was reported missing late Thursday afternoon.
Dozens watched and waited from the bank of the Buffalo River as police divers looked under the ice for the 51-year-old Cheektowaga native.
And eight of them solemnly carried Dashner’s body away from the river’s edge on a stretcher after divers made their grim discovery Saturday afternoon.
“This just shows the camaraderie of the officers in corrections and what we go through every day,” said Pat O’Donughue, a colleague of Dashner’s at the Gowanda Correctional Facility.
Friends and co-workers described Dashner, whose body was recovered from the Buffalo River just west of South Ogden Street, as a loyal and dependable corrections officer.
“Give you the shirt off his back, for anybody,” said Tomas Warnes, another Gowanda corrections officer. “He was the best kind of friend that you’d ever want, for sure.”
Friday night, police conducted interviews with family and searched for Dashner in his neighborhood, South District Chief Brian Strobele said.
Between 60 and 100 friends, family members and co-workers met early Saturday on Avon-dale and began an extensive search.
An experienced tracker discovered footprints and paw prints on the ice covering the Buffalo River and followed them to a patch of fur visible through the ice, Strobele said.
The Buffalo Police Underwater Recovery Team removed the body of the dog and, from its identification tag, learned that the animal belonged to Dashner’s parents.
Divers then concentrated their search in this area of the river.
“We were hoping to find him. We were hoping for a rescue, not a recovery,” said Joe Sacco, another Gowanda officer who waited on the riverbank.
After about three hours of difficult searching in the frigid water by the diving team, Lt. John Rieman discovered Dashner’s body at about 3:15 p.m.
“They were not leaving here until they got this gentleman,” Strobele said.
A cause of death will have to wait for an autopsy that could be conducted this morning. But for now, investigators have ruled out foul play, the South District chief said.
Though it is not clear what happened, police believe Dashner followed his parents’ dog, Sasha, along the river for some distance from his home before falling into the ice.
He had left his wallet and medication at home and was dressed only in a fleece top, jogging pants and sneakers.
Dashner was a well-liked 22- year veteran of the state corrections system, working previously at the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility before starting at Gowanda 14 years ago, colleagues said.
He was a graduate of Cheektowaga Central High School, where he was a member of the wrestling team, and was a dedicated bodybuilder who entered and won local competitions.
“He was a happy-go-lucky guy who liked to party and have fun,” said Jim Cappello, a friend who is a landscaper. “He was a major clown. His job was to make everybody laugh.”
Dashner never married and didn’t have children, but he was close to his family, particularly his father, Ronald; his mother, Shirley; and his sister, Cheryl, and her children.
He had been on medical leave for the past couple of months after injuring his knee in a confrontation with an inmate, his fellow officers said. He had surgery a week ago.
“He was a good friend. He was a good officer. You knew when he walked into a room,” said O’Donughue. “You wear a blue uniform. He was true blue.”
Copyright 2008 The Buffalo News