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HELP ON A RECOVERY MISSION. HIS DISCOVERY BETTER THAN HE COULD HAVE IMAGINED. >> A MIRACULOUS RESCUE EIGHT DAYS IN THE MAKING. A MISSION THAT STARTED ON THE GROUND. WITH A SEARCH DOG. >> H HANDLER, RICH. >> THEY HADN'T HAD MUCH FOOD OR WATER. >> AND HIS TEENAGE SIDEKICK, WEBSTER. >> THIS EL DORADO COUNTY VOLUNTEER ANSWERED THE CALL TO HELP SEARCH FOR A MISSING COUPLE IN THEIR 70s. CAROL AND IAN IRWIN WHO GOT LOST ON VALENTINE'S DAY WHEN THEY LEFT THEIR AIR BNB TO LOOK AT THE SUNSET IN THE POINT RAYS WILDERNESS. DAYS LATER THE CHANCES OF SURVIVAL LOOKED IMPOSSIBLE. >> THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE BRINGING IN CANINE TEAMS TO HELP ON WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS A RECOVERY MISSION. >> I WAS JUST HOPING THAT WE COULD HELP FIND THE BODIES AND GET TH HOME. >> ON SATURDAY, THEY SEARCHED NEAR A DRAINAGE AREA. >> FALLEN TREES. >> THE TERRAIN SO TOUGH IT TOOK THEM TWO HOURS TO MOVE A HALF A MILE. >> CASSIN'S AND WEBSTER TAKING A MOMENT ON A HILL TO GET THEIR BEARINGS. >> ALL OF A SUDDEN WE HEAR SOMEONE YELL, WE LOOKED AT EACH OTHER COM FOUNDED, AND I ST. MY DOG ON AHEAD AND WE BUSHWHACKED AS FAST AS WE COULD TO GET DOWN TO HIM. >> THEY WERE JUST ELATED THAT SOMEONE ACTUALLY HEARD THEM. HE ASKED IF WE WERE REAL AND WE WERE GOING TO HELP THEM GET OUT, I REASSURED HIM WE WERE REAL. >> HE RAN UP THE HILL TO RADIO IN THEIR DISCOVERY. I HAD TO SAY IT SEVERAL TYPES BECAUSE EVERYONE SEEMED SURPRISED. THEY ARE ALIVE, WE FOUND THEM. >> IRVIN, A SURVIVALIST. >> THEY HAD A FEW PLANTS THAT THEY MUNCHED ON AND SOME MUDDY WATER THAT THEY SURVIVED ON BUT THEY SURVIVED AND THAT'S THE BIG THING. >> AND JUST WHEN THEY MAY HAVE GIVEN UP FOR GOOD -- >> THE TEAM ARRIVED TO CARRY THEM THROUGH. [APPLAUSE] >> THEY GOT A HERO'S WELCOME UPON THEIR RETURN. >> THIS SAVE, THIS GROUP'S FIRST SEARCH AND PERHAPS THIS COUPLE'S LU

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When volunteer searcher Rich Cassens got the call that the Marin County Sheriff’s Office needed help in the search for a missing couple in the wilderness, he and his trusted canine Groot signed up to help. The El Dorado County team arrived in Inverness, along the Point Reyes wilderness, on Saturday morning to help look for Carol Kiparsky, 77, and Ian Irwin, 72. According to family, the couple got lost on Valentine’s Day outside their Airbnb cottage rental to look at the sunset. Eight days passed by the time Cassens and Groot arrived and the chances of survival looked impossible. In fact, the duo were brought in for a "recovery mission" since the 3-year-old golden retriever is a human remains detection dog.“Based on the call that came in, I was just hoping that we could help find the bodies and get ‘em home,” Cassens said.At the incident command center, Cassens and Groot were assigned a high school volunteer, 18-year-old Quincy Webster, to help them with the search. The trio was tasked with looking around Shallow Beach and a mile-long drainage area. The terrain was overgrown with blackberries, coyote brush and fallen trees. It took them two hours to move just a half-mile. Cassens and Webster took a moment on a hill to get their bearings. “We were standing there talking and then all of a sudden, we hear someone yell,” said Cassens. “ looked at each other, kind of dumbfounded. And I sent Groot on ahead and we just kind of bushwhacked through there as fast as we could to get down to them.”Groot took off through the underbrush and got to the couple first. “They were just elated that someone actually heard them. Ian said he had called out a lot and no one had responded to him,” Cassens said. “He asked if we were real and if we were going to help him get out. And we reassured them that, ‘Yeah, we are real and we will help you get out.’” Webster ran up a hill to radio in their discovery. “I had to say several times ‘cause everyone seemed surprised. ‘They’re alive. We found them,’” Webster said. Kiparsky is an herbalist and Irwin a sort of survivalist, according to family. “They had a few plants that they munched on and some muddy, muddy water that they survived on. But they survived, and that’s the big thing,” Cassens said.The couple relied on instinct and each other to survive. “They said they were both giving up at times, but that they comforted each other and helped each other through it,” Webster said.Just when they may have given up for good, Cassens, Groot and Webster arrived. Later, a helicopter airlifted them to a hospital where they are now recovering from hypothermia and “extensive abrasions from the dense brush,” according to the sheriff’s office.The trio got a hero’s welcome upon their return. This save marks Groot’s first search.The family released a statement on Sunday that read in part:“Carol and Ian have met with both the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue Team members. They will be forever grateful for the hard work and dedication put forth by all of the Search and Rescue volunteers and First Responders from all over the Bay Area who searched every day for them.”Cassens has not yet reunited with the couple, but he hopes to speak with them after they recover.