A police dog has died whilst carrying out a search on duty.

Ghost, a German Shepherd who would have turned four-years-old later this month, died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, November 8.

He was working alongside his handler, Constable Dave Bartley, when they were sent to a house in Newton-le-Willows around 4am, because of reports of a break-in. Ghost and his handler carried out a search of the surrounding area.

He was found on the M6 motorway shortly after. He had been hit by a vehicle, suffering what police described as traumatic injuries.

The police dog had served for nearly four years, working with Constable Bartley a number of times.

Ghost had recently helped track and detain a man for car theft in St Helens and helped find a cash box that had been stolen from a taxi. He also managed to find a balaclava that had been buried under a tree which led to the arrest of two men over an aggravated burglary.

When Ghost first joined the force he actually could not smell, which isn’t good for a police dog, and it was discovered that he had polyps in his nose. He also suffered a lot of damage to his tail and last year he had a torsion in his stomach and it was feared that we would have to retire him. It is rare for dogs to recover from things like this but he was big strong dog and came back from it. Dog Section Inspector Tony Byrne, Merseyside Police