On August 29, Suriname’s Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie, OM) announced it has no objections to deploying specialized search and rescue dogs from the Netherlands to support the ongoing criminal investigation into missing person Rodney Leysner. The greenlight for the canine team comes after months of formal requests from Leysner’s family, who have pushed for additional resources to advance the stalled search operation.
Under the terms of the approval, the entire search mission will remain under the full leadership and on-site supervision of the Korps Politie Suriname (KPS), Suriname’s national police force. The request to bring in the Dutch team was first submitted to OM through a senior police inspector, following the family’s outreach for international support.
An internal review conducted by OM confirmed that the Dutch organization behind the canine unit, Stichting Reddingshonden RHWW, is a legitimate volunteer non-profit focused exclusively on locating missing persons across domestic and international sites. The organization’s track record and non-partisan mission cleared the way for OM to drop any potential objections to its involvement.
Several binding conditions accompany the approval to uphold the integrity of the criminal investigation. Dutch handlers will only be responsible for conducting careful, methodical search operations, and any unusual findings or developments must be immediately reported to the on-duty KPS lead officer at the search site. Critically, all travel, logistics, and operational costs associated with deploying the search dogs will be covered entirely by Leysner’s family, the requesting party.
This formal approval from OM opens the official door for the Dutch canine unit to join the next phase of search efforts for Leysner, bringing additional specialized tracking capabilities to an investigation that has continued to draw public and official attention in both Suriname and the Netherlands.