New York State Police drones used in search for missing teen Samantha Humphrey

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Samantha Humphrey went missing on Black Friday two years ago, a few months later her body was found in the Mohawk River. Friday night, family members and friends of the teenager attended a candlelight vigil. NEWS10 also learns more on how the New York State Police were able to help in the effort to find Samantha.

“I'd like to say we're just here to memorialize Sam's life, which we are. But it's bound up with the absence of justice for her. So, we're serving two purposes here, to remember Sam and to bring attention to the lack of activity on the case,” said Samantha Humphrey’s father Jeff.

Samantha was found in the river not far from where she was last spotted on camera. Friday night, Sam’s father thanked law enforcement for their efforts. “I want to extend gratitude to everybody who looked for Sam. I know it was three months when she wasn't found. I want to make sure there's no doubt I don't view anybody with any criticism that, you know, that they didn't find her when they did,” said Humphrey.

With the help of the state police, the search for Samantha Humphrey took to the air. “We searched all the way to the Hudson River, going along through the flight down into Waterford, and then all the way to 112 Street Bridge. We worked our way up to Clifton Park to the Twin Bridges as the other crews were working their way down,” said New York State Police Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Coordinator, Garret Gainor.

Gainor showed NEWS10’s reporter, James De La Fuente the hangar where they store their aircraft and showed him some never-before-seen video from the search of Samantha Humphrey, giving him a drone’s eye view of the scene. “We can get an aircraft up and be able to eliminate a lot of search areas. So, what that aircraft allows us to do is where before, we would put people on a line doing grid searches, hand in hand walking an area,” explained Gainor.

He says the drones can get to the places people on foot can't reach. “You run into water, you run into really steep cliffs and things like that. You have to break the groups apart, bring them back together. Things can get missed,” said Gainor.  

The trooper says the drone usage was a conceptional idea back in 2016 with only about a dozen searches the first year. They now have 4 pilots and nearly ten drones. “Troop G has close to 600 flights this year for different missions throughout the Capital District,” said Gainor.  He tells NEWS10 he will be hosting a multi-agency training day coming up in December.